Tagline: N/A
Back Tagline: Go! Fight! Win! KILL!
Summary: A mysterious protein powder has turned Erie High’s football team into bulked-up monsters. Suddenly, their energy is boundless, their strength frightening, their drive to win obsessive. They’ll stop at nothing to win. No matter who gets hurt. Not matter how dangerous. No matter how RECKLESS.
First Impressions: I remember buying this book (along with Bloodlust #1, Irresistible) back in 1994. I was thirteen years old [Yes, I’m ancient, I know] [Jack: I wasn’t even in the womb yet 😜]. Of course, I bought it based solely on the fact that I was a young, burgeoning gay kid and was totally horny for the hot (American) football player on the front cover. [I mean, GRRRR! AmIRight?!] There’s not much to say except I totally didn’t mind the scratches on his back and only wished then [Okay, okay, now as well] that I could have put them there. [Excuse me while I wipe away this drool…]. This is the only thing I remember about this book before my re-read, actually. Let’s see if it lives up to my re-expectations…. [Jack: I have never heard of this series before but I am definitely interested! They seem hard to find so I doubt I’ll find them anytime soon :(]
Recap
Location: Cleveland, Ohio (primarily fictional Erie High School)
The cast of characters:
Marla Swift – Our blonde heroine. Bitterly single (because she’s “sickly”).
Zack Swift – Marla’s all-star football player brother. He’s a stud.
Frankie DeLucca – Marla’s bestie and Zack’s girlfriend. She seems like an Italian bimbo.
Lawrence Jones III/”Jonesy” – Star quarterback & Marla’s crush.
JT Barker – The new football coach. Possibly in his 30s?
The book starts with a prologue where ten-year-old Jimmy is stuck in his room watching kids play tag outside. With his face pressed against the window, he imagines tagging the little red-haired girl [Wait, are we sure he isn’t named Charlie Brown?] and then the other kids tag him. They tumble and laugh. He’s definitely missing out. Suddenly, his mother enters behind him, yanking him away because she’s afraid he’ll ‘”catch his death”‘ being by the cold window. Jimmy feels fine and begs her to let him outside, but she insists he’s not like the other kids, he’s her ‘“special boy.”‘ She buttons a sweater up to his neck and pulls him close for a moment [This has Norma/Norman Bates vibes all over it]:
She pulled him to her, hugging him to her spongy, lumpy body. She smelled like mothballs and old sweat. Jimmy gagged slightly, afraid that she might smother him.
Mother leaves and locks the door behind her, and Jimmy feels like a prisoner. He starts to cry but soon, jealousy and anger takes over him [Watch those mood swings kid, they’re killer] and he slams his head against the window in frustration, desperately wanting to be part of the game of tag outside. He eventually decides he’ll have to play his own way, his imagination gone wild thanks to watching too much TV [I can definitely relate to that]. Then he gets out a gun he’d stolen from under his mother’s bed [Okay, I can’t relate to THAT. Also, when did he have time to grab that if he’s always locked up in his room?] [Jack: It’s a bit early for plot holes, isn’t it?!].
He pointed the gun at the lanky boy and took aim. Squinting and closing one eye, he pulled the trigger. he heard a loud pop, like a bursting balloon, and the gun jumped in his hand. He almost dropped it. But then, when he saw the boy collapsed on the cold street, he felt a surge of strength.
He’d done it! He was in the game!
[Told you about those mood swings, kid. What a way to start this story off, huh?].
Chapter 1 starts off after school, where the Erie High football team, the Sharks, are practicing [Something I’ll never understand. At my high school (and most schools I gather), they have practice during a designated school period/hour and again for another couple hours after school, sometimes on the weekends. Seems a bit overkill, IMO. Also, why would a team in middle America be named the Sharks? Seems like a name that should be reserved for a coastal school, but I digress…]. Marla & her best gal pal, Frankie, are watching on as her brother Zack, who’s also Frankie’s boyfriend, and the rest of the team killing it. Apparently, they have improved significantly since Coach JT Barker showed up at the end of last year [Hmm…I wonder if the ‘J’ stands for ‘Jimmy’…]. Zack an up-and-coming football star and he and Frankie are practically obsessed with each other, with Frankie often making unnecessary comments about him to Marla:
’Your brother has hands of gold,’ she said with a devilish smile. ‘He knows what he’s doing on the football field and in the backseat of a car.’
[I’m not here to slut-shame, but c’mon Frankie, have some tact. SMH] [Jack: Hahaha I like her already] The kicker is Frankie attends a completely different school, Elkridge High, on the other side of town [Jack: Is this a Nikki situation where she’s always hanging around another school?] [I totally forgot about that! Ha-Ha!].
Marla is jealous of their dedication to each other – she’d like a boyfriend of her own, but unlike tanned and perfect Frankie, she’s skinny & pale. She’s got an as-yet-unnamed illness that keeps her frail and insecure, and she can’t even bring herself to admit she likes the quarterback, Jonesy [I feel this. I was sickly, skinny and pale in high school. Now I’m just pale – two down, one to go!]. Frankie tries to get Marla to stay after practice to talk to the boys, but even though Marla wants to, she needs to get to the hospital for another appointment [It kind of irks me that Frankie won’t go with her when Marla asks, but I guess that’s just teenage selfishness?] [Jack: She probably has reservations in the backseat of the car already!]. As Marla leaves, she almost falls victim to a dizzy spell , a regular occurrence [Geez, how does she get around if she’s always falling over dizzy all the time? She needs some homeschooling til they figure out how what the hell is going on with her, poor thing].
Shifting focus to Zack, he reflects how awesome his life is right now. Senior year with easy classes, a dedicated girlfriend in Frankie, and his game is improving swiftly [Ha! I wrote that forgetting his last name is Swift ::pats self on back::], so he’s on track to scoring a football scholarship. Turning to Frankie, he starts to daydream about sex with her:
Frank was such a tiger. Other girls he’d dated had been great kissers, but Frankie really new how to turn a guy on. She knew that the way to a guy’s heart was through his lower extremities.
[Again, not trying to say anything, but I hope Frankie’s on the pill, for her sake] Just then, Jonesy tackles him, trying to make sure Zack is keeping his head in the game. Zack teases Jonesy that he just needs to get himself a girlfriend, but Jonesy isn’t interested in the cheerleader types that always hang all over his hotness [Dude is ripped with jet black hair, green eyes and a killer smile – oh no, I’m crushing on another YA stud. I’m too old and seriously need a boyfriend…].
Though he doesn’t say it, Jonesy just wants a chill girl that’s not all about being popular [Maybe if he brought it up, Zack might be a cool older brother and suggest his lonely sister Marla. Of course, that doesn’t happen], and as far as jealous Zack concerned, Jonesy has it made with a full scholarship to Whitman College [This sounds like a setup for future conflict, if I ever saw one].
Meanwhile across town, Marla gets off the bus, still dizzy and nauseated. The poor girl still has four blocks to walk to the hospital and she’s trying her hardest to push forward. However, she only makes it a little while before she collapses [I really feel bad for her. I know what it’s like to feel this weak, being a survivor of a vicious auto-immune disease as a teen. I have Crohn’s disease and it messed me up when I was 19 until I had surgery to remove affected areas of my intestines just before I turned 20, but that’s a story for another day…]. Marla wakes up and is immediately confronted with a mural of a dragon on the wall [I’d be freaking out for sure]. She’s inside Mr. Lee’s herb shop; the nice man saw her drop outside his store and immediately scooped her up [Jack: I feel like I would have called an ambulance, maybe?].
Mr. Lee wonders what happened and Marla explains that when she was a little girl, her parents took her to the zoo all the time because she loved the monkeys. At one point, the zoo got a new exotic breed of monkey in, and she was so fascinated that when her parents weren’t looking, she climbed under the guard rail and stuck her hand through to touch the monkey, which then it bit her. They tested the monkey for rabies and other diseases and found none, but they ended up putting him to sleep anyway [Wow. Why is it because the stupid kid disobeys, gets hurt by a wild animal and the animal gets punished? This reminds me of Harambe and still makes me furious].
Ever since, Marla has been suffering from random dizzy spells, nausea and fainting, and can’t enjoy life like a normal teenager. Mr. Lee takes pity on her and pulls random ingredients off the shelf inside a cabinet. He mixes them up into a powder and puts them in a bag before handing it to her, explaining this will cure what ails her [Always trust mysterious, old Asian men. Always] [Jack: Especially when they give you free drugs!] [Ba-dum, tss…].
’Take one teaspoon a day until you’ve consumed it all,’ he instructed her. ‘It’s very simple. But you must guard it carefully.’ His eyes glittered darkly as he lowered the bag and pressed it into her hand. ‘And most important, you must remember: One man’s cure is another man’s poison.’
[Foreshadowing much?] Marla is understandably skeptical and figures it’s probably just something like ginseng or bee pollen. However, she decides she might as well follow instructions and be careful with it [I’d probably toss it, but that’s because I don’t take random concoctions from strangers] [Jack: I’d probably take a whack at it, oop]. She offers to pay for it, but he tells her it’s a gift and reiterates his warning before she heads home, having missed her doctor’s appointment [Hopefully they don’t charge her for the missed visit. Doctor’s offices in the U.S. can be real pains about that] [Jack: There’s a lot of things that confuse me about the U.S… expensive healthcare, expensive education, lack of gun control despite 30695869798589685678968979870303276746 shootings per day…] [Ditto, Jack, ditto].
At home, she studies the dark green powder, contemplating whether she should try it [Yeah I’d be second guessing this too – you don’t even know what’s in it] [Jack: That’s the fun of it, Dustin!], but eventually decides to take some after looking at her frail appearance in the mirror. She dips her finger in and licks some off, but gags because it’s disgusting, so, she mixes a teaspoon of it in with a chocolate milkshake instead.
She drinks it down fast and immediately feels different; she has energy to stand up straight and her heartbeat is stronger/healthier than it has been in years. The powder seems to have worked! [Hallelujah! I’m happy for ya, girlfriend!] Heed Mr. Lee’s warning, Marla takes the powder to her room so no-one else grabs it up [Smart girl, but this feels like it will probably happen again. I seriously do not remember a thing from this book].
After a week of taking the powder, Marla has noticed a major difference – not only does she have energy, but her appearance has improved as well. Aside from her hair and nails looking better, the appetite she’s gained has helped her figure become more, um, curvy [Yeah, that’s the word, ‘curvy’ This book does not hold back on the description…check this out]:
Now her bikini told a completely different story. She filled out the top of it perfectly, her nipples straining through the black fabric. She arched her back and stared at how her breasts lifted up prettily. And the bikini bottom clung to her new curves exactly the way it was supposed to. She pulled the fabric out and let it go, and it snapped satisfyingly against her thigh.
[I mean, damn, Michael Bates. Is this YA or a Harlequin novel?!] [Jack: ‘her nipples straining through the black fabric’ is killing me hahahaha] [How do you think her bra feels?]
Marla realizes she’s been admiring herself so much that she’s almost late for school [Yeah, Mr. Lee has created a monster for sure]. She puts on some basic clothes and is still satisfied, wondering if she’ll get noticed at school [Hmm…Lemme guess…]. Of course everyone notices. Girls in gym pick her for their teams, guys are checking her out. Even her brother Zack notices that she’s changed. He stops by her lunch table and says that the football team has taken notice, nicknaming her ‘Shark Bait’ [This is a bit gross for her brother to be objectifying her, TBH. Bates has really taken some misogynistic & incestuous liberties here], and somehow, Marla is flattered.
Zack pesters her, wanting to know what her secret is. It doesn’t take much prodding, and after swearing him to secrecy [Yeah right, like that will happen], Marla tells him all about Mr. Lee and the miracle powder. She tells him how it’s helped her tremendously, and true to form so far, Zack thinks only of Zack, and wants her to share the powder with the team, because it will help some of the more sluggish players [Sure, Zack, that’s what you want it for “your team.” Insert eye roll here]. Marla refuses because the powder was made for her only and repeats Mr. Lee’s warning: ‘“One man’s cure is another man’s poison.”’ [Smart of her to refuse, but dumb to have told him in the first place] He leave her be but secretly ponders what the powder could do for him [Of course, this will lead to badness all around, I’m sure…]
At the same time, Jonesy is studying Algebra at his table when he looks up and notices Marla. He can’t believe how fine she is now. He always liked her as a person but considered her mousy. Of course, now that she’s hot [Apparently with boobs that can be used as flotation devices], he’s got it bad for her and all he wants to do is ask her out [I hope, for her sake, that he stays a nice guy, but we shall see…] [Jack: He’s only keen because of her floaties, is he really that nice a guy?].
Later, Marla & Frankie show up fashionably late to the afterschool pep rally bonfire [Ugh, I hate these people who show up late on purpose]. Apparently Marla also told Frankie about Mr. Lee’s magic powder [Girl, keep your mouth shut! Geez!] and Frankie is happy for Marla because she genuinely cares that her friend is feeling better [You’d think the way the plot is going she’d be clamoring to try it out like Zack, but no, surprisingly she’s not jealous at all]. Frankie is missing Zack since they both have been busy for the past week (him with football, her with a paper for class), and literally thinks about him holding her, what she calls a ‘“Zack Attack.”’ [Of course, all I can think about is Saved By the Bell at this point] [Jack: Omg]
Suddenly, Tina & Jen, two Sharks cheerleaders, aggressively bump into Frankie, who’d forgotten to take off her Elkridge High letterman jacket. They start to belittle her, calling her a slut and asking what she’s doing there. Marla is still too timid to say anything and Frankie doesn’t want to get into a fight [Screw that, these girls need a good slap], so lucky Zack shows up! The two cheerleaders attempt to shame him for ‘“fraternizing with the enemy,”‘ but he basically slut-shames them back because one of them was fraternizing with a rival high school team’s player over the summer, which shuts them up fast [Good on him, defending his girl].
After Zack leaves to join his team, a player brings out a stuffed bear, because the team they are playing the next day is the Bears, and they basically mutilate it, then impale it on a spear. This doesn’t sit well with Frankie who thinks it’s a bit too barbaric & uncomfortable, but Marla shrugs it off as school spirit [I’m with Frankie, crowds like this feel seconds away from dystopian mayhem. I don’t like it at all].
Coach Barker gets up to makes a big speech about how football and team spirit are the most important thing they will learn [These feels toxic AF]. Again Frankie doesn’t like this, but soon it just turns into a party and she chills out. She & Marla overhear Jen & Tina say they think Coach Barker is hot, which creeps them out [I concur, dude is probably 15 years older than them and sounds like a douchebag] [Jack: Maybe they like ’em older 😉].
As it dies down and people start to leave, Zack reveals he’ll be taking Frankie home while Jonesy will give Marla a ride, much to her surprise. She thanks Zack and heads off to meet Jonesy [Bow-Chika-Wow-Wow]. Just then, the flaming stuffed bear on a spear lands in front of Frankie, nearly impaling her feet. Carlos, one of Zack’s teammates, laughs, saying he needs to keep the spear sharp because they are playing Frankie’s team soon. In a weird tone, he says he’s just defending their territory. Frankie, again, thinks this behavior is less playful and more of a real threat, but Zack insists Carlos was kidding [Yeah, I don’t buy that for one minute. Watch your back, Frankie].
In the car, Frankie is ready to jump Zack’s bones with the way he’s running his hand up and down her inner thigh [Seriously, is this really YA???] [Jack: I am not used to this smut on the blog!]. However, Zack has bad news – he’s gotta meet the team at the Dead-End Diner for a post-pep rally morale dinner. Of course, Frankie is annoyed and wants him to blow them off, but he says he can’t because he’s supposed to be their leader. He begs her to join him, and even though she’s not really into the idea of hanging around the ‘“lugheads”’ she agrees anyway [Jack: Is she about to be sacrificed?]. When they arrive at the diner, she has him pull into a dark parking space and tries to turn him on, hoping to entice him into sexy time instead of the team hang:
His hands were still moving gently over her breasts, and Frankie moaned at the delicious sensations he caused. This was the way she’d planned to spend the evening. Maybe she couldn’t talk him out of meeting the guys, but she sure knew how to give him a taste of what he’d be missing.
[Do you see what I’m saying now about how smutty this reads?] [Jack: I’m kinda into it, seems way more realistic than the boring stuff in other YA books] Although he dances around the subject, the author basically implies that they have sex in the parked car before going inside to see his teammates at the 24-hour diner [Damn, Bates. For a ’90s young adult book, this is pretty bold].
Frankie gets bored sitting at the big table surrounded by doofy football players, including Coach Barker, although hearing the coach talk to the team, she finally starts to understand the thrall he has over them. Even Carlos, the jerk from earlier, seems calmer now, feeling inspired by Barker [Coaches always seem to have this cult-leader hold over players, in my mind. I never understood the “follow the leader” aspect]. Soon, the conversation turns into Jonesy, who hasn’t shown up. When Zack explains he’s out with Marla, the players all discuss how she’s turned into such a hottie lately. That’s when Zack decides to tell them all about the miracle powder Mr. Lee gave her [Dammit, shut up blabbermouth!]. This makes Frankie uneasy as he swore not to say anything, but she lets it go [Pushover, of course]. At one point, Zack locks eyes with Coach Barker and it seems the man is silently telling him something. Soon after, Zack decides it’s time to check out that powder [Dun-Dun-Dunnnnn! I mean, we saw this coming right?].
Elsewhere, Marla & Jonesy are parked at Lookout Point [VERY original name], stargazing in Jonesy’s convertible with he top down. Jonesy knows a lot about constellations and the Greek stories that go with them [Kind of makes him even more dreamy, TBH], and Marla is enthralled. Jonesy wishes he could go to Ohio State to study astronomy but his dad only sees football in his future. Marla encourages him to stand up for what he wants, but he changes the subject by kissing her [I mean, I’m not saying that would work to shut me up, but it would definitely work on me!].
Later, Zack gets home to an empty house and laments that he could have been smashing with Frankie now since no-one is home. He also creepily lingers on the thought of how his sister is probably hooking up with his teammate [Like he’s eager for his sister to be deflowered or something – it’s slightly incestuous how happy he is that she’s getting some from Jonesy]. Anyway, while Marla’s out, he searches her room and finds the green powder in her jewelry box [Tsk-Tsk…].
Later that night, Marla gets woken up by Zack dry heaving in the bathroom. He’s feverish and weak, and it really scares her. She doesn’t know what to do and almost calls an ambulance, but he insists he’s okay. She helps him back to bed, deciding if he’s not better by morning, she’ll call for one then. As Zack drifts off to sleep, he keeps talking about game strategies [That’s not alarming or anything].
The next morning, Marla finds Zack downstairs, feeling better than ever. In fact, he’s glowing, and claims his illness was probably food poisoning from the diner. She gives him a hug and when he hugs back, he squeezes a bit too hard… [hint-hint, y’all]
Later at game against the Bears, Zack is feeling PUMPED. He feels invincible. He even ignores the tradition of waving at Frankie before kickoff because he doesn’t feel he needs his good luck charm anymore [So, this powder is like magical steroids – instant machismo narcissism when taken by someone it’s not meant for]. The crowd calls ‘“Swift-y! Swift-y!”’ as he scores throughout the game, but when Bears player Ben Ames gets the ball, Zack gets mad. He charges the kid, tackling him so hard that Ben’s leg snaps in a clean break [DAYUM!]!
As Marla & Frankie watch on, it’s clear that poor Ben’s bone is sticking out of his leg! [::CRINGE::] Zack doesn’t seem one bit concerned for the player he just seriously injured, instead cutting up & laughing with Coach Barker, which Frankie finds this unsettling [As would I. Sadly, I don’t think it’s just the powder that’s upped his ego – this is just a jock thing, IMO]. The game continues, and Frankie notices now that no-one seems phased by what happened. They’re all just concerned about the Sharks winning the first game of the season, which they do.
Afterwards, the girls meet up with Zack outside the locker room, and he invites them to the victory party at Carlos’s house, which feels a bit awkward since Marla & Frankie both think it’s a hollow victory considering it took Zack breaking Ben’s leg to win [There’s gonna be people named Killer and Meatball at this party, so I agree with Frankie; this is not a party I want to go to. Ugh]
Zack pretends to feel bad about what happened to Ben and tells the girls he wants to keep team morale up, but he’s actually only thinking about how he could get in the pros and what a loser Ben Ames is. Frankie catches his smirk and it gives her the creeps [Zack is turning into Mr. Hyde, it seems. With all this sexual stuff, it feels like some sort of assault may be a-comin’?].
At the party, the team is hooting and yelling like animals and Coach Barker is there as well [Doesn’t that seem odd and inappropriate for a school representative to be at a teenage party? No? Okay then…]. Barker praises Zack and says he’s calling his scout friend to watch next week’s game. Marla wants to feel proud of her brother, but only feels disgust and decides to walk away from the crowd before she says something she regrets [Smart move, girl. You never know what these rowdy jocks are gonna do].
Zack gets pulled aside by Barker, who commends his game focus tonight and wonders if Zack is taking anything like steroids. Zack denies it, but the coach asks if he took anything else, like that powder he mentioned at the diner. Zack freaks because he thought Coach Barker was giving him the go ahead nod the other night, so he lies that it was just dedication and good coaching [Smooth Zack. Add in some flattery, that ALWAYS works ::eye roll::].
Zack excuses himself to go dance with Frankie, leaving Barker feeling uneasy. He knows Zack was lying and he’s also concerned about his relationship with Frankie, who goes to the rival school. He doesn’t trust her not to steal secret plays, and he’s also started distrusting Zack. [Uh-oh, spaghetti-O! Maybe Barker isn’t a bad guy after all? Or is this just a ploy to get us to trust him? Hmmm…]
Meanwhile, Marla is bored of the jock’s behaviour and wanders around looking for Jonesy, interrupting various couples in the midst of hanky-panky [No-one says that enough anymore]. She finally finds him outside on the porch, being a big ole angsty loner [Who doesn’t love an emo hottie, amiright?]. After talking some crap about the stars, he pulls the cliché guy move and pulls her close to him because she looks cold, but she doesn’t mind at all [Hell, if I had been as repressed as her, my slutty clothes would have dropped to the ground right there]. Jonesy starts to lament how he doesn’t get why his teammates are acting so machismo about football, or why they don’t care that Zack has pretty much ruined Ben Ames’s chances of playing again. Marla agrees, stating that those guys need some perspective. Then Marla starts to cry – maybe because of how her brother is acting now, or maybe it’s the powder that’s messing with her hormones, or maybe she’s just sleepy? Zack comforts her by holding her closer:
’Better?’ She nodded.
‘You got boogers on me,’ Jonesy said, pretending to wipe at his shirt with her hair.
She couldn’t help laughing. ‘I guess I’m just tired,’ she said again.
They end up kissing a bit, and Marla is surprised by how fast she gets horny. When he caresses her thigh, she tells him he’s got ‘“amazing hands,”’ and his talents shouldn’t be wasted on the football field. [Damn girl! Slow down! You’re gonna get me pregnant from reading this!].
At the same time, Zack and Frankie are dancing in the basement, but Frankie notices that Zack is very robotic. He’s just staring off into space and his skin is kind of gray-colored & cold to the touch. She complains that he’s still thinking about football and he lashes out that she’s not the center of the universe [This 180 degree spin should alert you, Frankie – get your head out of your butt!]. He dances with her slowly, holding her too tight. She tries to calm him down by nibbling on his ear, but her old tricks aren’t working and he finally makes an excuse about helping Carlos with refreshments so he can ditch her. Frankie fears he’s probably going to break up with her soon.
We jump to a random petting zoo where a dark figure breaks into the elk stall. The person thinks to themselves that it would be a great prank to ‘“give that little Elkridge girl a few nightmares,”’ then chops the poor animal’s head off [Okay, I’m not down with killing innocent creatures, Mr. Bates].
Later, Frankie says goodnight to Zack and sarcastically thanks him for a lovely evening as he drops her off at home, but he doesn’t notice her tone. In fact, the second she gets out of his Camaro [Such a high school jock car – I know because my jock brother had one], he peels out of the driveway, leaving her by herself. She walks up to her front door and feels something drip on her, but it’s not until she’s inside in the light that she sees the blood on her face and hands. Turning around, she sees the dead Elk head hanging from the porch roof, blood soaking the welcome mat [Why am I worried more about the clean-up bill rather than the threat she’s facing?].
The next morning over breakfast, Marla tells Zack about what happened to Frankie. He thinks the prank is funny and Marla & Frankie should just get over it. Marla begs him to go with her to cheer Frankie up but he says he’s got better things to do:
’Man, you are just a bummer!’ he complained, grimacing at Marla. ‘You always take the hearts-and-flowers approach to everything. Wake up and take a look at reality, Marla. I’ve got responsibilities. I don’t have time to sit around playing nursemaid to some girl from across town. I have to work out. Our next game is less than a week away.’ He stood up and stomped out of the kitchen.
[How can no-one tell that he’s abusing some sort of substance???] [Jack: Did he really just call his girlfriend “some girl from across town”??] [I know! How could you not know that something was up with him?]
Zack ends up storming out of the house, and Marla sees him slam the trunk hood down on his hand as he puts his gym bag inside. Surprisingly, it doesn’t leave a mark and he doesn’t seem bothered by what would normally be a painful incident [Again, how can you not tell he’s on drugs?].
Marla decides to go visit Frankie and upon arriving at the DeLucca house, she notices that the elk and blood have all been cleaned up (as much as possible, though there’s still a pink stain on the white porch). When she goes upstairs, she finds a catatonic Frankie, who has been in shock since the night before [Damn, that elk head really did freak her out. Poor girl]. Frankie doesn’t even acknowledge that Marla’s there at all, so Marla decides to devote her time to Frankie, hoping that she snaps out of this state soon.
Marla ends up taking Monday off school, which thrills Zack because he can sneak more miracle powder without her knowing. In the locker room later, Jonesy asks him where Marla is, and Zack explains that she’s taking care of Frankie while she’s being melodramatic about the prank that was played on her. Jonesy doesn’t understand why Zack thinks the elk head thing is so funny [Jonesy is the only guy in this book with any sense] and realizes Zack’s being really sketchy [Finally!] after he praises the imagination and team spirit of whoever pulled the prank.
Of course, other meathead jocks show up and see their argument as an opportunity to egg on a fight, and things heat up as Zack gets all defensive. Just as fists are about to fly, Coach Barker arrives and scolds them for fighting with each other, basically forcing the boys to call a truce before sending everyone out to run laps [C’mon, let’s not work on our problems at all or anything. ::insert eye roll::]. A few minutes later, a dark figure enters the locker room and makes a beeline to Zack’s locker to steal the green powder he left in there. Then the person takes the powder and pours it into the team’s “bug juice” cooler [What a weird term for Gatorade] with a sinister agenda in mind [Who the hell is this???].
During practice, Jonesy is still upset with Zack for treating Frankie with such cruel disregard. He’s also still pretty distracted by thoughts of Marla, enough to mess up his performance on the field. When Coach Barker calls for a break, Jonesy doesn’t want to be near the others and misses out on the refreshing [And spiked] bug juice, although the Coach tries to encourage Jonesy to be with the team.
Zack is getting furious watching Jonesy sit apart from the rest of them. He’s starting to feel like an animal, out for blood, and during the rest of practice, he feels invincible because nothing hurts him [Even with padding, Football can be pretty brutal, so this is a major warning sign for those that are “juiced up”]. He’s tackling his teammates left and right, hurting them, but he doesn’t really care, enjoying the power of causing pain. At one point, he’s supposed to go for the running back but instead he heads straight for the quarterback (aka Jonesy). Try as he might, Jonesy can’t seem to get out of Zack’s line of view. He feels the hit and then all goes dark… [I have a hard understanding of the mind-altering powers of this green powder: if Zack can see that he’s changing, why is he allowing it to continue? Absolute power destroys absolutely, I guess…]
A couple days later, Jonesy is out of the hospital with his arm in a cast – apparently Zack crushed the bones in it [Dude, American Football is a toxic sport. People will look past some pretty heinous behavior in order for their team to win, that’s for sure]. He meets up with Marla at a diner and they both agree that their school (not just their team) has changed. He’s sad he’s away from football, but relieved to be free of ‘“Shark fever,”’ as he puts it. Marla is glad to get a moment alone with him to discuss Zack’s behavior.
This is where Marla comes clean to Jonesy about her mysterious green powder that healed her. She realizes that Zack has stolen her powder and she needs to get it back since she’s supposed to take the entire bag, as instructed by Mr. Lee. She asks Jonesy if he’s noticed Zack is taking on a “metallic” look to his skin – his once-blue eyes are now gray and his golden blonde hair is now turning platinum white [This powder is starting to sound like every ’90s/’00s queer boy fantasy remedy].
Just then, Carlos & Ethan from the Sharks stop by to offer condolences to Jonesy for having to sit out the rest of the season. Marla gets up to leave but notices something: both boys have the same silvery-sheen that Zack has [Now you’re getting it girl. Do some sleuthin’!]! She notices some more players from the team in the diner, and each of them are starting to look like they are made of metal [Oh No! What’s she gonna do y’all?!].
Marla decides enough is enough – she’s going to talk to Coach Barker. All the boys on the football team really idolize him, so if anyone can change their attitude, it’s him [Not a horrible idea, though I’d have gone there with Jonesy, but that’s just me]. She pleads her case (leaving out the information about the green powder) , basically saying that while there’s always been a rivalry between schools, this year it’s been more hostile. She says she thought he should know since he’s new to the school this year. She just wants him to look out for the guys on the team. He appreciates her concern and she’s relieved when he echoes his awareness that the team has been extreme lately [Um…maybe wait til you see their attitudes change, Mars].
Shortly after, Marla gets home in time to receive a phone call from Frankie, who is suddenly super cheery and talkative. She thanks Marla for being there for her when she was too shook to respond and even though it’s over between her and Zack, she wants to remain besties with Marla. She even suggests they go to the Erie High pep rally that night because she’s sick of being cooped up at home. Marla doesn’t think that’s a good idea after the elk head prank and considering Zack will be there, but Frankie doesn’t care about that. She thinks that by attending and showing no fear, it might help reveal who pulled the bloody stunt [Or, hear me out, it might backfire with an entire team ganging up on one girl from a rival school. Just a thought…], and Marla finally agrees to have Jonesy pick up Frankie later when he comes to take Marla to the pep rally.
Arriving at the pep rally, Jonesy makes sure Marla & Frankie are okay with being left to their own devices since he has to stand with the team, even though he isn’t playing. They assure him they’re fine and both girls watch him run off to join the other football players:
Frankie came up behind her and looked over her shoulder. ‘Yep. Levi’s 501 Blues. It’s amazing what they can do for a guy’s butt,’ she said, then let out a dramatic sigh.
[Girl, you better stay away from Marla’s man. I know you’re horny but find your own dude to eye-hump. I got your back, Mars!] As the pep rally starts, everyone’s having fun, dancing and having a great time, until the football team comes out. When Coach Barker asks the entire Pep Rally crowd (students, staff & players) what they are going to do to their competition the next night, all of them collectively start to chant ‘“Crush Them! Kill Them!”’ in a crazed way [It sounds pretty freaky and very “body snatchers” or “Stepford Wives”, TBH]. Despite him saying he would quell this kind of behavior, Marla notices that Coach Barker is actually egging it on [GASP! He lied? Who would’ve thunk it?]. As Marla and Frankie try to calmly leave, they get separated by the raucous crowd, and Marla gets elbowed in the face before falls to the ground. No one seems to notice or care, and she scrambles around until she finds Frankie again, and the two sprint for Jonesy’s car in the parking lot.
Meanwhile, Jonesy feels trapped by the crazed crowd. He can see the wildness in their eyes as they start to dance around the bonfire. Then he watches in horror as Carlos pulls out a black cat from a bag, shouting ‘“Kill the Panthers!”’ and Zack takes the cat, prepared to throw the live animal into the fire. [Dammit, don’t you dare do it Zachary!]. After his shouts of ‘“Zack! Don’t do it!”’ are drowned out by the yells of the crowd, Jonesy makes a bold move and tackles Zack, allowing the cat to go free and run off into the night [Oh thank God. I don’t want any more dead animals in this book]. Luckily, the crowd doesn’t let this sway them as they continue to chant and dance, and Jonesy is able to take off and meet up with Marla & Frankie at his car in the parking lot.
After talking it out, they realize that the team has no way of calming down naturally. Frankie wants to put them all in their place, but Marla knows that they really just need to stop them, figuring the only way is to go back to Mr. Lee – perhaps the old man can concoct some sort of antidote for the powder’s effects [Okay, now you’re using the ole noggin].
Early the next morning, Marla & Jonesy are banging on Mr. Lee’s shop door. Luckily for them, the old man lives upstairs and finally answers. They tell him everything that has happened and, of course, he scolds Marla for letting someone else take the powder [It’s not really her fault but really she should have locked it away in a safe or something]. He tells her that he had figured something went wrong because another guy showed up looking for the green powder. They immediately believe it’s Zack, but after Mr. Lee describes the guy as in his thirties, they realize that Coach Barker is the culprit [Gee, ya think?].
Mr. Lee reveals he gave the man some powder, but assures them it was only oregano and chamomile. Relieved that he didn’t give Barker any more, Marla is now worried that maybe she won’t have enough powder to ensure she stays healthy. Mr. Lee looks her over and says that she seems to have taken enough to keep her healthy for her whole life [Seriously, can I meet Mr. Lee? I have some weight loss concerns we need to discuss…]. Mr. Lee gets to work on making an antidote.
At the same time, Frankie, who believes that another powder will just make the situation worse, didn’t go to Mr. Lees and is actually headed for a giant gaffe herself, having decided to enact some of her own revenge on the Sharks. She grabs some rotting fish and heads to the locker rooms of Erie High, where she throws the fish in the lockers until she hears a noise [Frankie, you need to be aware of your surroundings, dummy].
After hiding in a locker, the Sharks players come in and are instantly furious at the prank that’s been played on them. They start shouting and punching the lockers….causing the door to the empty locker Frankie was standing in to swing open. They grab her and pull her out aggressively [I don’t like where this is going at all]. Frankie pleads for Zack to help her, but he just stares blankly through her before leaving the rest of his team to handle the situation. That’s when the guy nicknamed Killer grabs Frankie’s hand gently before breaking her pinky finger in two [Um, OW! At least it wasn’t worse, but damn, that’s harsh].
Zack stands outside, listening to her scream endlessly for at least 20 minutes before he starts to feel guilty, knowing he’s supposed to feel something more about the situation [Geez, you mean being a sociopath isn’t normal?]. Coach Barker arrives and condones what is happening to Frankie – ‘“She’s an Elk – the enemy.”’ He then insists Zack must be willing to make sacrifices in order to win, but perhaps Zack isn’t convinced? [We can hope…]
At the game later that night, Marla keeps looking for Frankie, and Jonesy tries to assure her that she was probably just skipping the game and brings her focus back to the antidote powder he has in his pocket – they have a job to do. [No horny distractions you two! Get to work!] Zack seems to be back in troglodyte form, thinking about how the ‘taste of blood’ before the game got the team really fired up, something he now wants to continue as tradition [Yeah, he’s a lost cause. He gotta go!].
With he crowd going wild, Coach Barker drops to his knees in an apparent PTSD flashback…to his childhood….as Jimmy Barker, the boy stuck inside while all the other kids got to play [I KNEW IT! I had a feeling the coach was that murderous kid from the prologue]. He finally stands up, realizing that he’s not stuck in his room, he’s the coach of this unhinged team. He thanks Zack for his miraculous powder, which Zack didn’t know he knew about, and it seems that Coach Barker really thinks he himself is winning this game, not the team or the powder, him [Can we say cuckoo?]
There’s a short break in the game after the first quarter and Coach Barker brings the the team to a huddle for a quick chat. Jonesy and Marla take this time to sneak over to the water cooler to poor their orange antidote powder in, and successfully get away with it without anyone noticing [Don’t need another Frankie incident on our hands, amiright?].
It takes a short while, but the team FINALLY starts to drink from the cooler. One by one they seem to be calming down, even shrinking in size, and Coach Barker starts to panic [HAHA! You ass! Can’t live vicariously through your little team now, can you?]. He tries to call over Zack, the only one who doesn’t seem to be suddenly softening, but Zack bitterly ignores him, thinking Coach Barker gave the other guys the powder so Zack couldn’t show them up in front of the talent scouts in the stands [This doesn’t seem like a good set-up for a peaceful ending, for Zack at least].
As the game continues, more Sharks start to drop like flies, either being too injured having no energy to keep playing. The referee tells Coach Barker that they’re short two players and if they can’t find anyone to play, they’ll have to forfeit the game [Again, HAHA you loser!]. Barker tried to order Meatball and Killer to play, but they’re too worn out. Killer calls Coach Barker a psycho and tells him to leave them alone [I’m loving this defeat of the toxic coach. This needs to happen more often in real life sports with pushy authority figures], and the ref calls the game – the Sharks have to forfeit. Then as the principal starts to announce it over the squealing, loud P.A. system, Coach Jimmy Barker falls to his knees again because he can’t bear the noise [You incel wimp].
Zack is PISSED and blames Coach Barker for stealing the powder and for their entire team petering out during the game. With his testosterone surging, Zack runs at Coach Barker, tackling him in his ‘“deadly, crippling Zack Attack.”’ [Jack: Wasn’t that a sexual thing?] [There’s a fine line between love and hate, Jack]
Some time later, Jonesy’s driving Marla to visit Zack at Sunnyview Home [Well, at least this mental institution sounds nice – not that I wanna go there or anything…]. Poor Zack is still stuck in his all-or-nothing mode, working out obsessively. He even thinks some scout called him to play for the Chicago Bears but as the staff explains, it’s all a delusion. Marla encourages him to drink the smoothie she brought him, but he knows it’s the orange antidote and states that no matter how many times she tries, he’ll never drink it because he likes being this pumped up and wigged out [Tsk-Tsk…Poor Zack… Remember kids, crack is whack!].
We also find out that Frankie is dead – they found her body stuffed into a dryer by the locker rooms. The team hadn’t stopped with just her pinky; they broke every single bone in her body. Of course, the police couldn’t find the killer, but Marla knows her friend was killed by the players [Jack: So like, do the players not remember killing her?] [I’m not sure. It doesn’t go there. Good deductive reasoning by Marla, at least. Poor Frankie… Again, don’t do drugs, kids!].
In the epilogue, we find out that Coach J.T. Barker, aka Jimmy, is now paralyzed from the neck down following the life-altering tackle from Zack [At least Zack did one good thing under the influence of the powder]. Barker is back in his room, where he spent so much time as a child. He can’t go anywhere; all he can do is watch TV or look out the window, like when he was a kid. He sits and sulks, pondering what went wrong with his team – why did Zack betray him? [Uh, cause you’re an evil opportunist? Possibly?] His old mother comes in to cover him with a blanket so he doesn’t catch his death of cold, and the book ends with Coach Barker wishing he was dead [We wish the same for you, buddy].
Final thoughts
As much as the cover still entices me, I now know why this story isn’t very memorable. Not much happened, there was mainly just the threat of bad stuff through most of the book. The last quarter of it gave us some bad consequences for a few characters, but overall, I’m sure I know why this YA series didn’t move forward after the first few books were published. It genuinely took me months to finish this book [Of which I have apologized to Jack for teasing this back in April but not getting it done until the end of July].
So, while the cover does represent the attitude of the book, there are no bloody back scratches made to any of the football stars, sadly. Though there was enough sexual situations to help get a teenager through hard times [Wink-wink, nudge-nudge]. Jonesy was probably the best character, by far. He sounds smoking hot and seems like a good guy. Though, at the beginning Zack is pretty sexy before he gets all “roid ragey”. Frankie was a bit annoying, and Marla barely had much of a personality. The coach was a good villain in that he was two-faced and clearly had an agenda of his own, though the author doesn’t really give us much detail into his motivations. There was a lot of gaps that the reader had to fill in for themselves. This felt like a first draft that skipped editing and went to straight to the publisher.
I have another one of these Bloodlust titles that I may check out [Don’t think I ever did in the past, TBH]. It’s called ‘Irresistible’ and it’s about a perfume, I think. If it’s better, then I may try to track down some of the other remaining titles. All in all, I’d still recommend to non-Americans if they want an idea of the toxic attitude people in the U.S. have with American Football [Seriously it’s like a cult in some places. It’s scary].
I think I would give this story 25 scoops of green powder out of 100 for the final quarter of the book being the best part.
