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Candy

by Kevin Brooks

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5821041,033 (3.75)4
When fifteen-year-old Joe Beck gets lost in a disreputable neighborhood in London, he meets sixteen-year-old Candy, a heroin-addicted prostitute, and as he tries to help her, he experiences some unexpected consequences.
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Showing 1-5 of 9 (next | show all)
This is a book aimed at the teenage market I didnt realise.
Its still a good read though. The main character is Joe Beck a shy boy who falls for Candy a teenage prostitute he rescues her from drugs and her pimp.
Far fetched but enjoyable non the less. ( )
  Daftboy1 | Oct 8, 2013 |
Candy By: Kevin Brooks
Book Review
Makena Brown Sept. 1 2010

Candy is a twisted love story, filled with many emotions and struggles. Joe Beck, the protagonist of the story, is a young and very naive teenage boy in a band. The day he met Candy, his boring, normal life slowly evolved to be all about that one girl he barely even knew, but oddly enough cares about. Candy is a young heroin addict and results to selling her body in order to feed her addiction. Her pimp, Iggy, is in full control over her life and will not let anybody interfere with their business together, especially not Joe. The author Kevin Brooks captures the emotions of the characters very realistically and fully makes their hearts stand out, so the reader could feel the characters true feelings.

This story is all in the perspective of Joe; he s confused throughout the book not knowing how to handle the situations he gets himself involved in. He has many mixed emotions and can t keep his mind preoccupied with anything else but Candy. Everything about her makes him fall in love with her, he ignores the fact she's addicted to drugs and a prostitute and loves her for her sweet, one of a kind personality. Joe is the only character we truly come to know, everybody else is just seen through his eyes. Kevin Brooks made the reader feel how Joe was feeling, the confusion and the crazy feelings of love drew you into the story.

The setting of this book takes place in the city of London, England and then progresses into the countryside as the story climaxes. Candy and Joe have a secret relationship, always cautious of the wrath of Iggy. After finding out Candy was abused by her pimp, Joe decides spontaneously to rescue Candy from the nightmare she is living in and she can't escape from on her own. The two of them run away from the chaos and retreat to Joe's countryside cottage far away enough to remain fearless. The story drastically changes while in this new setting, it's more of a tamed environment where the simplest issues stand far out from what happened in the city.

They are put through an extreme struggle as Candy is withdrawing from the drugs. Gina, Joe's older sister and her fiance Mike are a big support during the time Joe and Candy are trying to overcome the situation they are involved in.

Candy may get you hooked. The Love, passion, drugs, fear, and brutality of the story keeps you wanting more. The rush of all the emotions that sweep over you as you are turning each page, gives you a craving for more Candy. Kevin Brooks wants you to feel what it would be like in Joe's position. He makes you wonder, thinking to yourself "What would I do?". This shockingly, twisted, love story is definitely one of my favorite books, by far.
1 vote makenabrown | Sep 9, 2010 |
I didn't absolutely love it, but as I read it I did get quickly drawn into the story. It's a powerful story about a fairly innocent teen boy who develops an attachment to a girl he meets, and as a result finds himself pulled deeply into an underground world that he doesn't know or understand anything about. Told with a sense of realism and in a gradually darkening style that pulls you in the same way Joe (the main character) gets pulled into a far darker reality than any he has previously faced, you probably won't be able to stop reading it until you're done, if only because you will want to know how it ends.

Not one of my favorites, but definitely worth reading if you're into the genre. ( )
  TiffanyAK | Apr 19, 2010 |
Candy is a compelling book. I found myself not wanting to put it down. I was drawn the characters. ( )
  JuliaKay | May 19, 2009 |
Very realistic, no happy ending
  kings8 | Mar 24, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 9 (next | show all)
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Its hard to imagine life before Candy.
Quotations
We were silent again for a while. Candy lit a cigarette and smoked it quietly and I just sat there, staring at the emptiness. The sun was going down, rimming the horizon with its paling light, and the first faint colours of dusk were beginning to paint the sky. page 262
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Wikipedia in English (1)

When fifteen-year-old Joe Beck gets lost in a disreputable neighborhood in London, he meets sixteen-year-old Candy, a heroin-addicted prostitute, and as he tries to help her, he experiences some unexpected consequences.

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Book description
Joe is a guy who is not into females at that time he’s into school which he hardly goes to and his band as a brass player. So one day he was getting his hand fixed, had a lump on his wrist and his father’s friend was going to suck what ever that made that lump on his wrist and he that when he met this wonderful girl. Joe describes her as an oval face and icy eyes and a wonderful body.” where are you going “she said “I am going to west and before they can even say a word Joe’s bus came along and so then Joe had no other choice but to get on the bus leaving the beautiful mysterious girl there all alone. so then he was late to the appointment anyway but he didn’t care he thought it was worth it he didn’t waste the time he missed but he couldn’t believe that she would ever like him or even talk to him it was unbelievable to him but he got over he thought he would never see her but the feeling just stayed there! So the doctor sucked it out and he came back to the bus stop so he can go to train station but he was very hungry so he went to nearest McDonalds to get something to eat ,so he was next in line and there she was, same icy eyes, oval face beautiful smile that’s shows her bright teeth. He was so busy looking at her that all his money flew out of his pocket went all over the restaurant and she laughed and helped him get his money and then on e coin rolled over these big black men the certainly looked like trouble he didn’t want to go anywhere near so she realized he didn’t want to go so she went instead she walked over their talked to the guys and picked up the coin and came back giving it back “ they are not mean as they look like” she said Joe couldn’t help but look down like a little child that got in trouble by stealing cookies at of a cookie jar. then he offer to buy her something so she ordered a cup of coffee and they sat next to the window “I’m candy” Joe he replied so she said where did you go candy asked to fix my hand it had a lump on my wrist so I went suck the fluid out .so then candy said she needed to go to the bathroom that took over one hour but when she came back she was not herself and her eyes were a little red but it didn’t mattered to Joe at that time knew that she just took drugs but he didn’t want to become bossy already he just met her he didn’t want to lose her already ,something about her just drew his attention to him and then this guy named iggy comes along and he threatens him if he sees him again he kill imitating cutting his neck of. He could not believe that he was about to be dead so he just home then his dad was asking him why he was so late and he said that the trains were running late and he said that calling him would been the best choice. And so Joe said his little sorry and asked who was here dad said his older sister Gina was there and mike her boyfriend .Gina was a sister to Joe he liked her missed her because he was always at collage and the only time she there she was with her boyfriend mike he didn’t mind mike was cool in a way he was black and dad never liked the idea about Gina dating mike but it was not his choice! So the went and said hi to both of them and went striate to his room then he just sat down thinking about candy he loved they way she smiled and her laugh was unbelievable then he got his guitar and went into dream land and he kept saying candy and singing and singing so Gina caught him in the act and said who was candy and he stumbled and said no one and then Gina promised if he told them his secret they’ll tell them theirs he thought that was fair so he told them about the day he had and they told him they were getting engaged “what will dad say” Joe asked” it doesn’t matter what he says” Gina replied so then he went to bed and found her number in his pocket.

So he waited foe a week to finally call her because he was going crazy so they arranged to go to the zoo on the following day just to see they hung out then she was in the bathroom for an hour then her phone rang and she ran off. So that day was fair but not wroth of cutting school lying to dad and getting Gina to cover him by lying to her about band practice for an important concert. Dad found out any way he was worry sick about him then he grounded him for his business trip except the band concert he was lucky that was true any way dad would never found out if the school never called. so there was a song he wrote about candy then they sung it at the concert Gina, mike and candy were suppose to came and they were there until iggy showed up and dragged her and when mike tried to stop them he end up damaged! Joe ran out of the band with sister and never saw candy since later he found out that she was a prostitute and she would pay iggy to get drugs.

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