King Dork (Frank Portman)

It's not unlike going to a restaurant and after eating the meal trying to send it back saying that you can't put your finger on it but something was wrong with that chicken.... Of course the waitress will ask why you finished the entire thing if there was something wrong with it?

I finished this book but not because I it was enjoyable and couldn't wait to see how it all panned out and not because I felt loyalty to the author (which is a habit that I have been wrestling with but then realized how dumb it was to be miserable 'suffering' through a book because you feel guilty giving up.)

I read it because it was okay (the band names sprinkled in helped). But I do have some complaints that I just can't but my finger on. It had a promising start. I thought it was pretty funny (perhaps a little too 'cather in the rye-y'but still amusing nevertheless. The narrator is a snarky 14 year old boy named Tom Henderson who spends a lot of time fantasizing about being in a band and coming up with names for his band that consists of himself and his friend Sam Hellerman (referred to by his whole name throughout the whole novel--and is friends with because their alphabetical order and placed in the same classes in school). Any-whoo...

The book centers around Tom (nicknamed Che-Mo and various other names that the reader will find out why and either put the book down in disbelief or just move on quietly) and his sophomore year in high school and all the growing pains that being in high school will bring to a kid. He has a thing about the catcher in the rye because his dad, who we don't know how exactly but had died when Tom was a kid and he's wanting to find out more about his dad. There's a mystery woven throughout the book as well but if i'm to be honest the book kinda looses steam after 50 pages or so and it went from being funny and cool to boring and repetative.

I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't put this reviewers opinion of the best parts of the book -namely the thought up band names Tom comes up with. For instance:

"When he talked about our band (which when we met him was Arab Charger, me on guitar, The Fiend in Human Shape on bass and preventive dentristy, first album Blank Me).
and, "The Nancy Wheelers, me on guitar, Sam Hellerman on bass and Ouija board, first album: Margaret? It's God. Please Shut up."

But any book, even the less than stellar ones, have their merits and this one was a cute take on what it's like to be a guy who's a nerdy punk musical fanatic just trying to get girls and get through school. Speaking of girls it has to be said, like the other reviewers of the book, that the femail characters are sadly done. No dimensions whatsoever. But it's also the authors first book so maybe character building is a skill to work on.
it's a cute read and all the while I don't recommend it per say- there are just too many others to read first but if you were on a bus or an island and this was the only book to read it would be interesting enough (but just enough) to read.