Monster, published April 21, 1999 by HarperCollins, is a young adult drama novel by American author Walter Dean Myers.

The book uses a mixture of a third-person screenplay and a first-person diary format to tell the story, through the perspective of Steve Harmon, an African American teenager.

Musing on his short time in prison so far, he decides to record this upcoming experience in the form of a movie screenplay.

The trial begins with the opening statements of the prosecutor Sandra Petrocelli, Miss O'Brien, and King's lawyer, Asa Briggs.

After recounting various news reports covering the robbery and murder, Steve documents his arrest and his mother's panicked reaction.

Bobo takes the witness stand to say that James King pulled the trigger and vaguely recalls that Steve, whom he hardly knows, was meant to give an all-clear signal.

Briggs, Miss O'Brien, and Petrocelli finally make their closing statements, before the jury decides on a verdict.

The novel depicts the themes of identity, race, peer pressure, dehumanization, crime, teenaged masculinity, and the relative or subjective nature of the truth.

The book reads like a formal screenplay, written by Steve Harmon, interspersed with seemingly handwritten fragments from his diary.

As another critic wrote, "Monster is an experiment in form and structure," demonstrating Steve's "vent[ing of] his passionate perplexity.

[12] It stars an ensemble cast that includes Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jeffrey Wright, Jennifer Hudson, Nas and A$AP Rocky.