Are You Who Your Friends Are? (Monster)

Myers, W. (1999) Monster. New York, NY: Harper Collins

Steve Harmon has chosen the wrong friends. This choice of people to associate with has landed him in prison.  He is about to be tried for felony murder.  He is scared.  He is innocent and worried he will have to spend at least the next 25 years in prison.  Prison is a horrible place.  Everyday people fight, they hurt each other, they sexually abuse each other, and Steve can hardly stand it.  He’s not surprised that they take away shoe laces and belts, he’d probably consider using them.

 Steve is a film student and he begins writing out all the court proceedings as a film script.  The prosecutor, Ms. Petrocelli, brings out terrible person after terrible person, associating Steve with these people.  Her key evidence is the testimony of Bobo Evans, who took part in the crime.  Evans states that he and James King, another boy on trial, planned out the drug store hit.  The owner pulled out a gun and King wrestled it from him and wound up shooting the man.  Evans says that apparently Steve was supposed to be a lookout.

The prosecution’s evidence is slim that Steve was at all involved.  Character witnesses make Steve sound like a good guy. In the end, King is convicted and Steve is acquitted.  Steve spends a lot of time after that filming himself.  He films his thoughts, feelings, and ideas.  He knows some people still see him as a monster, and he hopes that through the films he can leave a record of who he really is.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  I like the style in which is written.  It takes the form of a screenplay in some parts, others a journal, and a couple times like the opening credits of a movie.  The parts I don’t like stem from crime scene methodology.  I taught Forensic Science for a few years and I learned quite a bit about crime scene method and supporting evidence and such.  I don’t know if maybe the author was trying to keep the book like a movie, but that’s the only world in which this situation would play.  One example (the scene that ticked me off the most) is when the detective is taking the stand.  He states that they chalked the body to indicate how the victim was positioned.  This is not a real thing! It would contaminate the crime scene!  So if you’re a stickler for realism, I don’t suggest you read this book.  If you like drama and don’t care about how accurate the facts are, then you’re good to go.

I read this book because it is one of my required reads.