Monster

Rating:
Summary: Review of "Monster" written by Walter Dean Myers
Review: The novel "Monster" written by Walter Dean Myers deals with a 16 year old black boy named Steve Harmon, who is a defendant in a trial. He is indirectly involved in a murder of a drugstoreowner after a robbery. In the book there are two different kinds of writing types. On the on hand there is a script, the acting during the trial. It is emotionless and without deeper feelings. On the other hand there is a handwritten diary of Steve. In these parts he describes the situation and his feelings in jail. But not only his feelings, also the feelings of his family are presented in a dramatically way. When Steve describes the plot, you can imagine the situation in your mind very good.
In my opinion there is a high standard of reality in the story. The methods of the defendence and the prosecuting attorney are presented detaildly.
The tension all over the book is on a high level, because the reader doesn't know the ending of the trial, the judgement. There is the "big" question all over the story if Steve is guilty or not. After the judgement you can also ask if Steve is guilty. Two of the main characters are the defendents Steve and King. King is the antagourist with his criminality and his appearance in front of the jury. Is Steve the protagourist? There is no direct answer. He wants to show the jury that he is not guilty, but it is not really clear, because in front the stand he lies that he was not in the drugstore at the 22nd of December, the day of the robbery.
On the one hand it is interesting that the reader gets to know a lot of different characters on the witness stand, but sometimes it can be a little bit boring when the prosecutor Ms. Petrocelli asks many questions to a witness.
The level of speech is not very high, which means you can read the book easily. Funny is the colloquial language, for example "sit on john pants down".
At the end of the novel there is a epilogue. I think the epilogue is necessary to know what happened after the trial. It is interesting to look into the future, how Steve's life is changed after the hard time in jail.
When you want to know something about the situation in a jail in New York or the situation in a trial in the USA this book is a nice document of this things and it will be reward to read the novel "Monster".

Rating:
Summary: Search for Identity
Review: Written as a screen play, Monster is a unique look at a youth's loss of innocence and the justice system all in one. Steve Harmon, the protagonist, is on trial for his part in the murder of a convenient store owner. Although he is involved in the case, the reader is not sure to what extent he was a part of the crime, as there are other suspects.

The other main suspect on trial is James King. Unlike Steve, King is lacking youth and innocence. Steve's active interest in filmography gives him the idea to tell this story as though it is a movie. As he goes through the court proceedings, we learn bits and pieces of the case as told through Steve's perspective. There are a series of flashbacks in which scenes from the events leading up to the crime are shown.

We get to hear the entire trial as it progresses, the opening statements, the evidence, the witnesses for both sides, and the closing arguments. Steve's search for identity while incarcerated is the constant theme of the book, and Myers does an excellent job taking us through a series of character point-of-views and scenes that are pivotal to the case through Steve's eyes.

Perhaps Steve Harmon's journey is such a difficult one because we get the sense that his lawyer has some doubt about his innocence. The significance of the title, Monster, is apparent in how people sometimes prejudge a person without knowing what they are really about. This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to read about the delimmas of court proceedings, and a minor's search for himself. This is a great book, especially for young adults.

Rating:
Summary: My Review of the novel MONSTER
Review: The Novel Monster was a different form of writing. It was new to me and it had a very good plot to make it believable. The story does start too soon but it was written that way to add some suspense. There was enough information to know what was happening. The main character, Steve Harmon, sort of resolved his conflict and could live with the outcome of it.

The story did maintain my attention but sometimes got boring and confusing. The story moves too fast in the beginning but eventually is in the "right" pace. The pacing does match the genre of the story and it kept you guessing if the main character was guilty or not.

The story didn't really transport me to the time and place where it was happening but it did give me an image of what was happening. Since the book was written in a screenplay, it described the setting and it gave you an image of how it was like. The characters, their actions, and the time frame agreed with each other since it was in a courtroom. The order of events in this book were different because of the way it was written.

The characters seem very real because it is personalized like people who would be in a courtroom. The characters' actions are consistent throughout the story, the protagonist changes at the end of the story. The language does match the time frame of the story; there isn't too much profanity or heavy accents. The dialogue matches the conflicts in the novel.

This book is a good piece of work and I enjoyed reading it.

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Summary: Young Adult Literature Review
Review: To start off the novel overall was great. The way that Monster is written gives the reader a little challenge. The novel goes back and forth from what seems like a young boys diary to a screen play that is being told throughout the novel. The characters are like normal everyday people, which gives the book its reality factor. There isn't anything to far fetched that would make the novel appear to be unreal or unrealistic which pulls the reader in, because the story inside the book could acually seem like something that had happened. The author writes with good voice, and isn't unapealing. I feel that the novel Monster apeals to the young adult readers, but would also be a great book for adults to read because it is so realistic. I would reccomend this novel to others!

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Summary: The best book I ever read!
Review: Reviewer: Dartanon McGee from Harbor City CA
May 3, 2004

I started reading this book for my pleasure reading and I just couldn't put it down. It is about a sixteen year old African American boy who is on trial for his life. He is in jail and can't bare the thought. It will probably be most appealing to high school students. I really like this book most for its originality and real life experience. Steve Harmon, the main character, is a lot like every teenager. He is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Written like a movie script, as you read it feels like are right there with him from the courtroom to his jail cell.

Rating:
Summary: Monster
Review: In the book "monster" by the author Walter Dean Myers, Steve Harmon , 16 years old, tells about his time in jail. He participated in a robbery. In this time in the jail, he writes a diary. He discribes his experiences and fears. Miss O`Brien defends him in his difficult time. However, she constructs no connection with Steve. For her it is her Job and nothing more. The jury is not sure that Steve is guilty or not. The whole court atmosphäre is represented in a sort of dialogue in the book. Therefore I do not find the book very interesting. It is boring.

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Summary: Atef's book review
Review: The Author of this book is Walter Dean Myers. To begin the book is very difficult to read, but then it goes well. The main character in the book Monster is Steve Harmon. He goes on trial because he shall taken part in a robbery with a murder. Steve Harmon is despairing because he thinks he does nothing. The book is written as a script. The story and Steve's diary are very interessting, but the "Fade in","cut to" and so on sometimes are confused. I think Walter Dean Myers book is perfect. I would recommend the book to everybody who is interessted in pleadings and the people who are in the background of the trial.

Rating:
Summary: Monster - dA book
Review: The book Monster is not a book like others.
Its written like a film script in a view of a young Man.
His name is Steve Harmon and he is the main character of the book.
He is in a difficult situation, because he is in prison for felony murder.
But nobody knows if its true, that he killed an old man in a drugstore and stole some things.
There are other characters likle King and Bobo Evans, who are perhaps the murderer too.
Many of you will ask1, why the book is called Monster.
During the time in case, Steve is searching his own identity because many people are not believing in him, like the prosecutor.
She called Steve a Monster because she is sure that Steve is guilty.
The reason are that he is black, young and comes form the ghetto so he looks like a typical ghetto man.
In my opinion , this book is only for persons who really enjoy reading.
Children or teenager would have no fun reading this book, because there are a lot of difficult words and some parts are very boring !

Rating:
Summary: Monster - Da b00k
Review: This book is about a black boy who lives in Harlem.
His is 16 years old and he is on trial for felony murder.
They call him Steve Harmon.
A big part of the book takes place in a courtroom.
This book is written like a sceneplay in a movie .
The author of the story is Walter Dean Myers.
He has nohing to do with Mike Myers
from Haloween.
'Myers has a lot of informations about the plot cause he was born and he lives in this area.
In my opinion this book is a good choise if you want to know more about the ghetto, americans justice and filmmaking.
At the beginning it is a little but difficult to read but later it is easy to read.
if you began to read the book you want to read it til the end because you wanna know what will happen.
If Steve will be in jail for 25 years or the jury say he is not guilty.
After every day at court Steve show us his feelings so he can see what he think.
In this book we also can see how the life in the ghetto is and how the gangster and the wannabe ganters act.
In conclusion I wanna say - buy it !

da end

Rating:
Summary: What is a Monster
Review: My review of this book is first of all a five star reading book. The book "Monster" is just one of those books which immediatly catches your attention for the first page. There are two ways on reading this book. You can normally read this book, or you can put yourself in the position of the main character, Steve Harmon. Apparently, I puy myself in the main characer's polition. Which is the best way of understanding this book. In my opinion, the author's purpose of this book is to show how mixed up you can get by just hanging out with the wrong crowd, just by being around an event that really has no involvement of yourself, and first impression always counts. The way this book was written is not normal. This book was written as a journal and a script for a monvie. The main character, Steve Harmon, is some-what involved in a drugstore robbery, and is accused of helping the death of Alguinaldo Nesbitt. In this story, Steve Harmon writes the dialoge of the people in court of what they ask and respond. That is the form of a script that Steve Harmon writes it as. As well as he writes in the form of a journal of what he, himself, is going through. Such as during court, his conversations with his lawyer, father, and mother, and his expirence in jail. Therefore that is my review for the book "Monster".