Published in 1999, Monster was a revelation in a genre — and an industry — where very few books starred protagonists of color. Cleverly structured and rich in suspense, it tells the story of sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon’s trial for murder.

The text shifts between Steve’s diary entries and his in-progress screenplay — a way to use his passion for film to document the traumas inflicted by a broken legal system. Needless to say, this is a YA novel of tremendous complexity — both in the intricacy of its structure, and in its sensitive handling of topics from racial justice to the carceral state.

The prosecutor paints Steve as a “monster,” a callous criminal unashamed to look the other way when his coconspirators turn to murder in an armed robbery gone wrong. To his film teacher, however, he’s a young man with tremendous artistic potential and a good heart. Not even Steve knows who he really is — not anymore. No matter what the final verdict, can he hold onto his sense of his own humanity?