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Candy
When Joe Beck, a fifteen-year-old suburban kid, gets lost in a disreputable neighborhood on his way to an appointment in London, he is struck dumb by his first sight of beautiful and seemingly innocent Candy. She talks with him, teases him, but reveals nothing about herself except her phone number. Later they have a perfect day at the London Zoo, and soon Joe is as addicted to Candy as she is to heroin, in spite of the threats of her menacing pimp Iggy. Almost nothing matters except his desire to free her from her terrible life-- not his band's chance for a recording contract, not the song he has written for her that has become a hit without him. But there is something that still matters to him, and when he rescues the young prostitute from her sordid rooming house and takes her into hiding to sweat out her addiction, Iggy finds and uses that one thing that is stronger than Joe's passion for Candy, in a heart-thumping, breathless conclusion.
384 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2005
150 people are currently reading
10381 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Brooks
75 books878 followersKevin Brooks was born in 1959 and grew up in Exeter, Devon, England. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at Birmingham, Aston University in 1980 and Cultural Studies in London in 1983. Kevin Brooks has been in a variety of jobs including: musician, gasoline station attendant, crematorium handyman, civil service clerk, hot dog vendor at the London Zoo, post office clerk, and railway ticket office clerk.
Kevin Brooks's writing career started with the publication of Martyn Pig in 2002 through The Chicken House which won the Branford Boase Award 2003 and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He also wrote Lucas (2002) which was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and Booktrust Teenage Prize in 2003 also winning the North East Book Award in 2004.
In 2004 he published Kissing the Rain and Bloodline and I See You, Baby and Candy in 2005. In 2006 he published 3 books including: Johnny Delgado Series - Like Father, Like Son and Private Detective as well as The Road of the Dead; a standalone novel. In February 2008 he published the standalone book Black Rabbit Summer.
As a child, Kevin Brooks enjoyed reading detective novels. He writes most plots of the various books he has written around crime fiction. He likes mystery and suspence and enjoys putting both of those components into each and every story he writes in some shape or form.
Kevin Brooks's writing career started with the publication of Martyn Pig in 2002 through The Chicken House which won the Branford Boase Award 2003 and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. He also wrote Lucas (2002) which was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and Booktrust Teenage Prize in 2003 also winning the North East Book Award in 2004.
In 2004 he published Kissing the Rain and Bloodline and I See You, Baby and Candy in 2005. In 2006 he published 3 books including: Johnny Delgado Series - Like Father, Like Son and Private Detective as well as The Road of the Dead; a standalone novel. In February 2008 he published the standalone book Black Rabbit Summer.
As a child, Kevin Brooks enjoyed reading detective novels. He writes most plots of the various books he has written around crime fiction. He likes mystery and suspence and enjoys putting both of those components into each and every story he writes in some shape or form.
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April 30, 2011
Love’s Another Drug
(A Book Review of Kevin Brooks’s Candy)
It’s hard to imagine life without Candy.
Addiction is a word most of us are familiar with and all of us have his/her vices, fixes we hanker for from time to time. But how powerful can an addiction be and how far can we go to satisfy this burning need?
Joe Beck is your average fifteen-year-old teen living a comfortable life in the suburbs of London; he gets by in his school studies and cares pretty much about his music playing bass for a band with some boys from his school called The Katies.
But his boring, uneventful life will turn upside down on a simple trip to a doctor’s appointment in the city, the day he turns the corner of the street and meets Candy he instantly falls for her. It seems like your usual boy-meets-girl setup, but as Joe gets to know Candy and enters her life, closer, the more he becomes obsess and longs for her, he is initiated into the London underworld of drug, violence, and prostitution, the closer he gets in the way of danger.
In Kevin Brook’s 2005 novel, Candy, he gives us a view of what forms addiction can take, dealing with one of the most pernicious kind there is: drugs. In a turbulent journey of a love story told from an innocent boy’s point of view, we get to see the struggles of Candy, the titular character, who wants to break free from the drug’s devastating hold and the miserable life it has lead her into, selling her body in order to feed her addiction.
Joe’s world suddenly takes a dramatic change not in the way he expects it to be once he meets Candy. At first he seems uncertain about her feelings for her, yet as the novel progresses it becomes more than just the typical teenage crush. He becomes hooked to Candy, his addiction more powerful than drugs can effect and he’ll do whatever it takes to pluck her out of the nightmare she is living. However, the road to redemption has its price and the way is fraught with peril and difficulty to keep them from each other. Still, it’s a chance that they are willing to take.
The love, passion, fears, and brutality of the story keeps you wanting more. The rush of all the emotions that sweep over you as you are turning each page, gives you a craving for more Candy. Kevin Brooks wants you to feel what it would be like in Joe’s position. He makes you wonder, thinking to yourself “What would I do?” This shockingly, twisted love story, raw in its telling, compulsive in its stark painting of reality, will not only take you on the edge of your seat, it is equally evocative in its tender moments of what it feels like to be young, naïve, and in love.
_________________________
Book Details:
Book #10 for 2011
Published by Push Books
(First Push Paperback Printing, March 2006))
364 pages
Started: March 29, 2011
Finished: March 31, 2011
My Rating:★★★
[See this review on my book blog Dark Chest of Wonders and for many others.]
January 13, 2009
Joe Beck’s life is pretty run-of-the-mill. Parents separated, doesn’t get on so well with his father, goes to school, plays with a band, tries to stay out of trouble. And then he meets Candy.
Something about her draws him right in. He can’t believe she’s talking to him. That he could be so lucky. And when he gets chased off by a very large and very scary Iggy, who can only be her Pimp, he can’t believe that either. He mulls it over for a week, after finding her number in his pocket, then calls to ask her out, knowing it’s the only thing to do.
At the Zoo she seems so normal. She explains Iggy away as some guy who’s just a little crazy. Joe wants to believe it, so he does. When she leaves him in the cafe to go to the bathroom and comes back changed, he understands she must use drugs, but he doesn’t give that much thought either. She likes him. He likes her.
But when she comes to his Band’s show only to be dragged off by Iggy and his hoarde, a fight which gets Joe’s brother-in-law to be injured, things come to a head. With nowhere left to turn, he finally tells his sister everything. Unable to believe there’s nothing he can do to help, and unable to get Candy on the phone, as soon as his dad’s left for his business trip, Joe takes off, losing all cares about being grounded.
He takes a train back to the spot where he first stumbled into her. Nothing. He wanders around London, trying to find somewhere within 10 minutes that could be the spot where she lives. If that part was true. Ready to admit defeat, he’s heading back to catch another train when he spots Iggy leaving the station, and gets it in his head to follow him.
After being led to the house, he hides in the bushes for quite awhile, making his move when an elderly woman loaded down with shopping bags arrives. He helps her carry them in, then takes off up the stairs to find Candy. And find her he does–severely battered and bruised. Broken, she tells him everything. How she came to be here, how it went so far. They’re concocting a plan to get her out of there when Iggy returns. There’s no saying if Joe could have stayed hidden in the bathroom if his cell phone hadn’t rung. But it did. And things very suddenly became life or death.
With a straight-edge razor held to his throat, Joe is staring at the end, when Candy breaks a lamp against Iggy’s head. They quickly bind him up with tape, and take off into the night. They stop at Joe’s house for supplies, then board another train, heading for the summer cottage. The plan is to get Candy clean, then take it from there. Iggy won’t find them. He’s sure of it, despite a nagging at the back of his brain.
But just when the worst of it seems over, when Candy seems to be herself again, and not a withdrawl insane version, Joe realizes just what kind of trouble he’s in. Iggy has his sister. He can find them, because Joe tells him exactly where they are. Any bargaining power he had has gone. Even with Mike on the way to help, there’s no knowing if he’ll beat Iggy to them, or what they can do even if he does.
In the end, it turns out in a way no one would have imagined.
Time goes by, but Joe can’t remember how life was before Candy. All he can do is struggle to find his way back to it.
Something about her draws him right in. He can’t believe she’s talking to him. That he could be so lucky. And when he gets chased off by a very large and very scary Iggy, who can only be her Pimp, he can’t believe that either. He mulls it over for a week, after finding her number in his pocket, then calls to ask her out, knowing it’s the only thing to do.
At the Zoo she seems so normal. She explains Iggy away as some guy who’s just a little crazy. Joe wants to believe it, so he does. When she leaves him in the cafe to go to the bathroom and comes back changed, he understands she must use drugs, but he doesn’t give that much thought either. She likes him. He likes her.
But when she comes to his Band’s show only to be dragged off by Iggy and his hoarde, a fight which gets Joe’s brother-in-law to be injured, things come to a head. With nowhere left to turn, he finally tells his sister everything. Unable to believe there’s nothing he can do to help, and unable to get Candy on the phone, as soon as his dad’s left for his business trip, Joe takes off, losing all cares about being grounded.
He takes a train back to the spot where he first stumbled into her. Nothing. He wanders around London, trying to find somewhere within 10 minutes that could be the spot where she lives. If that part was true. Ready to admit defeat, he’s heading back to catch another train when he spots Iggy leaving the station, and gets it in his head to follow him.
After being led to the house, he hides in the bushes for quite awhile, making his move when an elderly woman loaded down with shopping bags arrives. He helps her carry them in, then takes off up the stairs to find Candy. And find her he does–severely battered and bruised. Broken, she tells him everything. How she came to be here, how it went so far. They’re concocting a plan to get her out of there when Iggy returns. There’s no saying if Joe could have stayed hidden in the bathroom if his cell phone hadn’t rung. But it did. And things very suddenly became life or death.
With a straight-edge razor held to his throat, Joe is staring at the end, when Candy breaks a lamp against Iggy’s head. They quickly bind him up with tape, and take off into the night. They stop at Joe’s house for supplies, then board another train, heading for the summer cottage. The plan is to get Candy clean, then take it from there. Iggy won’t find them. He’s sure of it, despite a nagging at the back of his brain.
But just when the worst of it seems over, when Candy seems to be herself again, and not a withdrawl insane version, Joe realizes just what kind of trouble he’s in. Iggy has his sister. He can find them, because Joe tells him exactly where they are. Any bargaining power he had has gone. Even with Mike on the way to help, there’s no knowing if he’ll beat Iggy to them, or what they can do even if he does.
In the end, it turns out in a way no one would have imagined.
Time goes by, but Joe can’t remember how life was before Candy. All he can do is struggle to find his way back to it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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January 23, 2013I loved this book! It included lots of action, some romance, and some thrilling parts, too. The main character is a boy named Joe. He goes into town for a specialized doctor but ends up meeting a girl at a fast food restaurant. Not just any girl. She was amazing in Joe’s eyes. She was beautiful and kind! At that fast food restaurant he meets someone who seems to be her pimp and he thinks she's a prostitute. But even though Joe thinks she is a prostitute, it does not stop him from liking her or trying to help her. When the time comes to save her, you will see where his heart lies. This story includes drugs, violence, and profanity. I do not recommend this book to young teenagers; however, I do recommend this to people around the ages of 15-28.
Currently reading
February 3, 2008So far, so awesome.
June 5, 2011
It was good, till the ending. In my opinion it ended so randomly, it went down hill at the part when Candy is going through withdrawal. I enjoyed the aspect of Joe's odd obsession for Candy, and I believed that the book would develop into something really awesome. I wish I did not even finish the book because the last little bit was just aweful ruined the whole thing for me, and it seemed as though the authour just wanted to wrap it up. The ending just did not make sense and left me completely unsatisfied. It was also really unrealistic; why did Joe love her in the first place? Why did Candy even become the way she was? What happened to her in the end? Why did Joe even take her to his cottage? How the hell did Candy's pimp find her? It really does not make sense to me. I do not recommend this book, it was a horrible disappointment.
February 11, 2012
I abandoned this book because it was an absolute horrible piece of literature. The writing is very dry and it is a slow piece without a big climax. The constant mention of all the bad guys being black really got me mad, especially since this book isn't talking about racial issues its talking about a prostitute and a love struck boy. The mention of the main characters sisters boyfriend, mike, makes him seem like an "uncle tom"character, one that is acceptable in the eyes of caucasians because he's"white washed". Also in a quick interaction with a minor character in the book he stated that he was white but talked "black". What in the world is that supposed to mean? All in all I hated this book very much.
January 22, 2008
Everyone's always ranting about how this book is so great. It let me down SO much. Kevin Brooks does this thing where he leads to a conclusion in the end but doesn't explain it because the character never seems to care. It works in some of his books like Being or The road of the dead, but i honestly didn't like this one.
May 21, 2010
Candy, LOVE is Dangerous.
Brooks, Kevin
PUSH, 2007
This gripping and provocative love novel basically falls under the genre of teen fiction. With unstoppable and naive romance, Kevin Brooks (author) portrays your typical boy-girl scenario attracting the attention of adolescent readers/audiences.
"I just cant see myself without her. About the best I can manage is the last half hour before we met, when I was just still a boy. I was innocent then." Joe Beck was your typical fifteen year old suburban high school student. Mindlessly getting by with school, Joe played the guitar in a band known as the Katies. Living under the roof of his divorced parents, Joe shared a house with his father and his older sister, Gina. Gina unravels later on in the novel that she is understanding and accepting with whatever choices her little brother chooses to make. Having to deal with her father's racism over her future husband "Mike" she supports any person with no judgement. With a simple and moderately average life, Joe had gained the title as "Average Joe", that is all until he mistakingly met a beautifully, wrecked Candy on the streets of London. As the quote above reads, Joe had an everyday normal teenage life but the transformation that progressed during the amount of time he had spent with Candy, had transformed him into a man with knowledge and a man who had grown deeply in love.
"I don't know how it happened but everything suddenly changed. I was a woman, I couldn't get enough of it. I was hooked." Candy is the alternative main-character. Unlike Joe Beck, Candy had a more difficult child hood on the more real estate part of town. Throughout her child hood, Candy had always been a good looking girl. She'd be the kind of girl that mothers would be proud of and the ones that fathers would over protect. Everyone loved a pretty girl. As she grew older and older, she'd blossomed into the kind of girl that men couldn't resist and the kind of girl that every other girl envied. The author had described that soon enough, jealousy had overwhelmed her closest friends which derived them to reject her. Further on in her years, Candy had carelessly dropped everything and ended up on the streets of London where she drowned her sorrows in men and heroin with her whore house pimp "Iggy". Iggy is later on unraveled as violent and manipulative.
After having several few encounters with Candy, Joe realizes that there's more to life than just school and music. He shockingly falls deeply in love with a beautiful stranger that he barely knows. Throughout his loving obsession, Candy unravels some unflattering truths about herself including being a prostitute, along with a heroin addict. With nothing holding Joe back (Like Candy's threatening pimp, Iggy) he'll do anything for his desire to help Candy with her miserable life. Together, they go through tremendous pains and difficulties to straighten out her life back in order.
This novel is basically set with your classic forbidden love, some-what theme. The story is told straightly from the perspective of the main character Joe Beck which creates a phenomenon sense to the reader. As the reader, you are placed in the shoes of a naive boy attempting to increase his love for a girl he barely even knows which creates a common text connection with high school relationships. The descriptive writing and creativity kept the reader wanting more and more of what would reveal in the next chapter. What was successfully enjoyable throughout this novel was the unique sense of admirable danger. The capability to capture their oddly hypnotic feel for love definitely helped with the twisted plot.
The message that the author could've wanted to expose was the strong sense of the encouraging fight for love that could occur when too attached/obsessed with love. All in all, the novel was filled with irresistible events, unstoppable love and provocative danger. The author had written an almost exquisite novel about two completely opposite strangers falling completely and mistakingly in love.
Brooks, Kevin
PUSH, 2007
This gripping and provocative love novel basically falls under the genre of teen fiction. With unstoppable and naive romance, Kevin Brooks (author) portrays your typical boy-girl scenario attracting the attention of adolescent readers/audiences.
"I just cant see myself without her. About the best I can manage is the last half hour before we met, when I was just still a boy. I was innocent then." Joe Beck was your typical fifteen year old suburban high school student. Mindlessly getting by with school, Joe played the guitar in a band known as the Katies. Living under the roof of his divorced parents, Joe shared a house with his father and his older sister, Gina. Gina unravels later on in the novel that she is understanding and accepting with whatever choices her little brother chooses to make. Having to deal with her father's racism over her future husband "Mike" she supports any person with no judgement. With a simple and moderately average life, Joe had gained the title as "Average Joe", that is all until he mistakingly met a beautifully, wrecked Candy on the streets of London. As the quote above reads, Joe had an everyday normal teenage life but the transformation that progressed during the amount of time he had spent with Candy, had transformed him into a man with knowledge and a man who had grown deeply in love.
"I don't know how it happened but everything suddenly changed. I was a woman, I couldn't get enough of it. I was hooked." Candy is the alternative main-character. Unlike Joe Beck, Candy had a more difficult child hood on the more real estate part of town. Throughout her child hood, Candy had always been a good looking girl. She'd be the kind of girl that mothers would be proud of and the ones that fathers would over protect. Everyone loved a pretty girl. As she grew older and older, she'd blossomed into the kind of girl that men couldn't resist and the kind of girl that every other girl envied. The author had described that soon enough, jealousy had overwhelmed her closest friends which derived them to reject her. Further on in her years, Candy had carelessly dropped everything and ended up on the streets of London where she drowned her sorrows in men and heroin with her whore house pimp "Iggy". Iggy is later on unraveled as violent and manipulative.
After having several few encounters with Candy, Joe realizes that there's more to life than just school and music. He shockingly falls deeply in love with a beautiful stranger that he barely knows. Throughout his loving obsession, Candy unravels some unflattering truths about herself including being a prostitute, along with a heroin addict. With nothing holding Joe back (Like Candy's threatening pimp, Iggy) he'll do anything for his desire to help Candy with her miserable life. Together, they go through tremendous pains and difficulties to straighten out her life back in order.
This novel is basically set with your classic forbidden love, some-what theme. The story is told straightly from the perspective of the main character Joe Beck which creates a phenomenon sense to the reader. As the reader, you are placed in the shoes of a naive boy attempting to increase his love for a girl he barely even knows which creates a common text connection with high school relationships. The descriptive writing and creativity kept the reader wanting more and more of what would reveal in the next chapter. What was successfully enjoyable throughout this novel was the unique sense of admirable danger. The capability to capture their oddly hypnotic feel for love definitely helped with the twisted plot.
The message that the author could've wanted to expose was the strong sense of the encouraging fight for love that could occur when too attached/obsessed with love. All in all, the novel was filled with irresistible events, unstoppable love and provocative danger. The author had written an almost exquisite novel about two completely opposite strangers falling completely and mistakingly in love.
May 13, 2020
CW// discussions of racism and racist quotes
this was not the book I was intending to read. I was actually looking for the book called “candy” that the heath ledger film was based on, but when I found a book called candy in the libby app I didn’t think to check the author and didn’t realise until I’d started reading.
given that this wasn’t the book I was planning on reading, it wasn’t bad. it could have been a good YA romance that dealt with heroin addiction in a way suitable for teen audiences. in places, it was that book. it was just a shame it had to be so dramatic - everything with Iggy was so unnecessary and I think it would have been a better, more impactful book without it. especially since the Iggy storyline was full of racism. pro tip: making the narrator have a realisation that he’s automatically labelling Black men as intimidating is not meaningful if you then continue to make the only Black male characters in the book evil and violent, with the exception of Mike who is just a “big black guy” (that exact phrase is used 3 times throughout the book, to refer to every single Black male character who appears) who is only violent when it’s called for. race was handled appallingly in this book.
there was no need for the threatening presence of Iggy. Candy was an addict and therefore Joe’s struggle in getting her to safety could have simply focused on the hold heroin had on her, there didn’t need to be a threat of physical violence and in fact it would have been more impactful if she had been unwilling to leave that lifestyle behind purely because it meant giving up heroin. you caught glimpses of what this book could have been: the scenes describing her withdrawal, the gentle exchange between Candy and Gina, Joe’s loving naïveté. this was one of those instances of “so close and yet so far” from being the book it could have been.
this was not the book I was intending to read. I was actually looking for the book called “candy” that the heath ledger film was based on, but when I found a book called candy in the libby app I didn’t think to check the author and didn’t realise until I’d started reading.
given that this wasn’t the book I was planning on reading, it wasn’t bad. it could have been a good YA romance that dealt with heroin addiction in a way suitable for teen audiences. in places, it was that book. it was just a shame it had to be so dramatic - everything with Iggy was so unnecessary and I think it would have been a better, more impactful book without it. especially since the Iggy storyline was full of racism. pro tip: making the narrator have a realisation that he’s automatically labelling Black men as intimidating is not meaningful if you then continue to make the only Black male characters in the book evil and violent, with the exception of Mike who is just a “big black guy” (that exact phrase is used 3 times throughout the book, to refer to every single Black male character who appears) who is only violent when it’s called for. race was handled appallingly in this book.
there was no need for the threatening presence of Iggy. Candy was an addict and therefore Joe’s struggle in getting her to safety could have simply focused on the hold heroin had on her, there didn’t need to be a threat of physical violence and in fact it would have been more impactful if she had been unwilling to leave that lifestyle behind purely because it meant giving up heroin. you caught glimpses of what this book could have been: the scenes describing her withdrawal, the gentle exchange between Candy and Gina, Joe’s loving naïveté. this was one of those instances of “so close and yet so far” from being the book it could have been.
November 10, 2011
meh...it took me an extremely long time to get through this (*gasp* I had to return it LATE to the library, astonishing I know) and that's coming from the girl who reads novels like it's an Olympic sport. Part of the reason is because of how Kevin Brooks writes, I swear if I read the words 'it was...I don't know, so much.' I WILL scream. You are a WRITER, for the book's sake get some dang adjectives! Plus, personally I don't like books where nothing really happens, and I mean things happen but nothing really changes. It doesn't have the classic fairytale ending, but I don't mind that, those books are always pretty dang interesting to read. (Though of course don't worry sappy books where you know exactly what will happen the second you read that little flap, I still love you like my band teacher loves Macs... which is to say a lot :D) <--off topic but hello that looks like an extremely happy man with a double chin... you can't just ignore those things. I also didn't really like the insta-love thing, I mean sure it's nice to think about and I will admit to liking more than a few books with insta-love in them, but in 'Candy' he's hopelessly in love with her, (and I suppose she rather likes him too) but every time they're together they just sit in awkward silence. In any case, I just don't like the book, case closed.
September 18, 2009
This has got to be one of the worst pieces of modern YA fiction I've had the misfortune of reading in years. Cliche, predictable, and utterly unbelievable from start to finish (though trust me, it gets worse and worse as it goes). With so much spectacularly good work being done by the likes of David Levithan and John Green, I'm not sure why you would waste your time with this.
December 28, 2012
Once again, I'm not a teenager, I read this book for a YA writing course. When I was a teenager I read a bit of Melvin Burgess, and so wasn't shocked by any of the subject matter of this novel.
There are two reasons that I don't like this book, the first is that I think it would have been better, read - more interesting, from Candy's point of view, rather than from that of the male narrator. His life is boring, and he makes a lot of suppositions about Candy that got annoying. I wanted to hear her story first hand.
The second reason was that I hated Joe. He was the kind of nerdy weirdo I hate in books. And the whole thing read like a fantasy on his part. Like he'd finally gotten a chance to be a hero, instead of a loser who's in a band with people he hates.
For me, a good story was ruined by the protagonist, and I couldn't believe it after how much people had recommended it to me. Deeply disappointed.
There are two reasons that I don't like this book, the first is that I think it would have been better, read - more interesting, from Candy's point of view, rather than from that of the male narrator. His life is boring, and he makes a lot of suppositions about Candy that got annoying. I wanted to hear her story first hand.
The second reason was that I hated Joe. He was the kind of nerdy weirdo I hate in books. And the whole thing read like a fantasy on his part. Like he'd finally gotten a chance to be a hero, instead of a loser who's in a band with people he hates.
For me, a good story was ruined by the protagonist, and I couldn't believe it after how much people had recommended it to me. Deeply disappointed.
February 1, 2018
i had to go back and give this 2 stars. you mean to tell me this weak ass girl - that just went through heroin withdrawals - was able to stab her pimp in the throat, wrestle his gun from him, shoot his homie who also had a gun, and then talk his other TWO homies WITH GUNS into leaving the scene?? Lmao it would’ve been better if she died smh get off the gas kevin
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2013
I liked this book. It had a lot of suspense and is a quick read once you invest the time in it. I wish the ending had been less vague.. makes me wonder if there will ever be a sequel. If I could give this book a 3.5 I would, but since I can't I'm settling with a 3.
February 19, 2020
Give me the strength not finish books.
Nothing happened in this, there was no character development, no reason for the mc to be so hopelessly in love with Candy. The writing sucked. Here's the climax: "it was just so... I don't know. Just so much."
Nothing happened in this, there was no character development, no reason for the mc to be so hopelessly in love with Candy. The writing sucked. Here's the climax: "it was just so... I don't know. Just so much."
November 12, 2022
Consumed it all in less than 3 days. Kevin brooks work is so addicting you cannot put the book down. The writing style, the wording, the themes involved...cheff's kiss. Cross my heart and hope to die I will never stop talking about how good his books are. Candy did not disappoint a bit. AMAZING.
November 5, 2019
I read a review on good reads of Candy by Kevin Brooks, who believed the book itself was good up until the ending which I later agreed to. I read the back of the book and I got hooked, so I decided to give it a go which was a brilliant idea. Every class on Friday I read for ten minutes and was intrigued.
I read Candy by Kevin Brooks from September to October and I found it quite different than my original thought, I originally expected this book to be boring because most books I have to read for school are. At first, I thought it was going to be suspenseful and more of an obsessive stalker. It wasn't. Maybe because it is an ALA Best Book for young adults? The story centers around the complex relationship between Candice “Candy” and Joe Beck, an obsessive lead band player, who meets her on the streets of London before going to his doctor’s appointment, which contributes to turning his life turning upside down. Joe soon learns that Candy is a heroin addict and a prostitute that gets abused by her pimp. When Joe encounters him for the first time, he becomes terrified of what he will do. I had a difficult time understanding the ending of the book. I feel like throughout the whole book, it was well developed but the ending was anti-climactic and cut short. I didn't have a sense of depth of where her life story would end up after being taking to a rehab center and what his life would be after stepping into a world of drugs, violence and losing his innocence. After a shocking situation, Joe and Candy were left in hiding from her pimp Iggy and became conflicted after discovering Iggy kidnapped Joe’s sister Gina in order to get Candy back. Joe becomes torn between rescuing his sister and returning Candy back to Iggy or saving Candy and losing Gina.
Disclaimer: My perspective of this book and the ending could be different from yours based off the fact that I love suspense, crime and mystery. I also love when the ending is just as intriguing as the beginning and fills in blanks or concerns that I had about the book in the beginning. This book was okay for me.
I read Candy by Kevin Brooks from September to October and I found it quite different than my original thought, I originally expected this book to be boring because most books I have to read for school are. At first, I thought it was going to be suspenseful and more of an obsessive stalker. It wasn't. Maybe because it is an ALA Best Book for young adults? The story centers around the complex relationship between Candice “Candy” and Joe Beck, an obsessive lead band player, who meets her on the streets of London before going to his doctor’s appointment, which contributes to turning his life turning upside down. Joe soon learns that Candy is a heroin addict and a prostitute that gets abused by her pimp. When Joe encounters him for the first time, he becomes terrified of what he will do. I had a difficult time understanding the ending of the book. I feel like throughout the whole book, it was well developed but the ending was anti-climactic and cut short. I didn't have a sense of depth of where her life story would end up after being taking to a rehab center and what his life would be after stepping into a world of drugs, violence and losing his innocence. After a shocking situation, Joe and Candy were left in hiding from her pimp Iggy and became conflicted after discovering Iggy kidnapped Joe’s sister Gina in order to get Candy back. Joe becomes torn between rescuing his sister and returning Candy back to Iggy or saving Candy and losing Gina.
Disclaimer: My perspective of this book and the ending could be different from yours based off the fact that I love suspense, crime and mystery. I also love when the ending is just as intriguing as the beginning and fills in blanks or concerns that I had about the book in the beginning. This book was okay for me.
January 17, 2019
I decided to read “Candy” by Kevin Brooks because it said it was about a boy who is obsessed with a girl and i found that really interesting. The book is about a boy named Joe who meets a girl named Candy and is instantly fascinated by her (he likes her). I guess you could call it love at first sight. But there is a catch, Candy isn’t your typical or average girl. Most boys if they liked her would Immediately want nothing to do with her when they find out what she is/does and what her life is like. Joe isn’t like that. He doesn’t bash her or put shame on her, he wants to help her, make her a better person, and get her out of the situation that she’s in. He wants to remind her who she is again, how her life was like before even if that means jeopardizing everything (like his own life).
One thing I liked about this book is one of the themes . Courage. Joe was willing to do anything to save Candy from whats she’s dealing with/going through, he was very determined. Like they say, you don’t walk away if you love someone, you help them. See, Joe could’ve just let Candy keep suffering but since he loved her, he didn’t and that’s what I like about him as a character.
One thing I didn’t appreciate was how Kevin Brooks worded a part of the summary on the back of the book. It states, “It starts as an attraction, a crush... and then turns into something more like an obsession”. When I read this part while trying to figure out a book to read, I thought Joe was going to be a psychopath. I thought HE was going to be the one violent to Candy. I wish Kevin Brooks didn’t exaggerate so much because in the book I wouldn’t consider Joe obsessed with Candy , he just admires her and wants to learn more about her.
I recommend this book to teenagers (young adults) because the 2 main characters are around 16 years old and I think it’s important for teens to be informed on substance abuse and real life problems that people go through in our world today. The situations in this book are definitely crazy, unbelievable and eye catching.
One thing I liked about this book is one of the themes . Courage. Joe was willing to do anything to save Candy from whats she’s dealing with/going through, he was very determined. Like they say, you don’t walk away if you love someone, you help them. See, Joe could’ve just let Candy keep suffering but since he loved her, he didn’t and that’s what I like about him as a character.
One thing I didn’t appreciate was how Kevin Brooks worded a part of the summary on the back of the book. It states, “It starts as an attraction, a crush... and then turns into something more like an obsession”. When I read this part while trying to figure out a book to read, I thought Joe was going to be a psychopath. I thought HE was going to be the one violent to Candy. I wish Kevin Brooks didn’t exaggerate so much because in the book I wouldn’t consider Joe obsessed with Candy , he just admires her and wants to learn more about her.
I recommend this book to teenagers (young adults) because the 2 main characters are around 16 years old and I think it’s important for teens to be informed on substance abuse and real life problems that people go through in our world today. The situations in this book are definitely crazy, unbelievable and eye catching.
June 6, 2024
I read this as a tween in middle school, and I remember loving it. Well, i don't know what happened in the last 14 years but this was spectacularly awful. Candy's reasoning for becoming a heroin-addicted prostitute is literally that she's so pretty and everyone was jealous of her. Even the one person who cares about her wellbeing (Joe) only does because he's interested in her romantically. I can't think of a worse set up for pre-teens than this. It also seems to have aged poorly with its stereotyping and making every black character a caricature. The ending is bad. It flounders around and fades into nothing. I felt like the whole time we are supposed to be rooting for Joe to save Candy, but doing so literally ruined his life. He never develops confidence or works through his anxiety, and Candy is just as much of a mess at the end as she is in the beginning. She's essentially regressed into a child that must be handled with gloves, rather than a young woman who has been abused and traumatized for years and has finally been given the opportunity for escape. Poor writing of women overall. I don't understand the importance of Joe's mom in this story at all. All of the women in this story suck, honestly. Candy is not a good person, Gina is a victim of Joe's stupidity, and Joe's mom sucks. If you take anything from this book, take notes on how not to write characters because everyone is unlikable, forgettable, or both.
March 28, 2018
Joe beck was a normal teenage guy trying to make it through high school, practice with his band, and juggle family issues. He never would've guess how his life would turn around from a simple trip to the train station. Joe gets off the train and runs into a beautiful girl named Candy. He's baffled, and they end up making it to a mcdonalds when after grabbing some food, a big group of pimps walk in a start harassing Candy. Joe realizes what she does and doesn't know how to handle it.. his feelings have already started and he won't let go of the spark he feels with her. Can Joe get her away from the hands that hold her in this way of life? And if he does, can she let herself get away from the drugs?
May 29, 2023
This book was something that was definitely out of my comfort zone. I’m someone who is more into fantasy but I needed a good palette cleanser.
I think what makes this book great is the suspense building the writers create in the reader. There was multiple times while reading that my heart was racing and I couldn’t even fathom what was going to happen next.
I think what makes this book great is the suspense building the writers create in the reader. There was multiple times while reading that my heart was racing and I couldn’t even fathom what was going to happen next.
June 10, 2017
Candy can be addictive
March 17, 2018
2.5 stars
August 24, 2025
pretty good book but I find I didn't like the ending very much. it was a very real type of ending for that situation but I just felt that it felt unfinished
November 17, 2025
Knyga viena iš įdomesnių , nenuspėjamo turinio, apie meilę ir tikėjimą, apie priklausomybę narkotikams, apie gėrio ir blogio kovą. Patiko.
February 14, 2024
Negaliu pamiršt
April 3, 2020
I quite linked this book! The themes of drug addiction and use of more adult themes while still being readable for most audiences is very nice- I personally thought the drag lounge was well written and intense all the way through. However, the last few chap Ayers and withdrawal sequences did not live up to my expectations for the rest of the book. It seemed rather rushed, or as if the author was on a time crunch, if you want a story with a wonderful meat and potatoes section but are ready to not be so thrilled for the end, I’d recommend this book. Very good teaching tools :)
October 22, 2021
I really did like this book, with the extreme excitement and crazy thrill, but I do not know what to say about the depression and sadness that pours from this book. In the story, Joe Beck has a new hat, anxiety, some guitar skills, and not much else, until he meets Candy at a train station. As the two become friends, Joe begins to realize that Candy's world is full of fear, pain, and abuse. He makes an attempt to save her, because he realizes he has feeling for her. But even after success in defeating Candy's main problem, Iggy, the man who causes her so much pain, there is still one conflict to solve: Candy's problem with drugs needs to be fixed so she can really be free. But while the two are hiding from Iggy in Joe's family's cabin, (where he is helping Candy solve her problem) Iggy takes Joe's sister, Gina, hostage. In exchange for Candy's return to him, Iggy promises not to hurt Gina. But during the exchange, Candy murders Iggy to end all the pain and abuse. The story ends with Joe and his family recovering, and Candy doing the same. But Joe hardly ever sees Candy anymore.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 20, 2012
1. Plot Overview (Don’t give the ending away!) What did you like about the plot? Did it move quickly or slowly? What didn’t you like? Was it interesting or not? Why? Give details!
The plot moved extremely slow, thats why i liked it, it gave so much intensity and it defined every detail of a solution, and problem that was going on in the book, with the main characters Candy and Joe. It was very interesting, and intense, it keeps you wondering Why, and How. The way Candy's life is so harsh, and the substance abuse thats going on with her, and to her. How she has so much evil in her life, and Joe comes along and falls in love quickly, and he leaves a lot of things behind him just to be with her.
2. Character Overview: Who were you favorite characters? Describe them—what were they like? Did they remind you of someone? Who/how? How are you like them, even in small ways?
My all time favorite characters were Candy and Joe the main characters in this book. Candy was talkative, and outgoing even though she has so many problems in her life, and her life is horrible bad. She can hide her pain, and nobody even would guess it. Joe is more of a quiet person, mysterious. Amazing at guitar, and works so hard in school, seems like he doesn't do much but play guitar with his band, and just stays home and studies. Once he meets Candy he's always out.
3. Theme Overview: Choose a theme starter word (love, hate, revenge, friendship, anger, etc.) and tell us what the author is saying about it.
Example: Forgiveness = The author teaches us that sometimes you have to forgive yourself before you can forgive someone else. She shows this through the characters of Danny and Sandy when…
Truth: The author tells us about how when a person that you start to trust back fires on you, and leaves you lonely, homeless, and bribes you into a person you never thought of becoming.
Love: The author also writes about the way Candy and Joe fell in love so fast. How all guys aren't the same and that it's never impossible for a guy or girl to fall in love, it just takes the right person to bring that emotion out of them.
Revenge: The author states that once someone has done so much hurt to you when you trusted them with your everything, and once you get rid of that pain, and person you get revenge for everything they've done to you in the past. Also, the author tells us that the feeling of revenge is a great feeling but going to far for revenger can make you seem crazy and it makes you look bad, and can turn on you.
Forgiveness: This authors most amazing theme was forgiveness, stating how the main character Candy has substance abuse, and when Joe saves her, she promised she wouldn't relapse, and Joe couldn't take seeing her go through withdrawals, it was hard for him, but he excepted that it isn't easy for a person to go through that and just stop, so he stayed by her side through it all and it helped her.
The plot moved extremely slow, thats why i liked it, it gave so much intensity and it defined every detail of a solution, and problem that was going on in the book, with the main characters Candy and Joe. It was very interesting, and intense, it keeps you wondering Why, and How. The way Candy's life is so harsh, and the substance abuse thats going on with her, and to her. How she has so much evil in her life, and Joe comes along and falls in love quickly, and he leaves a lot of things behind him just to be with her.
2. Character Overview: Who were you favorite characters? Describe them—what were they like? Did they remind you of someone? Who/how? How are you like them, even in small ways?
My all time favorite characters were Candy and Joe the main characters in this book. Candy was talkative, and outgoing even though she has so many problems in her life, and her life is horrible bad. She can hide her pain, and nobody even would guess it. Joe is more of a quiet person, mysterious. Amazing at guitar, and works so hard in school, seems like he doesn't do much but play guitar with his band, and just stays home and studies. Once he meets Candy he's always out.
3. Theme Overview: Choose a theme starter word (love, hate, revenge, friendship, anger, etc.) and tell us what the author is saying about it.
Example: Forgiveness = The author teaches us that sometimes you have to forgive yourself before you can forgive someone else. She shows this through the characters of Danny and Sandy when…
Truth: The author tells us about how when a person that you start to trust back fires on you, and leaves you lonely, homeless, and bribes you into a person you never thought of becoming.
Love: The author also writes about the way Candy and Joe fell in love so fast. How all guys aren't the same and that it's never impossible for a guy or girl to fall in love, it just takes the right person to bring that emotion out of them.
Revenge: The author states that once someone has done so much hurt to you when you trusted them with your everything, and once you get rid of that pain, and person you get revenge for everything they've done to you in the past. Also, the author tells us that the feeling of revenge is a great feeling but going to far for revenger can make you seem crazy and it makes you look bad, and can turn on you.
Forgiveness: This authors most amazing theme was forgiveness, stating how the main character Candy has substance abuse, and when Joe saves her, she promised she wouldn't relapse, and Joe couldn't take seeing her go through withdrawals, it was hard for him, but he excepted that it isn't easy for a person to go through that and just stop, so he stayed by her side through it all and it helped her.
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