A review by varvara12
The Prom by Saundra Mitchell
3.0
I want to start of by saying that: no, Alyssa's sexuality wasn't erased. It wasn't changed to pansexual. Even though the author planned on doing so. I was really confused nevertheless when every review seemed to say that it was changed. Maybe those people haven't read this book properly but I eventually revisited my library only to check my point and boom Alyssa herself says it "[...] my being a lesbian still wouldn't be okay with her." So there's that. If this keeped you from reading this book you don't have to restrain yourself anymore.
But honestly this book was pretty average. You have to know that it was based on the Broadway musical the Prom and seemingly the team that worked on it possibly decided to project the formula of their musical onto a book and this is the result. Every 3nd Broadway show that wasn't based on a book already actually does this thing where they produce a book based on their show if their show was immensely successful.
Well, it was alright. It had no further potential to be groundbreaking, but it wasn't bad either. You just had a lot of "my dad left my mom for another woman and started a new family; my mom is super depressed and thinks if I, her daughter will be perfect - my dad would come back" or "my parents kicked me out because I'm a lesbian. I live with my grandmother."
You have all those very relevant social struggles but this book never digs deeper than just that, it just mentions all those crucial situations by the way and moves on and where the musical would have some fun dancebreak this book obviously has nothing. Even the homophobic villains, who are essentially Emma and Alyssa's classmates are (in the musical) convinced to be tolerant by a fun song Love Thy Neighbor and in this book... they are basically convinced the same way but without the music. This Broadway formula of ending Homophobia through a song usually only works in a Musical. It doesn't work the same way as a book. It just feels unrealistic and sort of cringy. (I have to say btw that the characters of Trent Oliver and Angie Dickinson were completely cut and everything they did in the musical was done by Barry Glickman in the book.)
Honestly this book is more or less a waste of time. Even the parts of it that feature Emma and Alyssa's sapphic relationship were written very superficial. If you really want to experience this story I would skip this book and listen to the Broadway/the movie adaptation's soundtrack, maybe watch the movie adaptation itself at your own risk instead.
On the other hand if you enjoy having your time wasted and don't mind superficial writing and just want a more or less short read, maybe you want to fill up your reading challenge quickly. I rated this book 3/5 because it did felt unnecessary but it was enjoyable to a certain degree nevertheless. In other words. Go for it! Have fun!
But honestly this book was pretty average. You have to know that it was based on the Broadway musical the Prom and seemingly the team that worked on it possibly decided to project the formula of their musical onto a book and this is the result. Every 3nd Broadway show that wasn't based on a book already actually does this thing where they produce a book based on their show if their show was immensely successful.
Well, it was alright. It had no further potential to be groundbreaking, but it wasn't bad either. You just had a lot of "my dad left my mom for another woman and started a new family; my mom is super depressed and thinks if I, her daughter will be perfect - my dad would come back" or "my parents kicked me out because I'm a lesbian. I live with my grandmother."
You have all those very relevant social struggles but this book never digs deeper than just that, it just mentions all those crucial situations by the way and moves on and where the musical would have some fun dancebreak this book obviously has nothing. Even the homophobic villains, who are essentially Emma and Alyssa's classmates are (in the musical) convinced to be tolerant by a fun song Love Thy Neighbor and in this book... they are basically convinced the same way but without the music. This Broadway formula of ending Homophobia through a song usually only works in a Musical. It doesn't work the same way as a book. It just feels unrealistic and sort of cringy. (I have to say btw that the characters of Trent Oliver and Angie Dickinson were completely cut and everything they did in the musical was done by Barry Glickman in the book.)
Honestly this book is more or less a waste of time. Even the parts of it that feature Emma and Alyssa's sapphic relationship were written very superficial. If you really want to experience this story I would skip this book and listen to the Broadway/the movie adaptation's soundtrack, maybe watch the movie adaptation itself at your own risk instead.
On the other hand if you enjoy having your time wasted and don't mind superficial writing and just want a more or less short read, maybe you want to fill up your reading challenge quickly. I rated this book 3/5 because it did felt unnecessary but it was enjoyable to a certain degree nevertheless. In other words. Go for it! Have fun!