Fat Hoochie Prom Queen

Margarita Diaz is different than most prom candidates: She is unapologetically fat, wears outrageous clothes, sometimes with feathers attached -- and can swear like a sailor in both Spanish and English. Also, unlike a lot of queen bee prom wannabes, she is actually nice to everyone. Her energy certainly breathes life into this rather meandering revenge story. Readers may laugh at some of the antics -- like when Madge wakes up to find that she has passed out drunk in a college football stadium next to an empty box of Krispy Kremes -- and they will certainly cheer when she tells off her arch-rival Bridget Benson.

But by the time readers make it towards the end of the book, they may have forgotten what the whole point was. And this is exactly when the author decides to build Bridget's unfortunate -- and rather outrageous -- secret past (which includes a trashy drug-addicted mother who hits on Madge's gay best friend). All this -- of course -- leads to a very-scripted resolution between Madge and Bridget. Ultimately, it's Madge and her ebullient narration that keeps this story afloat. It is a fun enough addition to the prom genre for mature teens, if not a particularly deep one.