Title: Formerly Known As
Fandom: Books by Gordon Korman: Don't Care High
Pairing: Paul/Sheldon, failed Paul/Elaine, Jodi --->Paul
Categories: Humor, slash, mentions of het
Length: Long [About 19,000 words]
Warnings: Set in the 1980s; very PG romance of the "what, he's interested?" kind


Author on LJ: cjmarlowe 
Website:  Mediageek
 
Review:
Okay, so I'm springing some obscure fandom on you guys. But, I figured, since this is one of the ones I'll be doing anyway, why not introduce it now?

Gordon Korman was one of the kid's book authors that I still read, because he makes me laugh, and also because he writes "2-close-male-friends" in nearly all of the books, and fandom finds this very slashy indeed. This book, Don't Care High, is one of his oneshot books. Most of my recs will be for the "Bruno & Boots/MacDonald Hall" series and for the oneshot I Want To Go Home, because those are the big draws in fandom. I never thought I'd see a Don't Care High fic, actually.

Don't Care High was about a high school, and the Canadian who moves to it, who is flabbergasted at the total apathy of the student body. He inadvertently, through his efforts to get people to be excited about anything, turns the students into motivated, insanely-devoted-to-the-student-president, destructive mobs. The book ends after the reclusive president (who really needs a fic of his own) moves away. This fic made me wonder for the first time what happened afterward. After all, without a focus, where could all that mob energy go?

A first-time romance springs up, mostly of the pining vs. oblivious kind. The main character, Paul, and his friend, Sheldon, are our romantic leads. Paul canonically stinks with romance, and if anyone could work it out with him, it's Sheldon. The author did a good job tying together small details from the book, and in keeping the fic firmly set in the 1980s. I'm glad that, if there is ever only one DCH fic, that it's this one.

Formerly Known As