Rating: 
Summary: I could not put down this book!!
Review: This book truly represented the experiences of what many people want to be blind to. It was absolutely powerful and I felt so intouch with the author. I feel that more youths, such as myself, should read this book, so they will truly understand the gang culture.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a real dipiction of ganglife in Los Angeles.
Review: Monster accurately and vividly describes life in the Crip gang in Los Angeles, California. Not only does it show the violence that gang members inflict upon each other, it explicitly describes what goes through the gang member's mind on a daily basis: what makes him tick, so to speak.
Monster is vivid, real and a book that is difficult to put down. You want to keep reading until you finish! As a gang counselor, I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: Truth.
Review: The realism portrayed in these pages is amazing. Shakur bravely feels no need to coat his daily verbage with flowery print ready euphimisms, rather he choses to let the dialouge flow from him, reflecting the surprising logical and intelligent thoughts of askilled combat leader. He feels no need to either play down, nor exaggerate his vicious deeds, rather he simply states the events as they happen and allows the readers to draw their own horrified conclusions. Shakur also draws striking parallels between nationally sanctioned military forces, and the gangs of Los Angeles. In this light, our current war on gangs and problem solving efforts seem futile. It is only from the inside, and with the help of brave soilders for humanity like Shakur, that the battle will end.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting portrayal of life as a gang member
Review: I found this book captivating with its portrayal of the violent life of an LA gang member. The author does an excellent job of illustrating the hardships youth must face when growing up in this corrupt environment. The main problem I had with this book was the fact that the author never seems to comprehend how his violent actions deeply affect the people he associates with and also society as a whole. For example during one of his many stays in prison he wonders why the guards treat him with such fear and resentment. Could it possibly be because he has shot and killed so many people. I was glad to read that his life of gang banging has finally come to an end, but I also feel that he should be punished for the numerous criminal activities he has been involved in. It is hard to applaud an author who has lead such a destructive and misguided life.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent potrayal of one persons life in a "Gang World"
Review: Monster was an excellent book about the harsh life in a gang world. The book tells of gang life in a superb way that makes you feel like L.A. was a different planet. Monster is exciting as well as gruesome at times but it draws you in so you CAN'T put it down! I suggest that you read this book because it is a GREAT book as well as educational.
Rating:
Summary: Gangsterism, read and learn!
Review: Shakur gives us an inside look at the gang life, juvenile lock downs, Calif. prisons and that of a new-born revolutionary. Understand better how young men and women get involved in gangs and what they must endure on a daily basis. Several times I had to put the book down and gather the strength to continue to read. It was difficult to learn of the death and degree of destruction our children cause each other, as they struggle to live. This is not the story told by the media. Indeed these children weren't even considered, they were invisible. And for this reason alone, this book should be required reading for people who can make a difference - all of us! Read it, pass it on to a friend and decide how you're going to affect the life of a child. Gangsterism isn't relagated to a place, it's a state of mind
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful, Absorbing Narrative
Review: Monster: The Autobiography Of An LA Gang Member is a hard hitting narrative that will engage readers of all ethnicities and social classes. This is a riveting account from one who's "been there", but hasn't quite learned his lesson. Whether you love this book or hate it, Monster will stay with you long after you turn the last page. Shakur's book breaks ground in answering the question: why do young people join gangs? During the early part of Shakur's acct. we see that he's a confused kid looking for guidance from someone older and wiser, someone who is an antidote to the sense of powerlessness with which he faces each day. Being in a gang gives Shakur a set of beliefs and values, no matter how skewed his moral universe becomes as a result. I commend Shakur's mostly neutral tone. For his purposes and the book's subject matter, it's extremely effective. This is a book which could so easily devolve into histrionics and melodrama in less adept hands. At times, however, I found Shakur's neutrality disconcerting. At many points in the narrative when we most want him to show more of himself, he pulls back and hides behind his cloak of reserve. The reader has to infer much from what Shakur DOESN'T say. For example, Shakur's nonchalant description of his violent behavior does not necessarily translate into nonchalance about the violence itself. If we read between the lines of Shakur's account, we quickly see that he's more than a little repulsed by it. What made Shakur's narrative particularly engaging for me is that I kept waiting for him to crack a smile, make a joke, insert some levity and ease my discomfort, but he never does. What he's describing is deadly serious-literally--and Shakur refuses to sugarcoat his story and make it more palatable for us, his audience. His refusal to soften the glare which he uses to expose the truth of gang life make it impossible for us to turn our heads away from the ugliness. He forces us to look at the truth in the same unblinking way that he does, and his use of this technique packs one wallop of a punch. My real issue with this book is that while Shakur goes a long way towards educating himself and rehabilitating himself, in one crucial way he doesn't go far enough. It's clear to us, the readers, that Shakur's dependence on a belief system that was provided by someone else got him in trouble, but Shakur doesn't make that connection himself. Unfortunately Shakur buys wholesale into another dubious and harmful mythology: that of Muhammad Abdullah, a black separtist who exhibits near-militant zeal in his conviction and encourages Shakur to substitute one "us -vs- them" mindset for another, ultimately dooming him to repeat the same mistakes that got him into so much trouble in the first place. Perhaps if Shakur hadn't so willingly accepted Abdullah's doctrine of militant black self-sufficiency, laws and conventions be damned, then he wouldn't have ended up back in prison over taking a matter that CLEARLY should have been handled by the LAPD into his own hands. When Shakur's post-rehabilitation actions lead to his conviction for assault and grand theft auto, his credibility is undermined and the depth of his transformation seems a bit shallow. He's making the same dumb mistakes, only this time it's for a different cause. It would have been preferable to see Shakur shaken out of his complacency by Abdullah, doing his own thinking instead of readily accepting Abdullah's, and finding his own answers. Abdullah's inflammatory rhetoric just fed Shakur's already considerable anger and sense of victimization. Shakur establishes in the first paragraph of the Preface that he's far too smart to become ANYONE'S fool. The ending of Monster left me wondering how Shakur could have possibly become Abdullah's.
Rating:
Summary: the stars are not for kody but for his effort
Review: Hi, i would rather not say my name, gang banging has been an epidemic in the 20th century, all thought many cities have "copy catted" the Los Angeles style gangs, Monster shares his writing to the world, the man is in caged forerever, he might as well share his thoughts, Many of the young readers may find him a special, or "star", but many do not realize the damage kody has done to himself and his own life. People who read this can't tell themselves and other people, they know now about the lifestyle, because to live it is another story, i have no sympathy for kody, because he may be another black man, and repented, the people he murdered, and the list is endless, you may think to yourself, what if kody had killed my brother? what is it was your relatives, you see he was an angry child burning for accpetance, very few children have the mind of this man, an urge to do anything to become proud and respected in a negative way. This Book I strongly do NOT RECCOMEND TO ANYONE UNDER 17. It is for mature readers who have some Knowledge already of the street, not just a reading leisure, this book should be taken seriously and not as an Adventure for the reader. Thank you all for reading my review.
Rating:
Summary: Real and unflinching
Review: I read this book a number of years ago and found it to be a very easy read that took me into a lifestyle I would never have had the opportunity to behold on my own. The reviews here will give you great synopsis' of the story.
My comment is that while reading the book, Kody talks about being in jail with another gang member and that gang member is discussing his case. That case he was discussing was a quadruple murder of dear family friends of mine. I was shocked and unprepared to stumble upon this part of the story. I cannot tell you how chilling it is to hear the story retold from the gang perspective and see how desensitized these young men become cruel criminal behavior.
The book made me want to go out and do something positive to make a difference -- to help a young person see that there is a better way than the "family" that gang provides.
Rating:
Summary: Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member
Review: The book is a memoir of the life of Kody Scott. He tells us all about his life growing up in South Central. The life of Kody Scott was filled with violence, drugs, alcohol, and prison. Kody Scott, or better known as Monster, is a member of the notorious gang the Crips. He was initiated when he was the young age of eleven and grew up dedicated to his set, the Eight Trays, the rest of his life. He has shot, killed, been shot at, and wounded, many times as that is what his daily life consists of. His dedication to the set is what separates him from others. He strives to get to the final level of O.G., or Original Gangster. His time in jail is nothing but a time to be with others like him from different sets. What they all have in common is simple, hatred of the gang the Bloods and to have power and respect. His life dramatically changes when he is confined in a maximum-security cell and channeled his aggression and drive into educating himself. He completely changes from Monster to Sanyika Shakur, Black Nationalist, member of the New Afrikan Independence movement, and crusader against the causes of gangsterism.
A life of a gangster is something most of us only watch on television, read in the newspaper, or read about in magazines. It is something that is completely foreign to us and will stay like that for the rest of our lives. The things we see in the eyes of the media are completely different from the eyes of an O.G. of the Crips. I would recommend this book to anyone that would be interested in learning about a life of someone completely opposite of us. I think Sanyika Shakur gives us a first hand look on his life and what it consists of. We could not begin to phantom the kind of violence one can go through everyday of his life. Not only do we see what kind of attitude he gives to others to show power, but he also explains what his thoughts are, when he was afraid, if he was scared to die that night, and also about a gangsters' love life. I think most people would enjoy this book and I would highly recommend it to others.
|
