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A review by ambers
Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
3.0
Oh, man, I really WANTED to like this book. It's earned itself 2.5-3 stars because I think it could've been an important story, but to be honest, the book itself is just...okay. The pacing isn't great, as other reviewers have pointed out. It spends a lot of time describing football plays (which would've been fine, honestly, if it weren't for the more glaring pacing issues) and very little describing the finale of the book. Things escalate and wrap up within a few pages, in one of the must abrupt endings I've read in a while.
It's also extremely heavy handed - I understand that the author wanted to know the dangers of performance enhancing drugs and there's a lot to be said for novels that delve into toxic masculinity the way this one does. Unfortunately, his ending is clumsy. I get it, trust me: addiction is hard. You can have all these resources at your fingertips and still not be sure you'll be able to recover. I would much rather have read about the main character fighting for that recovery though, instead of simply...ending the book with the implication that he won't. Maybe that's just me; maybe I don't do hopeless novels well, especially when the main character is a child.
While that might be more personal preference, the random scenes of homophobia were genuinely unforgivable for me. Maybe if they'd been part and parcel of the implicit conversation on toxic masculinity, but instead it's just...resolved because the man they're talking about ISN'T actually gay, don't worry, he has a hot girlfriend. Ultimately, Deuker is supposedly a good one to recommend for kids who don't like reading (you can tell, the reviews seem to be a mix of teachers and students), but to be honest, this won't be my go to.
It's also extremely heavy handed - I understand that the author wanted to know the dangers of performance enhancing drugs and there's a lot to be said for novels that delve into toxic masculinity the way this one does. Unfortunately, his ending is clumsy. I get it, trust me: addiction is hard. You can have all these resources at your fingertips and still not be sure you'll be able to recover. I would much rather have read about the main character fighting for that recovery though, instead of simply...
While that might be more personal preference, the random scenes of homophobia were genuinely unforgivable for me. Maybe if they'd been part and parcel of the implicit conversation on toxic masculinity, but instead it's just...resolved because the man they're talking about ISN'T actually gay, don't worry, he has a hot girlfriend. Ultimately, Deuker is supposedly a good one to recommend for kids who don't like reading (you can tell, the reviews seem to be a mix of teachers and students), but to be honest, this won't be my go to.