Really Nice Prom Mess » (Reprint)

Brian Sloan is an independent filmmaker. His first feature, the screwball comedy I Think I Do, was praised by the New York Times as "hysterically funny and very smart." Brian broke onto the indie scene with the short film Pool Days, his NYU thesis project. Dealing with the sexual misadventures of a teenage lifeguard, the film screened at more than fifty film festivals, including Sundance and New Directors. Brian helped assemble a package of three short films (including Pool Days) around the theme of teen-agers coming out, Boys Life, which eventually spawned three sequels.

A Really Nice Prom Mess is his first novel. Brian lives in New York City.

Cameron doesn't want to go to prom. Not with his boyfriend, Shane, and definitely not with his fake date, Virginia. Sure, it's senior prom, it's the end of high school, and Virginia's drop-dead gorgeous. But none of that matters to Cam, who's never liked any high school dance. Ever.

Then an unexpected kiss changes everything, and Cam needs to make a quick exit. After teaming up with a waiter who's been dealing drugs in the bathroom, Cam leaves the prom. But his night is far from over. From a high-speed car chase, to a stop at the after-prom party, to a bar with a wild dance contest...Cam's night finally ends in the most unlikely of romances.

KLIATT

AGERANGE: Ages 15 to 18.

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, July 2005: Gay activists have looked forward to a YA novel where the protagonist s homosexuality is one aspect of character and not the problem. This book is not it. Seventeen-year-old Cameron is gay, in love, and deeply inside the closet. His secret boyfriend is a jock even more protective of his manly image. In a plan fated for disaster, Cameron and his lover decide to go to the senior prom together, but each as half of a boy-girl twosome. Problems arise when Cameron picks up his drunken date. She, having guessed Cameron s sexuality, is loudly disappointed that she s not going to get laid on prom night because her date is a fag. Thus, the night begins with Cameron trying to keep her and her announcements at bay while wanting to steal time alone with his boyfriend. The situation goes from bad to worse and before long Cameron is fighting with his boyfriend, accused of drug trafficking, chased by the police, dancing in a strip club, making out with his boyfriend s girlfriend, and generally having a series of unfortunate events, which are often laugh-out-loud funny. By the end of the evening, Cameron has a better sense of who he is and what he wants in a lover. The writing is fast paced and funny, but for the non-gay there may be just a little bit too much information about what boys do together. At the same time, drunkenness, pot smoking, car theft, and sex are offered as givens of adolescent life, making this a book for older adolescents. Reviewer: Myrna Marler
March 2008 (Vol. 42, No.2)