Gym Candy by Carl Deuker

        Over this year I have read many books. Out of all of them, the one I would recommend is Gym candy by Carl Deuker. The books genre is realistic fiction and I know this because the story has realistic but made up characters and events.

        When the book first starts, it is the introduction and all the characters and the setting are introduced. You meet Mick Johnson, a teenager eager to be like his dad Mike Johnson, a star football player in the town who mysteriously never made it to the NFL. Mick played football through all his childhood and was trained by his dad to be the present teenager Mick playing football for his high school. Mick always talks about his dad being a football star and eventually learns from a newspaper why his dad never made the pros. Mike Johnson never made the NFL because he was a failure who skipped practises, skipped games and illegally drank underage. Mick plays football with his best friend Drew and Deshawn. In the rising action, Mick begins going to a gym after school instead of working out in his schools locker room. Later on, Mick is substituted into the championship game and he is tackled a yard away from the end zone to lose the game. Later in the story, the new season starts and new players are on the team that play better then Mick. Also, at Micks gym, he gets a personal trainer to help him keep him fit. During the Climax, with players on the team becoming better then Mick, his mess up during the championship game and the fact that his dad became a failure, Mick turns to steroids to become better at football from his gym trainer. When the falling action begins, Mick's life goes downhill due to steroids and Mick goes insane. During the conclusion,  Mick stops using steroids, goes under rehabilitation and learns from his past mistakes.

        The first reason why I would recommend this book is because it is very interesting. During majority of the book, I always wanted to keep reading through the book to see what happens next even though I never liked reading books. Another reason why I would suggest reading this story is because it is very well written. The book is very descriptive and never leaves me confused on a part and isn't written too long or short. Also, all the characters are very well developed and each have unique features. My final reason why I would recommend this book to read is because, the book has a very good plot/story. Each part flows into the next very well and the concept of somebody trying to manage sports and their life with drugs is very interesting.