The New David Espinoza - Freda Aceves

⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

David is a super scrawny Mexican-American in high school, and on the last day of school someone takes a video of him getting bitch-slapped, and it goes viral. So David decides that to prevent from being known as Bitch Slap David for the rest of his life, he needs to devote his summer to getting super ripped. So he joins a gym full of body-builders, and he gets sucked into the world of weight-lifting and steroids.

I think this is the first book I've read that focuses on men's body image issues and muscle dysmorphia. It was really interesting how different it is from women's and my own issues, but also how similar. Suddenly all David can see and think about is his body and how it compares to others. Once he starts steroids and is in that toxic environment, it also changes his personality and he becomes a very different person. It's often hard to like David, and all the gym talk about "gains" was so annoying and obnoxious, but I think that was the point. Overall, it was great getting this own voices look into the issue.