The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves (review)

Rail-thin junior David has endured name-calling and bullying for years, but when a locker room video of him collapsing from a blow goes viral as "David Gets Bitchslapped," he finally decides it's time to bulk up and fight back. With internet bodybuilders as gurus, he diverts his car savings to a gym membership and gives himself three summer months to put all romance on hold, ingest protein, and lift weights to ready himself for senior year. Hanging around adult gym rats and competitive bodybuilders opens his eyes to a reality he isn't prepared for—nobody puts on thirty pounds of muscle in three months without chemical intervention. Alpha, the gym owner, is willing to supply and guide him toward his target weight, and soon David is thin on cash but steadily taking on muscle. The revelations keep on coming, though—how severe steroid side effects can be, how much muscle is lost during breaks between drugging cycles, and how pure heft doesn't guarantee victory against a lighter but nimbler bully. Although beleaguered David scores initial sympathy for his victimhood, his unrelenting monomania makes reader empathy difficult to sustain. Moreover, Aceves deflects the climactic tragedy onto the character of Alpha, orchestrating a change of heart and hard lesson learned to let David literarily off the hook. Deuker's Gym Candy (BCCB 9/07) covers similar territory for a slightly younger audience, but Aceves' novel addresses harsher details of steroid and muscle-sculpting drugs; an afterword discusses the author's own brief experience with muscle dysmorphia and offers a list of websites for information and support.