Gym Candy
By: Carl Dueker
Realistic Fiction



“You know what I'm talking about…Gym Candy.” Gym Candy is set in modern day in a Seattle suburb, Mick is a 16 year old sophomore in high school. He started using steroids because he didn't think he was going to be any good at football without them. Mick stops using the steroids for a little while until he see the up coming freshman and doesn't think he is better than then. He thinks he is just going to be beat out even though he had a great season a year before, he was only a freshman then to and the new coach even knew that he was good.




The theme of Gym Candy is regret, because every time Mick sees he's done something good he gets a lump in his throat because he knows he's cheating. Carl Dueker writes Gym Candy with background knowledge on how athletes feel if they don't think they will ever be good at sports. When Mick thinks he needs the steroids and how once he got on them he kept thinking he needed them even more. Before one game Mick said he wasn't going to use them but then when it got down to it he realized how much the game meant to everyone and he didn't want to let anyone down so his body decided he needed them and he went and injected the steroids and he felt better that he knew he would do good that game but he felt bad because he had used them again.


Like most other realistic fiction sports books, Gym Candy compares things that all high school athletes probably go through, like in Raiders Night they use steroids they wanted to get bigger so they would have a better chance of making it to the pro's. Gym Candy will make you not want to stop reading because you will want to know what happens to Mick next. Anyone that enjoys sports books will like Gym Candy.













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