MONSTER review

Virginia Caldwell
Book Review Genre 6
TWU assignment
LS 5603 – 20


MONSTER

Bibliographic Data:
Myers, Walter Dean. 1999. MONSTER. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0060280778


Plot Summary:
MONSTER tells the story of Stephen, a sixteen year old boy from Harlem who is on trial for murder.


Analysis:
Told from the point of view of the protagonist, Stephen Harmon, MONSTER is a story that deals with the issues of man against himself and man against society. It is a story about the state of the human condition as well as growing up.

Myers created MONSTER to read like a movie script that Stephen creates as he attends his trail for the murder of a man that happened during the course of a robbery. At his high school, Stephen developed an interest in filmmaking, and he chooses to tell his story as if it were a film. Instead of a regular novel, MONSTER reads more like a play, although with personal diary entries from Stephen. In additional, the novel creatively uses fonts, print size, graffiti-like print and a few photographs to convey the information to readers.

The diary entries are key to telling how Stephen is feeling, especially when is in his prison cell. The diary is in a handwritten form. The following except is a look into his realization that his future is in peril.

I am so scared. My heart is beating like crazy and I am having trouble
breathing. The trouble I’m in keeps looking bigger and bigger. I am
overwhelmed by it. It is crushing me. (201-202)

MONSTER leaves a lot of room for the reader to think and ponder whether not Stephen is guilty at all, and whether or not his being an accessory by acting as a lookout is equal to his charge of murder. MONSTER also addresses the possibly inequity of who the authorities choose to charge for a crime and the fairness of the entire court and prison system. Stephen never reveals if he did act as a lookout, but he does begin to critically look at guilt and innocence as well as life’s meaning and purpose in general. The novel also touches on the issues of race and class problems within America.

One very thoughtful observation is Stephen’s realization that:

“They didn’t allow kids in the visiting area, which was funny because if I
wasn’t locked up, I wouldn’t be allowed to come into the visiting room.”
(156)

By the end of the novel, the reader does know that Stephen is very changed by the experience. He has decided to become a better person. During the short action of the book, readers will get to see Stephen forced into adulthood in a very short time period, due to the events of the story and the subsequent trial. Many loose ends are tied, but one is left very open: Stephen has seen that other people see something that is perhaps evil in him, and is very concerned about this; the novel ends with Stephen trying to figure out if there is something to this – is he a monster?


Review Excerpts:
School Library Journal, 07/01/1999
“Myers expertly presents the many facets of his protagonist's character and readers will find themselves feeling both sympathy and repugnance for him.” --Edward Sullivan, New York Public Library Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

BookList, 05/01/1999
“Myers combines an innovative format, complex moral issues, and an intriguingly sympathetic but flawed protagonist in this cautionary tale of a 16-year-old on trial for felony murder.” ((Reviewed May 1, 1999)) -- Debbie Carton. Booklist, published by the American Library Association.

The above reviews are from Book Index with Reviews. 2007 EBSCO Publishing, Powered by The Title Source TM (Accessed through http://online.twu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_142_1 on November 21, 2007).


Connections: Other books with similar themes
TEARS OF A TIGER by Sharon M. Draper, CRANK by Ellen Hopkins, BURNED by Ellen Hopkins, and MONSTER: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN L.A. GANG MEMBER by Sanyika Shukur.