cover image A Really Nice Prom Mess

A Really Nice Prom Mess

Brian Sloan. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, $14.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-689-87438-3

In his first novel for young adults, filmmaker Sloan creates a bold, sassy comedy of errors starring Cameron Hayes, a gay high-school senior in Washington, D.C., who makes the mistake of trying to play ""straight"" man on the night of his high-school prom. Plans for the evening are simple in principle: Cameron and his boyfriend, Shane, will take two ""fake"" dates to the dance and meet up afterwards. However, little goes as planned. Cameron's date turns out to be a hot-tempered lush, who is none too pleased to discover her escort's sexual preference, and Cameron makes a pass at Shane's date, which brings the males to blows. Both guys get in trouble with the vice principal and Cameron narrowly escapes punishment by making a daring getaway with a drug dealer he meets in the restroom. Any prom disasters readers may have experienced will pale in comparison to the fiascoes recorded here. The remainder of Cameron's evening is a thrilling but unsettling roller-coaster ride as he speeds from one location to another, linking up with some unlikely companions, including a deaf male stripper, a burly football player and a gay cop who eventually rescues Cameron from his nightmare. In a mere 12 hours, Cameron's world has turned completely upside-down but somewhere along the way he gains some insight into his doomed relationship with Shane and into himself. The author's impeccable sense of comedic timing and cast of offbeat characters will keep laughs coming and make larger-than-life events easy to swallow. Ages 12-up.