Recommendations based on King Dorkby Frank Portman

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. An Abundance of Katherines

    by John Green
    A teenage boy's quest for love and self-discovery, learning to accept himself and find happiness.

    Colin Singleton, a child prodigy living in Chicago , fears he will not maintain his genius as an adult. Over the span of his life, Colin has dated nineteen girls named Katherine, all spelled in that ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Story of a Girl

    by Sara Zarr
    A teenage girl struggles with the aftermath of a sexual scandal and tries to find redemption in the eyes of her family and community.

    Soon to be a Lifetime Movie! , I was thirteen when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy's Buick, parked next to the old Chart House down in Montara at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday ... (Barnes & Noble)

  3. The Doll's House

    by Neil Gaiman
    A dark fantasy exploring the cruelty and power of fairy tales, and the consequences of secrets.

    As part of a manhood ritual, an old man in the desert tells a younger man an ancient story, detailing the tragic love between Dream and Queen Nada. Fearing the consequences of loving an immortal, ... (Wikipedia)

  4. High Fidelity

    by Nick Hornby
    A man reflects on his past relationships while trying to understand the nature of love.

    Rob Fleming is a 35-year-old man who owns a record shop in London called Championship Vinyl. His lawyer girlfriend, Laura, has just left him and now he's going through a crisis. At his record shop, ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Etiquette & Espionage

    by Gail Carriger
    An orphaned teen discovers a secret world of manners and espionage while attending a finishing school.

    Like the Parasol Protectorate books, Etiquette & Espionage is set in an alternate history version of Victorian era Britain where supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves are part of ... (Wikipedia)

  6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

    by Sherman Alexie
    A young Native American boy's struggles to survive in a difficult world.

    The book follows a fourteen-year-old boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation near Wellpinit, Washington for a school year. It is told in episodic diary style, moving from the ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Breakfast of Champions

    by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
    A humorous exploration of life's absurdities, through a madcap journey of a protagonist.

    Kilgore Trout is a widely published, but ignored and virtually invisible writer who is invited to deliver a keynote address at a local arts festival in distant Midland City. Dwayne Hoover is a ... (Wikipedia)

  8. City of Thieves

    by David Benioff
    Two young men embark on a perilous mission in the besieged Leningrad of WWII.

    The story is introduced as the recollections of the narrator's grandfather Lev Beniov, a contemporary Russian Jewish émigré. It is set in the first week of 1942, with the 17-years-old Lev trying to ... (Wikipedia)

  9. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

    by Max Brooks
    A collection of interviews recounting tales of the zombie apocalypse.

    It has been nearly twenty years since the start of the apocalyptic worldwide pandemic known as the Zombie War, and about ten years since the war has ended in humanity's victory. The framing device ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Some Girls Are

    by Courtney Summers
    A high school queen bee becomes the target of bullying after being ousted from her popular clique.

    Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard—falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students ... (Goodreads)

  11. Neverwhere

    by Neil Gaiman
    A mysterious journey through a hidden realm of London, filled with danger and unexpected allies.

    Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew and his trials and tribulations in London. At the start of the story, he is a young businessman, recently moved from Scotland and with a normal life ahead. ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Ghost World

    by Daniel Clowes
    Two teenage girls navigate the awkward transition to adulthood, grappling with identity, relationships, and the mundanity of suburban life.

    Ghost World has become a cultural and generational touchstone, and continues to enthrall and inspire readers over a decade after its original release as a graphic novel. Originally serialized in the ... (Goodreads)

  13. Wolf in White Van

    by John Darnielle
    A mysterious, psychological journey of a reclusive man, linked to a game he created.

    Sean Phillips lives with a caretaker after shooting himself in the head at age 17, causing facial disfigurement. The circumstances of the shooting are initially left ambiguous. Sean's relationship ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Such a Pretty Girl

    by Laura Wiess
    A young girl must confront her mother's abuser as he is released from prison.

    They promised Meredith nine years of safety, but only gave her three. Her father was supposed to be locked up until Meredith turned eighteen. She thought she had time to grow up, get out, and start a ... (Goodreads)

  15. Betsy-Tacy

    by Maud Hart Lovelace
    The adventures of two best friends, Betsy and Tacy, growing up in a small town in the early 1900s.

    Best Friends Forever There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy's age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl ... (Goodreads)

  16. Crank

    by Ellen Hopkins
    A teenage girl's descent into addiction and the consequences it has on her life and relationships.

    Crank takes place the summer before and during the protagonist Kristina's junior year of high school. She is a straight-A honor roll student and decides to visit her father for three weeks. Her ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Howl’s Moving Castle

    by Diana Wynne Jones
    A young woman embarks on an adventure to break a curse and reclaim her identity in a magical world.

    18-year-old Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters living in Market Chipping, a town in the magical kingdom of Ingary, where fairytale tropes are accepted ways of life, including that the ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Black Panther, Vol. 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book One

    by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    T'Challa, the Black Panther, faces a revolution in Wakanda as a group of rebels seek to overthrow him and take control of the country.

    A new era begins for the Black Panther! MacArthur Genius and National Book Award-winning writer T-Nehisi Coates (BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME) takes the helm, confronting T'Challa with a dramatic ... (Barnes & Noble)

  19. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    by Junot Díaz
    An exploration of love, identity, and the power of fate in a family's struggles and triumphs.

    Oscar de León (nicknamed Oscar Wao, a bastardization of Oscar Wilde ) is an overweight Dominican growing up in Paterson, New Jersey. Oscar desperately wants to be successful with women but, from a ... (Wikipedia)

  20. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

    by Dave Eggers
    An autobiographical account of a young man dealing with grief and responsibility.

    'When you read his extraordinary memoir you don't laugh, then cry, then laugh again; you somehow experience these emotions all at once.' "Well, this was when Bill was sighing a lot. He had decided ... (Goodreads)

  21. The Wolves in the Walls

    by Neil Gaiman
    Lucy hears wolves in the walls of her house, but no one believes her until it's too late.

    Lucy hears sneaking, creeping, crumpling noises coming from inside the walls. She is sure there are wolves living in the walls of her house. But, as everybody says, if the wolves come out of the ... (Goodreads)

  22. Weetzie Bat

    by Francesca Lia Block
    Magical exploration of Southern California, where the extraordinary can become reality.

    In 1989 Francesca Lia Block made a dazzling entrance into the literary scene with what would become one of the most talked-about books of the decade; Weetzie Bat. This poetic roller coaster swoop has ... (Goodreads)

  23. Light

    by Michael Grant
    A group of teens are trapped in a town surrounded by an invisible barrier and must fight to survive.

    It's been over a year since all the adults disappeared. Gone. In the time since every person over the age of fourteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California, countless battles have ... (Goodreads)

  24. Going Bovine

    by Libba Bray
    A teen's surreal journey of self-discovery, spurred by a diagnosis of a terminal illness.

    Cameron Smith is a high school slacker from Texas who is on “a slow but uncontrollable skid to nowhere” , living a somewhat aimless life. His father is a college physics professor; his mother is a ... (Wikipedia)

  25. An Object of Beauty

    by Steve Martin
    A New York art dealer's pursuit of success, power, and money.

    Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby's and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey ... (Goodreads)

  26. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

    by Raymond Carver
    Exploration of relationships, revealing the complexities of love and its many forms.

    Alternate-cover edition can be found, here, In his second collection, Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated and beloved short-story writers in American literature—a haunting ... (Goodreads)

  27. Bagombo Snuff Box

    by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
    A collection of short stories that explore the human condition with Vonnegut's signature wit and satire.

    New York, 1950. A young PR man working at General Electric sold his first magazine piece. By the time he'd sold his third, he decided to quit his job and join the likes of Salinger, Hemingway, ... (Goodreads)

  28. About a Boy

    by Nick Hornby
    A man reevaluates his life when he meets an awkward 12-year-old boy.

    Set in 1993 London, About a Boy features two main protagonists: Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus Brewer, an incongruous schoolboy described as 'introverted' by his suicidal mother, ... (Wikipedia)

  29. Scott Pilgrim, Volume 2: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

    by Bryan Lee O'Malley
    A young man's fight against his love interest's seven evil exes, with a dose of magical realism.

    Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old slacker, lives in Toronto with his roommate Wallace Wells. He is the bass player for Sex Bob-omb, an unsuccessful band consisting of himself, guitarist Stephen Stills, ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

    by Frank Miller
    An aging Batman returns to Gotham City to combat a new breed of criminal.

    The Dark Knight Returns is set in a dystopian version of Gotham City in 1986. Bruce Wayne, aged 55, has given up the mantle of Batman after the death of Jason Todd 10 years prior, and now lives as a ... (Wikipedia)