A perfect cosy read, The Prom is a heart-warming romantic tale of first love, coming out, and a dream. The book is inspired by thestory of Constance McMillen, who wanted to go to prom with her same-sex partner.
The style of the novel is simple and full of fairy-tale-like plot-twists. The book is an adaptation of a Broadway musical, scored by Matthew Sklar, Chad Beguelin, and Bob Martin. Because of this, there are a lot of musical references in the titles and notes, and the original English audiobook is read by Isabelle McCalla and Caitlin Kinnunen, who portray the characters of Emma and Alyssa in the musical.
The story takes place in the fictional conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana, where Emma and Alyssa live. They both dream of dancing together at their senior prom, just like the other seniors at the school. Their happiness hinges on two things: permission for same-sex couples to attend the prom, and for Alyssa to dare to be her authentic self. But the time is never right for her to work up the courage to come out to her mother and tell her she’s a lesbian. She’s afraid of losing her mother and that she’ll end up like Emma, who was thrown out of her home by her parents because of a video of her shamelessly raving about a girl, complete with her own cover of ‘Our Song’ by Taylor Swift. Emma is considered by the whole of Edgewater to be the only lesbian in town and gets picked on at James Madison High School, with ‘lesbian’ chanted at her like a slur whenever she’s spotted by her peers.
After Emma buys two tickets to the graduation ceremony, the PTA introduces new rules for the prom. The length of the skirt is set, singles and outsiders are banned due to lack of space, and tickets are sold only to opposite-sex couples. Alyssa’s mother is the president of the PTA, so if her daughter would come out or openly take Emma’s side, she could do a lot to help their dream. Emma is only fully supported by her grandma. Later, thanks to two failed Broadway stars, Dee Dee Allen and Barry Glickman, looking for some free publicity, more and more people rally behind Emma.
Prom is a true romantic fairy tale in which truth and love triumph over malice and hypocrisy. It’s a story meant to promote sensitivity, because you often don’t even think about the fact that for the LGBTQ+ community, some things that are taken for granted, like walking holding hands, a kiss on the lips or, in the case of the novel, a dance, are not considered so natural.
The book is available at könyvmolyképző.hu or other bookshops. In 2020 it was made into a movie directed by Ryan Murphy, which is also available on Netflix.
Translation by Zsófia Ziaja
