Deacon Locke really wants to go to prom. He's missed all of his other school dances and now he's a senior with only one high school dance left. Unfortunately, Deacon is a bit awkward around girls, even those he's been friends with for a long time. The only girl Deacon considers asking winds up with a date before Deacon gets the chance to ask, so he comes up with what seems like an ideal solution to the problem: invite his grandmother, Jean, to prom. It's perfect; she missed her own prom since her date, Deacon's late grandfather, was en route to serve in Vietnam at the time. Jean eventually agrees on the condition that Deacon take a dance class with her. Deacon is happy to oblige.

Deacon expects to have fun preparing for the dance with Jean, what he doesn't expect is to develop a massive crush on their dance instructor, Soraya (who has also been asked to prom by someone that isn't Deacon). At the dance itself, Deacon and Jean have a wonderful time dancing the night away. After the dance, however, things start to get more than a little weird. Jean is starting to show signs of serious memory problems. Soraya seems like she might reciprocate some of Deacon's attraction. Oh, and a bunch of people filmed Deacon and his grandmother at prom and now the videos have gone viral, making Deacon and Jean instant celebrities. 

Deacon Locke Went to Prom is a sweet and funny little diversion. At times, it verges on too sweet, particularly when Deacon talks about his grandmother. It has a tendency to feel somewhat less than authentic for a teenager, even if this is the type of kid that invites their grandparent to prom. There are some surprising twists in the post-prom story, some of which can be seen coming from a mile away while others seem almost jarringly out of the blue. That being said, most readers are going to be willing to overlook some of these flaws in favor of characters they can root for and a storyline that isn't super-bleak. I enjoyed reading it, though it's not normally something I would have picked up for myself. As it turned out, I genuinely appreciated reading something lighter and more fun after all the depressing books I've been reading lately.