Monster

Walter Dean Myers' YA novel Monster is a great story about a young man on trial for being an accomplice to a robbery that resulted in the death of a store clerk. What is most interesting is that the narrator writes the story as a screenplay in script form. I haven't had a lot of experience reading scripts so I was unsure about the style at first but it ended up being a very vivid way to experience the story.

The style made the story read easily and quickly. It was, of course, heavy on the dialogue which made the story really intense (like a movie). The stage and camera directions also made the images come alive. It helped me, as the reader, to really visualize the story. I could see the jail cell and hear the prisoners crying at night, and I could sense the tension and suspense in the court room.

It would be interesting to see this adapted for the screen, not much work would have to be done. But, the courtroom drama has been overdone and the title Monster has been taken by that crazy movie that destroyed my idea of Charlize Theron.

The ending, like a movie, was happy which added to the effect of the script but the part that was really interesting was the reaction of the lawyer O'brien at the end of the trial. Steve moves to hug her and she grabs her stuff and leaves. Throughout the story it us unclear what she thinks about Steve. She never says that she believes him and this action at the end makes me think that she might be upset about the outcome. Or, perhaps she just tries to keep an emotional distance from her cases and therefore doesn't want to hug her client. I often wonder how defense lawyers deal with these kind of cases. Do they know when their clients are guilty and defend them anyway? It's certainly a moral issue that I wouldn't want to deal with.

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading this book.