PROM DATES FROM HELL

When geeky Stanley Dozer asks Maggie Quinn to the senior prom, she isn’t thrilled, and things only get worse when, as she rejects him, a group of popular students dubbed the “Jocks and Jessicas” begin bullying him. Humiliated, Stanley vows revenge, but he’s ignored until Maggie and the Jocks and Jessicas find themselves hunted by a supernatural spirit that targets whatever they’re most proud of. For Maggie, Avalon High’s ace reporter, this means her writing ability. Channeling her inner Nancy Drew, Maggie takes on the evil spirit using academic research; her supernatural intuition, passed down from her grandmother; and the assistance of a hot male college-student sidekick. Written in a fresh style dense with pop-culture witticisms, this title entertains, but fails to establish a believable foundation for the many fantastical elements. Fun, but with gaps. (Fiction. YA)