"Monster" by Walter Dean Myers(Manny Lorenzo)

In the novel Monster, Walter Dean Myers creates an intense story of a 16 year old male named Steve Harmon on trial for murder. Throughout the realistic fiction, Steve Harmon writes in a journal of his experience as a prisoner. This is his movie that he has created of what he has seen, heard, and felt emotionally in prison. In the journal he talks about how jail was something that he wanted to escape but knew if he was found guilty everything would change. As you go deeper and deeper into the book, you discover what happened in the drugstore the day Mr. Nesbitt was killed. Steve knows he had nothing to do with the murder but the prosecution will do everything in their power to make Steve look like a MONSTER! In the book you'll find a few other characters also accused of being involved in the murder of Mr. Nesbitt. These characters are also worried for their verdicts but never as worried as Steve. This is because Steve knows that he will lose what he has left of his childhood and will potentially never get out. Steve is scared and his family is scared too. During the time of the case there are multiple situations in which Steve cries and no one is really completely there for him. You can imagine what this must've been like for a teen going through something of this magnitude. On top of that there are many times during the case where Steve has felt that the case was heading in the wrong direction for him. Toward the end of the book you begin to realize that the case can go in any direction and not the way Steve wants things to turn out. More and more things will be discovered and the only thing Steve can do is sit  and hope for the best. Steve's life is on the line. Will the defense's reason to protect Steve be strong enough or will the prosecution throw away the rest of his life and lock him up?

I rate this book 4.5/5.