Slacker is a Gordon Korman middle-grade comedy series that began in 2016. So far the series consists of two books, Slacker and Level 13: A Slacker Novel.
In Slacker, eighth-grade video game addict Cam Boxer's parents have had enough of his single-minded and reckless slacker behavior and order him to get involved in non-gaming activities or else. Cam and his friends Chuck and Pavel pretend that Cam has started a do-gooder club called the Positive Action Group (or P.A.G.) but is still in the planning stage while thinking of the best ways to help the community. This quickly backfires when lots of other students hear about the group, think Cam is sincere, and instantly volunteer their time or ideas (the most notable of which involves protecting a beaver named Elvis from habitat loss), forcing Cam to engage in genuine charity work, which he views with frustration but occasional pride. In the meantime, the high school do-gooders are mad about the P.A.G. stealing their thunder right as they're working on capstone achievements for their college resumes and start sabotaging the P.A.G.
Level 13 takes place some time after Slacker. Cam is a better person than before in some ways, but it still the same gaming-obsessed slacker as before. He starts a Snowball Lie about how he needs to take a step back from his P.A.G. duties to avoid flunking out of school when he really is doing fine academically and wants extra time to devote to a live game stream and make money from his favorite pastime. He gets his hands on the original version of a video game famous for being recalled and heavily revised due to mysterious content on level 13 (which is missing from the new version), leading to a boost in Cam's popularity. However, yet another lure for subscribers is Elvis the beaver avidly watching Cam in the background whenever he's gaming, and all this fame could blow up in Cam's face if the school figures out what is going on.
Tropes in the Series:
- Alpha Bitch: Jennifer Del Rio is the uncompromising and self-centered head cheerleader, and Homecoming Queen, and runs the high school's good deeds club. The last of these would make her a Lovable Alpha Bitch, except she's doing it to look good on her Harvard application and will sabotage other do-gooders who are stealing charity work opportunities from her. She does get some Pet the Dog moments at the end of the book, but Cam is relieved to see her leave for college and get out of his life.
- Book Dumb: Football hero String is smart enough to understand a playbook perfectly, but he's failing all his classes and thinks To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee is one of the stars of Duck Dynasty.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Burly juvenile delinquent Xavier reforms throughout the first book as he engages in good deeds and discovers a passion for art projects and baking cookies.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Whenever Cam tries to tell Jennifer or the principal that he doesn't care about the P.A.G. and is fine with their efforts to move against it, they think he is just playing dumb and hoping they'll blame someone else for his actions.
- When Chuck and Pavel tell String the truth about the P.A.G. just being something Cam made up so his parents would let him play videogames, String thinks that they are just jealous of Cam and tells them to get out of his sight for telling such a mean-spirited lie.
- Class Princess: Jordan's Student Body President rival Kelly is a straight-A student, Extracurricular Enthusiast, being the softball captain, Blood Drive Coordinator, Parents' Night Hostess, a National Honor Society member, and part of every other student organization that Jordan and Felicia know of (including the golf team, the art club, and eventually even the P.G.A.). She is also genuinely nice to everyone but Jordan (who suspects that she set up a third candidate named Jordana just to siphon votes away from him), and even they make up and decide to become co-presidents while doing P.G.A. charity work together.
- Cornered Rattlesnake: Whenever Chuck gets cornered by enemies in a videogame, he desperately lashes out against his attackers in a way that either quickly gets him killed or somehow makes him a One-Man Army capable of wiping out all his enemies.
- Failed a Spot Check: In the opening scene, Cam is too distracted by video games to notice or put out a minor house fire, causing the fire department to break through the door.
- Formerly Fat: Cam doesn't recognize his gaming idol, Draja Dubrovnik, the first few times they meet, as Draja has lost hundreds of pounds since he took a step back from gaming and stopped binge-eating Doritos.
- Gamer Chick: Cam's sister Melody and her friend Katrina are decent gamers themselves and are annoyed at how little Cam thinks of Melody's gaming potential. Melody is secretly Cam's Always Someone Better gaming nemesis Evil McKillPeople. Melody gives up gaming in the Time Skip between books but comes out of retirement just long enough to get past level 12 of The Guardians of Geldorf when no one else can.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Aspiring Student Body President Jordan Tollefson may be a good student with some decent showmanship, but his biggest asset is his campaign manager, Felicia Hochuli. She is five times The Social Expert that he is, keeps up with important news, and once engaged in some Hero of Another Story Kid Detective antics to prove that Jordan was innocent of writing graffiti on the bulletin board.
- Noble Top Enforcer: Alpha Bitch Jennifer Del Rio's boyfriend and primary assistant in going against the P.A.G., Tony, is a fairly calm person who softens toward Cam and the P.A.G. a lot quicker than Jennifer does.
- Snowball Lie: In Level 13, Cam lying about how he needs to step down from the Positive Action Group to focus on his schoolwork causes all of his smart friends to fall over themselves helping him with his schoolwork, even if it means cheating.
- Switching P.O.V.: Each chapter has a different first-person narrator (such as Cam, Pavel, Chuck, Daphne, Melody, Mr. Fanshaw, String, or Jennifer) than the last, often providing a Perspective Flip of an event or Dramatic Irony about how Cam is becoming a Fake Ultimate Hero against his wishes.
