3.5 Stars ( )

This book is written like a screenplay mixed with a diary, about/by a teenager in jail awaiting trial. He was somehow involved in a robbery that ended with someone being shot. I found the format to be novel but not especially compelling. I honestly could not understand why the kid was on trial at all, given the evidence, but that also is part of the point: guilt and innocence are beside the point in the American justice system. Thought-provoking in places but not something I'd go out of my way to recommend. ( )

[b:Monster|44184|Monster|Walter Dean Myers|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1393739414s/44184.jpg|1386643] is a book every teenager should read. It does a great job of showing how easy it is to get involved with something that will ruin the rest of your life. Even so, I do have a few criticisms of the book. I don't think that the screenplay format worked particularly well. At times it distracted from the main story and the building suspense. The courtroom scenes were way too brief and sometimes lacked sufficient background on the proceedings that teenagers probably wouldn't understand unless they had been in court themselves. Overall, it's a good book with a great message. ( )

M.O.N.S.T.E.R, this book had me at the end of my seat at the end of the story. The story line is very good and is very factual that happens in today’s world. Like Steve in this novel getting in trouble for a crime he never committed.

The book does a good job talking about what goes on throughout America where most police departments will blame someone with colored skin. The author does a great job describing what is going on. The setting for the book seems accurate as it is set in Harlem and Manhattan which is where a lot of crimes that happen in the book go on.

The main character is a African-American named Steve Harmon. Steve is on trial for a murder he didn’t commit during an armed robbery of a gas station. They just because he was in there a little bit before and he happens to be standing outside of the store they think that he was the look out for two men. The two men argued with the store owner and shot him point blank and the assistant of the store owner heard the gun go off and called the cops. He saw the two men run away. In trial the people who were there did not have any good evidence against Steve. He was in there for a short time and did not buy anything. Then he walked out of the store across the street and he was getting blamed for the murder of the gas station owner Mr. Nesbitt. The evidence that was provided through out the trial was very good. The author did a very good job with how the people were talking and how they were exchanging words.

The pathos was very good throughout the entire story. Walter Dean Myers did a very good job making sure that the reader had the emotion of what was going on in the trial and through the story. Because every person had some type of emotional appeal to the story.

If I were asked to recommend this to someone. I do not know if I would or not because of how boring the beginning is. You need to be very patient because the first eighty ish pages were pretty brutal but once you get the trial it gets very interesting and always has you at the end of your seat. But I really do not know anyone who wants to go through eighty pages of a book and think it is the most boring thing of all time. But if you are willing to get through the tough beginning I think you would love this book. I am surprised I made it through the book because of the tough beginning. The story is very easy to read I think just based on there not being many words on each page of the book. I really hope my review on this book can help anyone who is interested or wanting to read this book. ( )

I have wanted to read this book for a long while and I'm glad to have finally gotten to it. A lot of the story is written in screenplay format, since Steve Harmon, the sixteen-year-old main character, is a filmmaker. This didn't bother me since I come from a screenwriting background. However, each chapter begins with a look into the personal thoughts of Steve, like he's writing in his diary. It's a welcome addition because one of the drawbacks of screenwriting is anything that isn't seen or heard is not written. In screenwriting, we don't know what a character is thinking, unless it is intentional through voice over. The "diary entries" allow us to go deeper into Steve's head, to understand what he's going through better. The story unfolds predominently in a courtroom as Steve's fate is decided, with flashbacks peppered throughout. There's only so much depth you can portray in an screenplay. I think the book could have been even stronger had it been written as a straight novel, because being wrongly accused of felony murder at sixteen is compelling narrative. ( )