Monster - Walter Dean Myers

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon is on trial for murder. A Harlem drugstore owner was shot and killed in his store, and the word is that Steve served as the lookout.

Guilty or innocent, Steve becomes a pawn in the hands of "the system," cluttered with cynical authority figures and unscrupulous inmates, who will turn in anyone to shorten their own sentences. For the first time, Steve is forced to think about who he is as he faces prison, where he may spend all the tomorrows of his life.

As a way of coping with the horrific events that entangle him, Steve, an amateur filmmaker, decides to transcribe his trial into a script, just like in the movies. He writes it all down, scene by scene, the story of how his whole life was turned around in an instant. But despite his efforts, reality is blurred and his vision obscured until he can no longer tell who he is or what is the truth. This compelling novel is Walter Dean Myers's writing at its best."

This book has been on my to-read list for quite some time, and now that I've read it, I don't know why I waited so long! Not only was it fantastic, it was also shockingly short, so....super fast read. I listened to the audiobook, and I thought the narrator did an incredible job of portraying Steve's fear, confusion, and uncertainty. It tugged at my heartstrings, especially the way he reacted to being called a monster, wondering what choices he was supposed to have made that had led him to the point where people viewed him as something so terrible. Also, even knowing how ludicrously unfair the justice system can be to people of color, it was mind-blowing to me that the prosecutor was so intent on busting a teenage kid for allegedly "checking the coast was clear" that she was willing to make a deal with one of the people who admitted to being directly involved with the robbery and part of the reason someone ended up dying. Like...what?! Why? He's a teenage kid, for fuck's sake. You'd really rather put him in jail than one of the people who robbed the place and caused an innocent man's death? That made me so mad...which was kind of the point of the book, so good job, Walter Dean Myers. If you're looking for a book that examines racism and prejudice in the justice system, this one is a must-read. And like I said...super short. So there's really no excuse to pass it by.