Gym Candy By:Carl Dueker

My favorite book I read this year was Gym Candy, by Carl Dueker. This book is not part of a series. The genre of this book is realistic fiction because everything that happens in this book can happen in real life like a teenager taking steroids. At the beginning of this book, it starts him off in a football game on the 1-yard line, with 1 play left with a win or lose situation. Mick is about to get the handoff for the last play of the game with all the pressure lying on his back. He gets tackled by a person who he thinks is taking steroids to make him stronger, which causes him to get depressed that he lost it for his team. Mick is training in the summer till one day he goes to the gym and a creepy man tells him about steroids on how they can make him train faster and get stronger faster. Mick is so anxious to do better next season so he agrees to buy some of the steroids. The first take he feels stronger and more powerful, so he keeps taking them, what he doesn't know is all the side effects. He starts getting pimples all over his body, and his mood starts to change from a happy teenager to a grumpy teenager who doesn't want to talk to anyone. That causes him to lose all of his friends during the summer, especially his best friend that he's been friends with since kindergarten. The season finally starts after the summer and he feels as strong as an elephant, before every game he takes a shot of steroids in the bathroom stall which is illegal in sports rules. One game he loses the bag with all the steroids in it which gets him really freaked out because if someone catches him he gets kicked off.

In my opinion, I think this book is a great book  I recommend this book to you this is a 10/10 book in my opinion. This book is a huge rollercoaster, it has happy moments and it has sad moments. Like at the beginning of the book it tells you about how he would always play football in the backyard with his dad, then the sad part is when he doesn't want to play with his dad anymore because he is on steroids. Another reason that I recommend this book is the characters are really relatable. For example, Mick is a relatable teenager by going through all these depressing stages of your life as a teenager. You go through a lot of bad mood swings as a teenager. Lastly, most of us love to play sports, and we all know how competitive we all get playing sports, especially if you are losing. I would recommend this book to all teenagers from the grades 6-8, and for everyone who likes sports. This is on one of the greatest books that I have ever read.

By Michael Tarchichi