Level 13: A Slacker Novel

In this sequel to Slacker, eighth-grader Cameron Boxer finds a new way to avoid leading the Positive Action Group club and play video games instead: he starts a rumor that he is flunking school and needs to hit the books. His new goal is to make money as a live-streaming gamer, and he discovers that a combination of game-loving beaver Elvis at his side and his quest to be the first person to get to the mysterious Level 13 makes him an online hit where he disguises himself as GameFox229. Soon he and his friends are spending all their time on the stream while various classmates send Cam their completed assignments. When Cam is named class valedictorian for having the highest marks, his classmates discover his ruse and turn on him. Cam, sick with a beaver-induced infection, decides to donate his online earnings to the P.A.G’s library fundraiser, saving the day and his reputation.

As with the previous book, Korman continues to win at highly contrived situations underpinned by real middle-grade concerns, non-stop action, and an uncanny ear for plot and narrative tricks that keep the reader believing and rooting for the hero. Cam’s descent into sleep deprivation, moral cowardice, and an illness he is unaware of are so skillfully portrayed that the reader feels his pain and hopes it will end soon—but not before he reaches Level 13 or 50,000 followers. The theme of the reluctant anti-hero is brilliantly played out in a series of coincidences set against the credulity of the supporting cast. The reader knows Cam has got to end it sometime, and, once the end comes, it is a sublime pleasure: enthusiastic P.A.G. member Daphne narrates that Cam must have all along been planning the ultimate fundraiser, supported by unwitting classmates doing his homework for him.

The constant evolution of the gaming environment, the bizarre love of video games by a beaver, and the rotating narration duties among Cam and his crew do occasionally make Level 13 an exhausting if not credulity-stretching read. But, if there’s any criticism to be had about this book, it is certainly not that it has no moral. Korman knows better than to moralize about the situation, and, as in Slacker, Cam doesn’t end up particularly contrite or committed to the cause of his volunteerism-loving classmates. In the end, finally reaching Level 13 with no audience other than his friends (and finding it a deep disappointment), Cam, if he’s learned anything, it’s that once something isn’t fun anymore, it isn’t worth doing.