Gym Candy

Carl Deuker's novel "Gym Candy" focuses around the rise and fall of high school football start Mick Johnson. The dominant and overarching theme that guides the entire work is substance abuse. In Mick's case, the substances are performance enhancers.

Mick is aspiring to hold onto his starting spot on the football team at Shilshole High, and he wants to live up to and surpass his father's example as a football star. Between his social life, workouts, football, and schoolwork, the pressure on Mick is tremendous, and he knows he needs to keep his edge in football. Mick therefore goes to work out at Popeye's Gym, where he meets his personal trainer, Peter Volz.

Peter Volz introduces Mick to steroids and Mick reluctantly begins using them in order to keep his position through tryouts. They allows him to become stronger and bigger, but they also have serious negative side effects as well. 'Roid rage fast becomes apparent, where one day in school, Mick slams friend and class clown Russ Diver up against the lockers for accidentally bumping into him. Additionally, the use of steroids includes severe acne and growing breasts.