Tolog Review: King Dork

King Dork 
by Frank Portman
reviewed by Campbell Green 

Imagine this: high school drama, rock and roll, mystery, romance, and weird families, all mixed into one novel. This would be the briefest way to describe the whirlwind of a book that is King Dork by Frank Portman. Portman cleverly combines all of these different themes into one book about a young dork himself, Tom Henderson. Now, Tom does not live an ordinary life. He really only has one friend, Sam Hellerman, and together they lead a rock and roll band whose name is never the same for more than a few months. Furthermore, Tom’s family consists of an angry younger sister, a hippy alcoholic of a mother, and a stepfather who tries too hard to get along with his step children. 

On top of his crazy family, Tom is trying to make his way through high school; however, Tom’s high school experience is unlike any other. On the rare occasion in which Tom attends a stereotypical high school party, for the single reason that Sam Hellerman convinced him to, he meets a mysterious girl named Fiona whom he is instantly attracted to. Unfortunately, she leaves just after they kiss, and he cannot seem to find her in any of the local schools. Soon after this Fiona incident, Tom is stuck in a new mystery, the mystery of his biological father’s death. When Tom finds his father’s old library from when he was in high school, he finds random and mysterious notes inside of them. To make the situation even worse, Tom finds out that his mother may have been lying to him his entire life about the way his father passed. He was told it was a suicide; however, Tom has reason to believe this could be false. 

Portman interestingly intertwines all of these mysteries in Tom’s life and keeps the reader on her toes about what is going to happen next. Portman also uses some other literary devices to keep the novel even more engaging. Firstly, Portman satirizes the typical high school experience of a dork surviving high school from kids who bully Tom to a point of no return, to a teacher who recklessly encourages kids to bully Tom, and even creating stereotypical high school cliques based on hobbies or personality. Portman also humours the reader about oddball teachers in high school. On another note, Portman ironically titles the book King Dork, representing how Tom is the dorkiest of the dorks. Yet, Tom is actually a very witty young man who turns out to be a pretty well-liked high schooler. Furthermore, Portman repeatedly brings up the praised novel, The Catcher in the Rye. However, Portman has a different approach to idolizing that great novel. Portman has Tom ridicule his parents’ generation for how much they love “Catcher,” but when reading King Dork, the reader makes numerous connections between the two books. It was said that “King Dork provides a window into what it would be like if Holden Caulfield read The Catcher in the Rye.” This is true in that King Dork is a modern Catcher in the Rye because they both revolve around a theme of teenage angst. I think Portman brilliantly combined all of these devices into this book and definitely created a more captivating story with them.