Review: Pump me up
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 21, 2013
Another tale of men in a gym, the modern way for guys to meet. Maddoc has never worked out and is receiving unpleasant attention from a stalker - dead flowers on the doorstep and so on. But by page six he's lifting weights on a gym bench. The other men from this series of linked books are friendly and some are his co-workers. His firm must be really into affirmative action on hiring, given how many of the staff are gay men.Maddoc wants to be able to defend himself. I would recommend a karate class rather than lifting weights, but maybe this was one option of several he considered. He finds a friend in Ivan, a pleasant ex-Marine. Ivan lived by 'don't ask, don't tell' and avoided socialising, until he told, and had to leave the army. Ivan's mom calls him regularly and tries to set him up with all the nice gay men in her neighbourhood. Ivan takes Maddoc through beginners' weight training exercises. After chasing off the stalker temporarily, Ivan also gives Maddoc some self defence lessons; strike the solar plexus, instep, nose or groin of the attacker. Everyone, I believe, should know some self-defence. He wisely adds that as soon as you can escape, you should run off yelling 'call 911!' Over where I live that's 999.The situations described by Andrew Grey could happen to anyone, male or female, and apart from being impossibly good-looking, his characters come across as real people living decent lives. Secondary characters in this short novel include women who get on well with the men, and straight men who think nothing of two men starting a relationship. Grey's writing is easy to read and if I was gay or into weight training I'd probably give PUMP ME UP a five-star rating.