Characters in the books we read can delight and inspire us; disgust and enrage us. They can let us down and make us laugh, and it is largely these mediated social encounters that motivate us to reach for that next story. Given the importance of these experiences, why aren't they central to the way we discover new stories?

Evoke is a platform that seeks to connect readers with new characters by making these emotional connections more salient. For the first time, books and the characters that inhabit them may be browsed based on the emotions they engender. Readers may determine if they wish to be inspired, challenged, amused, or informed during their next read based on content generated by an audience-in-common.

We will launch with content designated for adolescents because of the increased prevalence of character identification in this age group. Driven by specific experiences, book recommendations will advance the reading-level of the user, so that recommended content continue to challenge literacy levels. By clarifying the experiential importance of reading, Evoke can enhance literacy and future performance on formal state aptitude tests.

Long-term, we recognize the utility of these search parameters for all age groups and plan to grow our target audience to include young adults and parents by increasing the expanse of books in our database.

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