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Bloodlust
Reckless
A mysterious and powerful protein powder turns Erie High's football team into bulked-up monsters who will stop at nothing to win, no matter how dangerous things get--and no matter who gets hurt.
176 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 17, 2020
The Bloodlust series was not one on my radar back when they were released around 94/95. And there were eight of them! Despite the title Bloodlust, most of them played out as gruesome morality tales. "Gorgeous" involved vain girls stealing a magic face cream and facing terrible consequences. "Irresistible" involved a perfume leading to terrible consequences. "The Ultimate" involved girls being granted wishes...and, well, you get the general idea!
This time it's a magic powder that is given to Marla Swift, who has suffered an ongoing ailment ever since being bitten by a monkey (!) as a child. The herbalist who gives it to her warns her that one man's cure is another man's poison. Indeed, Marla recovers, and this is noticed by her brother Zack and she finally confesses to him how she got better. Zack, all his hopes pinned on a football scholarship, steals some of her powder. Of course, what worked for Marla is not going to work the same way for Zack, who starts gaining superhuman strength and changes from a normal high school student into somebody completely obsessed with winning at all costs.
As a 1994 YA quickie, this was a fast, fun read. It's certainly interesting to read from the perspective of a world that is now calling out toxic masculinity. Zack and his teammates are a real embodiment of that sort of toxicity and it leads to a genuinely unsettling sequence where Definitely one of the more chilling scenes I've encountered in YA 90s horror!
Of course, this is too short to really delve into the many themes it could have explored. A bigger, longer book could have looked at science vs nature in regards to medicine, the aforementioned toxic masculinity, performance enhancement in sports, an obsession with coming first...you name it, it was ripe to be explored in a book of this sort! But it's only 182 pages long, so it has no choice but to skim the surface. The other thing that works against it is that, as a thinly disguised morality play, it's simply not scary (that one scene aside), and the ending is a bit flat, lacking any real climax.
The Bloodlust books are worth tracking down if you can find them for the right price. They were a bit edgier than the usual 90s YA horror fare, with some original plots, but seem to have faded into obscurity.
This time it's a magic powder that is given to Marla Swift, who has suffered an ongoing ailment ever since being bitten by a monkey (!) as a child. The herbalist who gives it to her warns her that one man's cure is another man's poison. Indeed, Marla recovers, and this is noticed by her brother Zack and she finally confesses to him how she got better. Zack, all his hopes pinned on a football scholarship, steals some of her powder. Of course, what worked for Marla is not going to work the same way for Zack, who starts gaining superhuman strength and changes from a normal high school student into somebody completely obsessed with winning at all costs.
As a 1994 YA quickie, this was a fast, fun read. It's certainly interesting to read from the perspective of a world that is now calling out toxic masculinity. Zack and his teammates are a real embodiment of that sort of toxicity and it leads to a genuinely unsettling sequence where Definitely one of the more chilling scenes I've encountered in YA 90s horror!
Of course, this is too short to really delve into the many themes it could have explored. A bigger, longer book could have looked at science vs nature in regards to medicine, the aforementioned toxic masculinity, performance enhancement in sports, an obsession with coming first...you name it, it was ripe to be explored in a book of this sort! But it's only 182 pages long, so it has no choice but to skim the surface. The other thing that works against it is that, as a thinly disguised morality play, it's simply not scary (that one scene aside), and the ending is a bit flat, lacking any real climax.
The Bloodlust books are worth tracking down if you can find them for the right price. They were a bit edgier than the usual 90s YA horror fare, with some original plots, but seem to have faded into obscurity.
March 25, 2025
I want to like these books more than I do. They are like a more grown up racy ya book from the 90’s but the story is just lame and predictable. Some mysterious powder is turning the football players more aggressive. Ohh so scary. Idk it was very lame and the wrap around character like the first book was obvious. I will say the one death was very creepy and really mean spirited. But the rest of the book was just average.
July 15, 2012
This is a reread. Read it a lot as a kid.
First off this is rather similar to the movie The Faculty. As I was reading there were many scenes and set ups that made me think of that movie, except that it's not aliens making the football team act the way they are.
A quick summary, Marla is sick and has been ever since a monkey bit her as a kid. Her brother Zack is on their high school football team. Marla, on her way to another doctors appointment faints in front of an herbal shop. The owner, Mr. Lee, gives her a green powder that he says if taken once a day until gone it will make her better, but he gives her a warning, one man's cure is another man's poison and to not let anyone else take the powder. Within a week Marla is better and everyone notices. Marla eventually tells Zack about the powder and he steals it thinking it will make him a better/stronger/faster football player, however it instead turns him into a soulless monster that will do anything (and I mean anything) to win.
I really enjoyed this book, both as a kid and an adult. There is one or two things though that bothered me, not enough to ruin the book but enough to lower the rating a star.
I really liked that the football players weren't just in a bad mood, they were psycho and had obsessive focus on winning. It drove home that anything could happen to the characters, they could be injured, die, or go insane.
The prologue showed a young boy named Jimmy, looking out the window and wishing he could play outside with the other kids. However because he's sick (long-term kind of sick) his mother won't let him out. Well he decides to play his own game. He took his mom's shotgun and started picking off each of the kids playing outside.
I felt so bad for Frankie when she tries to get back at the football team for leaving an Elk head on her doorstep and
One thing that bugged me was that Zack didn't really seem to care that his sister had been sick, just that now she was better he wanted to know how. It also annoyed me that he stole his sisters miracle cure. If my sibling was sick and suddenly got better with this powder I wouldn't steal it. I'd want to stock pile for them as a just in case measure.
Another thing that bugged me, although not as much as the first thing I mentioned, was that Marla never told Zack that she had to take all of it or else she'd probably get sick again. That would be something that's pretty important to say if you tell them about the powder.
Lastly as with the other book in this series I read we're left on a sad note or creepy note. Even though I like happy endings, I also like these not happy endings it makes it a little more scary.
I really want to read the others in this series, unfortunately they are very hard to find. I've thankfully found the two that I love, this one and Irresistible but the others are giving me grief when it comes to finding them.
I'd definitely recommend this one.
First off this is rather similar to the movie The Faculty. As I was reading there were many scenes and set ups that made me think of that movie, except that it's not aliens making the football team act the way they are.
A quick summary, Marla is sick and has been ever since a monkey bit her as a kid. Her brother Zack is on their high school football team. Marla, on her way to another doctors appointment faints in front of an herbal shop. The owner, Mr. Lee, gives her a green powder that he says if taken once a day until gone it will make her better, but he gives her a warning, one man's cure is another man's poison and to not let anyone else take the powder. Within a week Marla is better and everyone notices. Marla eventually tells Zack about the powder and he steals it thinking it will make him a better/stronger/faster football player, however it instead turns him into a soulless monster that will do anything (and I mean anything) to win.
I really enjoyed this book, both as a kid and an adult. There is one or two things though that bothered me, not enough to ruin the book but enough to lower the rating a star.
I really liked that the football players weren't just in a bad mood, they were psycho and had obsessive focus on winning. It drove home that anything could happen to the characters, they could be injured, die, or go insane.
The prologue showed a young boy named Jimmy, looking out the window and wishing he could play outside with the other kids. However because he's sick (long-term kind of sick) his mother won't let him out. Well he decides to play his own game. He took his mom's shotgun and started picking off each of the kids playing outside.
I felt so bad for Frankie when she tries to get back at the football team for leaving an Elk head on her doorstep and
One thing that bugged me was that Zack didn't really seem to care that his sister had been sick, just that now she was better he wanted to know how. It also annoyed me that he stole his sisters miracle cure. If my sibling was sick and suddenly got better with this powder I wouldn't steal it. I'd want to stock pile for them as a just in case measure.
Another thing that bugged me, although not as much as the first thing I mentioned, was that Marla never told Zack that she had to take all of it or else she'd probably get sick again. That would be something that's pretty important to say if you tell them about the powder.
Lastly as with the other book in this series I read we're left on a sad note or creepy note. Even though I like happy endings, I also like these not happy endings it makes it a little more scary.
I really want to read the others in this series, unfortunately they are very hard to find. I've thankfully found the two that I love, this one and Irresistible but the others are giving me grief when it comes to finding them.
I'd definitely recommend this one.
January 16, 2026
I enjoyed Reckless but not quite as much as the previous entry in the series, Irresistable.
Similar premise: a mysterious product (perfume in the last book, herbal powdered medicine in this one) takes over the teenage population of a town and leads to death and destruction.
Again, a lot more sexual inuendo than most similar titles of the time, and some gruesome deaths (Frankie! No!)
Similar premise: a mysterious product (perfume in the last book, herbal powdered medicine in this one) takes over the teenage population of a town and leads to death and destruction.
Again, a lot more sexual inuendo than most similar titles of the time, and some gruesome deaths (Frankie! No!)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews