Monday, September 12, 2011

Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg-ESSENTIAL

Eulberg, Elizabeth Prom and Prejudice 288 pages, Point, 2011, $17.95. Language-G, Mature Content-PG,
Violence-G

The very eligible ladies at Longburn Academy are in want of prom dates for the high society, fashion event of the season-everyone, that is, except Elizabeth Bennett, or Lizzie, who attends Longburn on piano and academic scholarships. Instead of obsessing over designer dresses and social connections, Lizzie is trying to survive the bullying and taunts of the Academy's mean girls bent on driving her from campus or at least from the attention of the highly sought-after Will Darcy of Pemberly Academy, the local boys' prep school. When Lizzie's sweet, shy roommate, Jane, gets dumped by Darcy's friend, Charles Bingley, Lizzie suspects that Darcy's elitist pride may have had some influence over his friend. Offended, she allows her prejudices against her monied classmates to blind her to the scheming, devious behavior of social climber George Wickham. Will Lizzie allow her biases to ruin her chance to go to prom? Can Jane survive social suicide at the hands of her younger sister, Lydia? Will Bingley get a clue? Can Darcy save the day? In this clever, reworking of Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Eulberg updates the familiar story in an extremely believable way. Readers will swallow this romance whole and maybe even come to realize that prom is not everything the hype makes it out to be. I am obviously a sucker for this storyline, and I think Prom and Prejudice is definitely one of the better remakes on the shelf.
HS-ESSENTIAL; Reviewer: Gretchen

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