Gym Candy

This book is about football. In the book the kid doesn’t feel good enough, so he starts using steroids. I read this book because it was about football, which i love, and it had to do with a guy using steroids.

I would say that it really ampiflies the effects that falling into peer pressure could cause, and how it can esculate to such extreme, desperate measures. That being, the best comes at your own expense, there's either a challenging way, or the risky side. Be the best you can be, not the best or the most wanted. In my case this book, I could relate to. This obviously only targets an atheltic audience, so it would be less appealing to some then others.
4Q, 4P; Cover Art: Awesome!
This book is best suited for highschoolers.
It was selected due to an interesting cover, and the overall plot really hit home.
Grade (of reviewer):11th
(SG-AHS-NC)

The novel, Gym Candy, portrays peer presure. In the beginning, the protaginist, Mick Johnson, struggles to become stronger when all of his teamates are counting on him, In the middle, he begins took take steriods but has side effects like rage issues. I haven't finished it so I do not know what happens at the end. ( )

I absolutely loved this book. If you like books about football you would love this book too. It is about a football player in high school. He takes steroids when he is a sophomore. In the end of the book I was surprised that he was trying to commit suicide so he wouldn't get in trouble with his coach. But he pulls up on the revolver when he pulls the trigger so all he did was rip some skin and burn some hair off. That is only a little part of the exciting stuff that happens in Gym Candy. ( )

Carl Deuker's "Gym Candy", published in 2007, follows the challenges faced by high school student Mick Johnson. Following an encounter with an employee at a local gym, Mick begins to use steroids. The rest of the book deals with his struggles to give up on the drug. The effects that taking "gym candy" have on his mind and body are the major focus of the last two-thirds of the book. Mick is a believable character, a football player who feels enormous pressure to live up to his father's reputation has a small-time football player. There is plenty of action on the field and Deuker does a good job of conveying the excitement and rush of a football game. Mick's choice of taking steroids is (of course) never a good choice but the reader does get a sense of the pressures Mick puts on himself. There is also a strong warning about using throughout the book without it ever coming across as "too preach-y". A great book to recommend to sports fiction fans or reluctant readers. This book would be best recommended to high school students. The book won a couple of YA book awards in Texas and was named a YALSA Popular Paperback for Young Adults. ( )