Text-to-Text- This book related to another book that I read this year called "13 Reason's Why". In both books, the character that the story revolves around is suicidal. Unlike the character from "13 Reason's Why", Gym Candy's protagonist does not end up dying from his suicidal attempt however in both books there are people who push them into becoming suicidal. The people around them such as friends, parents, teachers, and coaches are the ones who end up pushing them to suicide without even knowing that they had that effect on the character. In Gym Candy the main character (Mick) tries to commit suicide because his friend found out that he had used steroids in order to win and was going to tell the coach. Mick sees no other way out of his predicament because he knows if the news gets out, he will never be able to continue his football career. In "13 Reason's Why" the main character (Hannah) has a series of horrible events that have happened to her and commits suicide after leaving back tapes for the 13 people responsible. In both stories there is an element of drugs because Mick's situation revolves around his steroid use and Hannah commits suicide but overdosing on pills. Both Mick and Hannah have a love interest and run into problems as they get closer to there love interest. Neither Mick nor Hannah ever end up getting together with there love interest in the coarse of there story however it is revealed that the love interests have mutual feelings towards the protagonists. Along with similarities, both the books also have many differences as well. For example Gym Candy's main character is a male unlike "13 Reasons Why" which has a female protagonist. Mick never dies from his suicide attempt however Hannah achieves her's. It is also really clear that Mick and Hannah are very different people. They don't have the same interests or liking's so the fact that their stories end up being somewhat similar is weird. Overall they are both interesting characters from amazing books and I really enjoyed reading them.
Text-to-World- This book makes me think of all the real life athletes who got caught using steroids and were exposed to the public. After reading this story I feel like no one should ever use steroids no matter what the case is. A person may not know it but the drugs will effect them more than they think it does. Drugs will change you and the relationships with the people around you. Athletes such as Barry Bonds and Hedo Turkaglu have gotten in career trouble due to steroid use. I personally don't think risking your health for better results is something anybody should do. Using steroids is cheating and if you need to use steroids to play in a professional league then maybe you aren't good enough to be in the league in the first place. Even hearing about the side effects of people who have used steroids is enough to turn me off so I'll never truly understand why some people do it. Even if you are in a position like Mick, where winning means everything to you it is still not worth it. Drugs are never the answer for anything because no matter how much good they do for you, the negative influences are always worse. Mick was not even on the steroids for that long and he started experiencing puffy nipples, zits, depression, and anger. So I can't imagine what physical and mental side effects can happen to real life people who are on it for longer. I would recommend this book to any athletes out there in the world because this book helps shows you that steroids are never the answer for anything. This book could help teach people all over the world how badly drugs can effect your life and why the risks of taking it outweigh the possible results. Overall reading this book was a great experience for me and I'm sure it could benefit a lot of other people out there.
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