Finally! A book for people who like sports and enjoy reading descriptions of games and football plays, like you would read in the sports pages or in Sports Illustrated magazine. So many "sports books" are really about other issues altogether, but with Gym Candy I feel that I can unreservedly recommend this to people who just want "a book about sports."Mick Johnson is a good football player, maybe even a great one. His father was also a great player, but blew his chances in the NFL due to some poor choices he had made. Mick feels pressure from his dad to achieve greatness, but he also personally wants the glory of being the strongest and fastest player on the field. When his dad buys him a membership to a local gym, Mick meets Peter, his new trainer. Peter casually mentions to him that, if he were interested, Peter could give him a trial dose of some popular steroids that would help Mick quickly achieve his goal of becoming a bigger and stronger player. Mick resists at first, but is eventually lured into the world of performance enhancing drugs, including the more powerful injectible drugs popular with other buff guys at his gym. Although the drugs do give Mick the edge he's been looking for, he experiences many of steroids' negative side effects, including depression, rage, swollen breasts and acne.
I liked Gym Candy because it deals with the issue of performance enhancing drugs in an honest and realistic fashion, and because it really and truly a book about SPORTS for people who like to read about sports. Don't be scared away if you're not really a sports fan (like myself), because it's a GREAT book about a fascinating and timely issue! 4 out of 4 Bananas!
Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award 2010 Nominee
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