Ah, leaving a series, the hardest thing to do, especially if it is an abnormally awesome series, like this one. Here is the repost of the review I posted last month. There's an edit at the end, so, if you like, you can skip the review and go on to the edit, but I would enjoy it greatly if you read the review as well.
Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore is an amusing book full of wit and Sci-Fi movie references (which I'm a sucker for). The book is about Maggie Quinn and is the first in a trilogy of books featuring her. She goes to school in Avalon High with her best friend D&D Lisa and the Jocks and the Jessicas. When some freaky stuff starts happening, she starts to rediscover and accept her clairvoyant gift. With the help of her new friend Justin, Lisa, and Brian (surprisingly one of the Jocks) they save their prom from the ancient Babylonian demon Azmael.
In Hell Week Maggie has moved to the local collage, and for a spot on the collage newspaper, tries to infiltrate Rush. For those of you who don't know, Rush is what all aspiring sorority girls must go through. Maggie gets her spot on the newspaper and writes under the pen name Phantom Pledge. She eventually discovers some weird things happening in the Sigma Alpha Xi sorority that she pledged to. This activity turns demonic quickly and during Hell Week Maggie saves the day with Lisa, Justin, and Devon (a SAXi who turned on her sorority.)
And finally, in Highway to Hell Lisa and Maggie go on spring break (again for the school newspaper for a story under "The Least Likely Spring Breakers") Their car runs over a cow in the middle of the road with strange bite marks all over it's body. Their Jeep gets broken by the cows horns and they are stuck in the nearest Middle of Nowhere town, Dulcina. And by now you probably know what happens next, freaky, weird, strange things happen. Maggie and Lisa hear a rumor from the barkeeper that the strange stuff (animal killings almost exactly like the one with the cow that the girls ran over) is because of El Chupacabra a mythical monster that kills livestock and drinks their blood (hope you don't mind if I go off track here for a little bit, but ever since I heard Blood by My Chemical Romance, every time I see the word, I get the song stuck in my head). Of course the killer can't just be some monster that can be killed, it has to be demonic. Maggie saves the day with, let me hear it, Justin and Lisa, and one new addition, Justin's childhood friend Henry.
NOTE
From this point onward, I will be referring to the books with these acronyms-
Prom Dates From Hell- PDH
Hell Week- HW
Highway to Hell- HH
I immensely enjoyed each book but I feel as though PDH was great HW was good and HH was okay. PDH used the one thing that will win my heart in excess, pop culture references. It was fun, funny, and real (if you exclude the demons, and the physic powers). I honestly think anybody would like it, the main character is likable and witty, the supporting characters keep to their personality, and there's one gigantic plot twist at the end. I didn't like HW as much because the supporting characters weren't as developed as in PDH, which one thing I really liked about the first book. Also, the pop culture refences were kept to a minimum, other than that, the book was as enjoyable as the first. HH was, again, funny and awesome, but not as good as the previous two books. HH has the same problems as HW, supporting characters weren't as developed and even the supporting main characters (as I like to call the other main characters, like in Harry Potter, Harry is the main character, Ron and Hermione are the supporting main characters) weren't like Ron and Hermione but were like, um, let's say, Hagrid in the Sorcerers Stone and Dumbldore in the Half Blood Prince. And the pop culture references were almost nonexistant. I would recommend this book to anyone for that matter, but I have one final note, there is swearing in this book (but nothing too bad confined mainly to the S-word, D-word, and H-word).
Edit-
You find, when you reread a book, you are left with a greater understanding of the book, there is no exception here. I found out that the main reason I love this book so much is because it's not like other YA novels. Let me elabortate, here is my typed impersonation of a typical YA novel-
Boring girl- Oh, my life is so boring, I'm so boring and plain, I hate my life.
Oh, look, a hot guy, I wish he were my boyfriend, but who would want to be with me, boring and plain girl with a boring and plain life.
Hot Guy- I love you boring girl
Boring girl- You can't love me, I'm boring!!! And plain!!! And you are so hot, and gorgeous and god-like!!!
Hot Guy- You're not boring or plain, and I love you!
Boring girl- I love you too, even though we have only known eachother for three days.
Hot Guy- I know!!!
Sucky author- ohmigod, I spent so much time explaining how boring this girl is and how hot this guy is I forgot to work in a plot!!! Oo, here's one!!
Hot Guy- Look, there is a plot, and this lame plot will make this book even more sucky, I must try to destroy it, causing the book to be only slightly more sucky!!
Boring Girl- Oh no! I'm alergic to plots, both sucky and good! I need someone to save me to make this book even more misogynistic and lame than it already is!!!
Hot Guy- I shall save you!
Hot Guy saves Boring Girl in a totally lame and misogynistic way that involves killing the plot with The Dagger of Lame.
Sucky Author- Look, I made a totaly awesome plot!! Now my book is finished, and I shall send it to editors so it can be published!!
Dumb editor upon reciving lame and sucky book- THIS IS A MASTERPIECE!!! I will publish it to impose upon America this awesomeness that is really suckiness, thereby making modern American literature even worse than it already is!!
See. Anyway, this book is different, but I will point out that there are bound to be similarities like-
1. The book says that Justin is a chauvanist, I disagree on that point, I think that he may not be a complete chauvanist, but definitly thinks something similar to 50's standards, women should stay at home, and the men should do the hard stuff. I'm not sayting that this is exactly how he thinks, but if you read the book you'll see that it's more like "Women should stay and do the easy stuff because men should be doing the dangerous and hard stuff." I don't think this means that he thinks that men are the superior gender, but I do think that means that he thinks that women shouldn't be risking anything for the greater good and that men should be doing that kind of stuff.
2. In the book you do get the typical admiration for the 'hotness' of the men in the novel. But I do think it's different than my impersonation of stereotypical YA novels because Maggie doesn't degrade herself or think that she's not worth Justin's love, just that she thinks he cute.
I think that's it. Just so you know, I've read this series so much slower than the previous books because I got back to school when I started the reread of the month, so I don't have as much time for reading. That and I did get grounded twice from reading. (I'd like to add that my mom did go back on the promise she made to me when I was seven, that she would never EVER stop me from reading.)
Taryn.
