Gym Candy

Gym Candy
Author: Carl Deuker
Series: ---
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
How Received: friend

"Look, Mick," he said, "you're going to find out from somebody in the gym, so you might as well find out from me. Those supplements you're taking? They might get you a little bigger, but just a little. If you're after serious results, there's other stuff that produces better results much faster, stuff that a lot of guys in the gym use." "What other stuff?" "You know what I'm talking about-gym candy." Running back Mick Johnson has dreams: dreams of cutting back, finding a hole, breaking into the open, and running free with nothing but green grass ahead. He has dreams of winning and of being the best. But football is a cruel sport. It requires power, grace, speed, quickness, and knowledge of the game. It takes luck, too. One crazy bounce can turn a likely victory into sudden defeat. What elite athlete wouldn't look for an edge? A way to make him bigger, stronger, faster? This novel explores the dark corners of the heart of a young football player as he struggles for success under the always glaring-and often unforgiving-stadium lights.

One of my guy friends lent me this, and for somebody who's not ridiculously into sports, I enjoyed it. The book kept a steady pace, and though it didn't have a plot high or a plot low, it was enjoyable. Deuker manages to capture the spirit of high school football and the motivation to win in a neat 322 pages. All in all, a solid read - albeit predictable.

Rating: 7/10
Gym Candy or Screwball?: Personally, I preferred Screwball - maybe because it emphasized more on things besides the sport.

~N