EDIT: Apparently the authors are straight. SUDDENLY, MUCH BECOMES CLEAR. I'm going to add some comments to my original review.

Argh. Okay.

Actually, aaaarrrrrghhhhh is more accurate.

I didn't realize the story was ripped from the headlines, and it feels vaguely exploitative.

This story is entirely ripped from the headlines and it's very exploitative. As other reviewers have pointed out, they take Constance McMillen's life and turn it into a life lesson for a fictional entitled straight male baseball star.

I like Tessa. I like Tessa a lot. She's definitely a baby butch, but it's subtext in the story, not text. Without consciously thinking about it, she decides she's going to wear a tux to the prom. But she'll still wear heels and a purse, that makes it just for fun, right? Definitely not because femininity doesn't feel right. Nope.

This hurts the worst. It's not the author(s) subtly addressing what it's like to be a gender variant teenage girl, it's just them being utterly ignorant about what it's like to be a gender variant teenage girl. They wanted the story about Tessa's tux, but they didn't want to have to sympathetically write an (icky, ugly, mannish) butch lesbian---who would want to read about someone like that?

Memo for straight people: The girls who dress up their tuxes like Vogue models with strappy heels and a cute rhinestone clutch are not the ones whose photos get banned from the yearbook.

I don't agree with the book's thesis about grand gestures being vitally important. This might be a personal hangup, but if you wanted me to forgive you for blabbing about something I'd told you in confidence in the most hurtful way possible, the way to go about it would not be to use the same "tell the world" approach to pressure me into forgiving you.

I did like that love didn't have to be a grand gesture, or last forever, to be important and to change your life. And that friendship is a kind of love.

So... it's a YA novel, in other words, and it fails to avoid the usual pitfalls of YA novels.

Straight people need to be stopped. ( )

I have so much to say about this book, so let’s go.

The book is told through a split first person POV, alternating between Lucas and Tessa, both of who are our main characters. They’ve been best friends since they were little, and they work in Tessa’s parents’ store together. Lucas is a baseball star, Tessa is one of the town’s sweethearts, and everyone assumes they’re gonna get together eventually. Including Lucas.

So he plans a big gesture asking her to prom, and she refuses, coz she’s gay, and he had no idea.

So far so good, I guess, but literally a few chapters into the book and we already have a problem here.

Lucas, rather than being a good human being who actually understands his best friend’s predicament, calls her selfish and gets angry at her, and literally outs her to the entire town because she refuses to go to prom with him coz she’s gay. Her parents’ store is boycotted because they live in a very conservative town, and Tessa is warned by the school board that if she intends on taking a girl with her to prom, she would not be allowed entry, even though she’s a senior and is leaving the next year. Literally, Lucas brings some of the worst moments of her life on his supposed ‘best friend’.

However, Lucas’s mother manages to talk him into actually trying to fix things, which he does. With some help, he manages to organize a Big Gay Prom in an abandoned warehouse, and it goes super well. Tessa forgives Lucas, and the story ends with them discussing college plans and their life after they graduate high school.

Sweet, right?

Yeah, maybe a bit unrealistic too.

In what universe, pray tell, would someone who is part of the LGBT community, ever forgive someone who outed them? When? I don’t care how big the gesture for forgiveness is: you never out someone, and that someone will probably never forgive you in return. Outing someone before they’re ready, and in malicious intent, is a big deal and can ruin your life. I know enough people who are part of the LGBT community to tell you that this novel is insanely inaccurate in the portrayal of Lucas and Tessa’s friendship after he outs her. Trust the narrative to be in favour of the straight man who comes in and saves the day.

It reminds me a bit too much of what happened to Santana on Glee after she was outed by Finn and had to deal with the repercussions, and then STILL forgave him for what he did. Total bullshit.

Final rating: 2/5. This book is essentially a what happens when you let straight people write queer fiction. It ain’t really worth it. Don’t bother unless you have nothing else to read. ( )

The writing isn't bad, and the story is fast-paced and easy to read, but it's no surprise to find out after finishing it that both of the authors are straight. Although the book has a lesbian main character and the plot revolves around the homophobia she faces, there's hardly any focus on her lesbian relationship, while the hurt feelings and heterosexual romance of her misogynist male best friend plays a major part of the story. It helps that his mother occasionally points out how gross and selfish he's being — like asking him to stop ogling women in front of her, although it doesn't stop his constant objectification of every girl around him — but it's disappointing how focused the story is on glorifying Tessa's male best friend and their friendship, while skipping over any relationships between women.

I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of “Tessa Masterson Goes to Prom” because, well … I'm cool like that. (Stop laughing. That shtick got me this far, sweetheart. The point is, I got to read it before you did and therefore, get to tell you how kick-ass it is.)

A simple plot summary might suggest that “Tessa...” is merely a ripped-from-the-headlines retelling of the events surrounding Constance McMillan's 2010 Mississippi prom controversy. However, in the deft hands of Brendan Halpin and Emily Franklin, Tessa's characters come alive and the story becomes something unique, specific and utterly delightful.

Set against the backdrop of conservative small town which is slowly disintegrating, Tessa and her best friend Lucas struggle with questions of honesty and love. The poignant relationship between the pair, best friends since early childhood, was for me, a reminder of that bittersweet moment in time when romantic interests first overthrow the deep bonds of friendship in their emotional importance.

The big messages here are those of acceptance and loyalty. It's not hit-you-over-the-head stuff, but clearly woven through the unfolding events in a manner that should be accessible for both the intended Young Adult audience and the adult readers who love them. As a cultural commentary, I can only hope that this lovely little book will feel dated within the next decade, and be read then as a peek into what it was like BEFORE.

Halpin shines here (as always) with his ability to create teenage characters who walk, talk, think and behave like teenagers. It is one of the things which drew me to his work initially and one of the things which keeps me coming back.

“Tessa Masterson Will Go To Prom” has taken up residence on my bookshelf, and not the casually overstuffed bookshelf in the bedroom, but the Here-To-Stay shelf in the living room. In this house, that's saying something. Mostly, it says, “These are the books we DON'T want the dog to pee on.” but in the story of our lives, that's kinda important. ( )

Review from ARC from NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this one. Not sure if my lesbian friends will love it or hate it. Be warned, though, there's a thinly disguised Lady Gaga character in the book. ( )