crabbygirl reviewed King Dork by Frank Portman
Review of 'King Dork' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
at first i really liked this book: it was fresh, was written in an inventive style, and had a humourous cynicism. but the more i read, the more i felt it was aimed at ME, a person who lived through the 80's and 90's, instead of a current YA reader (it's intended audience). then the plot became a little too fresh: with the nerdy protagonist somehow obtaining two (!) secret/casual girlfriends who hand out oral sex entirely too readily.
the author draws lots of parallels between his main character and holden caulfield (and peppers the book. with comments about 'catcher in the rye' - some quite funny) so he's clearly trying to create a new, current, model for the coming-of-age novel. but, i sort of hated it (hmm. i remember hating 'catcher' as well... another parallel) anyhow, in retrospect, i found rather misoginistic: girls only valued for their physical assets, …
at first i really liked this book: it was fresh, was written in an inventive style, and had a humourous cynicism. but the more i read, the more i felt it was aimed at ME, a person who lived through the 80's and 90's, instead of a current YA reader (it's intended audience). then the plot became a little too fresh: with the nerdy protagonist somehow obtaining two (!) secret/casual girlfriends who hand out oral sex entirely too readily.
the author draws lots of parallels between his main character and holden caulfield (and peppers the book. with comments about 'catcher in the rye' - some quite funny) so he's clearly trying to create a new, current, model for the coming-of-age novel. but, i sort of hated it (hmm. i remember hating 'catcher' as well... another parallel) anyhow, in retrospect, i found rather misoginistic: girls only valued for their physical assets, girls interchangable in sexual fantasies (and then real life). god help us if this is the real life attitudes of boys.