Suzi Clue: The Prom Queen Curse (review)
Karen Coats · Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books./Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books · 2009
Reviewed by: Suzi Clue: The Prom Queen Curse Karen Coats Kehm, Michelle Suzi Clue: The Prom Queen Curse. Dutton, 2009309p ISBN 978-0-525-47953-6$16.99 M Gr. 7-10 Freshman Suzi Clue is a total indie girl, but when her high school's prom queen candidates come under attack, she gets sucked into the mystery. Getting her Nancy Drew on, she gathers clues, interviews suspects, and survives some sticky situations. When all of the potential prom queens drop out, however, and the principal threatens to cancel prom, she throws her own tiara in the ring, hoping that fresh bait will lure the perp out into the open. While the mystery form keeps the pages turning with mild suspense and sifting of clues, there's an essential bogusness here that spoils the story. Kehm gets just about every detail about the contemporary prom experience (and even teenage life) wrong: this prom's open to freshmen; no prom queen equals no prom; a freshman can be a candidate for queen; dates are so optional there's no drama; dresses and shoes are still being shopped for two days before, and the kitschy prom fundraiser happens the night before. As for character crafting, both male and female A-listers are straight out of central casting, Suzi is a haphazard detective who's fairly lousy at gathering and interpreting clues, and there's a gay undercurrent throughout the entire text that's weirdly never acknowledged (observant readers will suspect from veiled clues and innuendoes that Suzi's best friend is gay, as are the prom committee chair, the principal, the security guard, and several of the suspects, but the book seems determined to avoid saying so). Overall, the various bits and pieces of character, plot, and setting detail fail to coalesce into anything satisfying or memorable other than a strained attempt to generate some sympathy for the girls who are too pretty and too popular and thus find themselves prisoners of their own celebrity; point readers instead to Clement-Moore's wonderful Prom Dates from Hell (BCCB 7/07). Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois