Gym Candy

by Carl Deuker

Hardcover, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

114

Genres

Young Adult

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

HMH Books for Young Readers (2007), Edition: First Printing, 320 pages

Description

Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life.

User reviews

LibraryThing member ewyatt

Mick Johnson has been raised to be a football star. His dad, a player who washed out once he was drafted into the NFL, has been teaching Mick about the game since he could walk. As Mick enters high school, he works to make the varsity team. When his efforts to try to win a big game come up just a

yard short and his is told he just needs more strength, he starts to explore ways beyond just working out to get him bigger, stronger, and faster. Soon he is experimenting with steriods, excelling on the field, and dealing with roid rage and depression.
It was hard for me to keep reading a couple times because I knew the choices Mick was making were going to take him to a bad place. It was an interesting look at the pressures on some athletes.

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LibraryThing member MrsHillReads

What a powerful book! Already this book is being read by the guy sports fans. The story was so believable...what pressure our student athletes have to deal with! Probably the best part about the book was the ending--not a feel good type ending. Good read for student athletes & parents.

LibraryThing member 4sarad

You know if a book can get me interested (and even EXCITED) about football, it must be really well-written. This book made me lose myself inside the competitive world of high school football. It was exciting, compelling, and interesting to read.

I didn't like the fact that the main character seemed

to be the only boy to take vitamins and supplements and then was the only one to get messed up in steroids--I don't want it to come off as protein supplements are a gateway drug of sorts. Other than that, the book was great, although the suicide attempt at the end seemed a little sudden and out of left field. Good read though.

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LibraryThing member mattsya

The strength of this novel is the football scenes. Deuker clearly knows the game very well and demonstrates the intensity, strategy and violence of the game perfectly. However, Mick Johnson is not a clearly defined character--a standard jock character seen a million time before. Football fans will

appreciate the great game scenes, while others may quickly become bored.

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LibraryThing member JohnD4

I didn't like this book because it didn't have much action. In this book Mick who is plays football 24/7 gets on the football team and he works out and he wants to be stronger so a younger player doen't take his spot so he starts to take stereriods.

LibraryThing member stonelaura

This is a very stark, and probably, realistic portrayal of the steroid abuse of a talented high-school football player that has a startling, disturbing and open-ended conclusion. The book takes us quickly through the childhood and middle school years of Mick Johnson as his ex-football star father

turns Mick into a football obsessed, varsity team freshman. The author includes lots of football practice and game details and carefully develops the drive, desire and pressure Mick feels in his quest to be, not just good, but the best player ever. He wants to see his name in headlines alongside his father’s but, like his dad, he also strays from the acceptable path to success. The ending (SPOILER!) when Mick is confronted by his concerned best friend and turns a gun on himself is quite upsetting. The short epilogue that lets us know he lives through his suicide attempt and enters therapy still leaves open the possibility that Mick might have a hard time resisting “the quick fix” in the future.

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LibraryThing member GaylDasherSmith

Well written story about the use of steroids in high school football. Makes the decision to partake understandable. Nice example of the pressures teens often experience.

LibraryThing member ilbooklvr

This is an accurate portrayal of a high school sophomore and his quest to be the best player on his football team. He wants this for himself and for his father, a former pro football player. Mick Johnson begins using legal substances to bulk up and become bigger, stronger, faster. Before long, a

trainer has given him steroids. The expected results happen; Mick gets somewhat better but has some problems with the side effects. The situation comes to a head when his friend finds out about the steroid use. I thought the ending was going to be a little too pat and cliche, but it redeemed itself and was realistic.

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LibraryThing member omphalos02

Weak writing and disturbing undercurrents bring this story down. The implied gay-bashing is especially troubling. The ending is low-key and intimates that the steriod (the "Gym Candy")use is not necessarily over.

LibraryThing member mjspear

Inside look at high school football -- joys, politics and perils -- as well as steroid abuse. Mick Johnson's motivation and continued addiction is easy to understand as he drives to please his father. Peter, the fitness expert, is also shown to be sincerely conniving (?!) Ending is abrupt: Mick

attempts suicide, enters rehab center.

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LibraryThing member cdurling

A page turner. Boy gets hooked on steroids to get bigger and faster for football. His father was an NFL has been. He eventually gets too far gone and eventually shoots himself and lives. Shows the horrible side of steriods.

LibraryThing member DuffieJ

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.

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LibraryThing member bostonfan

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.

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LibraryThing member jordan777

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.

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LibraryThing member edspicer

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)

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LibraryThing member edspicer

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.

LibraryThing member edspicer

I love this book. It opens your eyes to the illegal use of substances and about how teamwork and friends are important. 4/5 JH I chose this book because it was about my favorite sport, football. AG

LibraryThing member ecataldi

I'm not a huge sports fan but that didn't stop me from enjoying this teen football novel about the dangers of doping and steroids. Mick Johnson has spent his whole life in his father's impressive football shadow and he's determined to prove to him and to himself that he can be the best running back

in town. Determined to bulk up fast and become a starter on the varsity team he starts taking steroids on the side because his trainer convinces him it's safe and it will help him unleash his inner beast. Soon all Mick is doing is working out and trying to outplay his teammates. He pushes his friends away in his quest for greatness and becomes very focused on achieving the only thing he thinks he cares with him. Obviously this comes with a huge price and everything could fall apart in an instant if someone discovered the truth. A quick easy read that is realistic and helps people understand how athletes and body builders fall into the doping trap. A great read for teenage boys, especially jocks.

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