An annual ritual of a high school student's spring—the prom—is at the center of at least five new books aimed at teens. And a pair of them, bearing similar titles, may just make gals think twice about purchasing that fancy frock and renting the limo.
Rosemary Clement-Moore's Prom Dates from Hell is a novel centering on a senior who sees that something supernatural is stalking the school's ruling clique and must discover the origin of this ancient evil or "all hell will break loose" at the prom. Delacorte has created a floor display for this March release.
Less than romantic themes also emerge in Prom Nights from Hell, a story collection in which the likes of vampires and the grim reaper make appearances. Due out in April from HarperTeen with a 125,000-copy first printing, this paperback rounds up tales by Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Lauren Myracle, Michele Jaffe and Kim Harrison.
Other familiar YA authors share stories of good, bad and unexpected prom dates, 21 Proms, an anthology to be released in March by Scholastic's Point. Edited by Daniel Ehrenhaft and David Levithan, this paperback includes tales by Cecily von Ziegesar, Libba Bray, Holly Black, Jacqueline Woodson, Rachel Cohn, as well as Ehrenhaft and Levithan. To promote the book, the publisher will stage media events in the New York area during prom season (the dress code? black tie, of course).
Three teenage girls grapple with prom date dilemmas in the interconnected stories that make up Prom Season: Three Novels by Elizabeth Craft, due from Random House's Laurel Leaf imprint in March.
And teenage girls who have had the prom-night red carpet pulled out from under them will commiserate with the heroine of Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress, a Delacorte paperback by Tina Ferraro. This first novel chronicles the travails of a teen who is dumped two days before prom—by the hottest guy at school, no less. What could be worse? Well, perhaps a prom where vampires or the grim reaper appear.
