Monster Themes

Lies and deceit riddle Steve's court case in Monster. From the witnesses, to the detectives, to Steve himself—it's hard to tell who to trust. Some folks lie to save their own skin, while others l...

From Percy Jackson to The Maze Runner, stories of betrayal cause serious blood boiling. Monster stirs the betrayal cauldron, too: Bolden betrays Bobo, Bobo points the finger at Steve, and even...

Twilight. Harry Potter. Hunger Games. Nowadays it seems like fantasy and dystopia are all the rage. Why? They toss people out of the real world for a bit, and let's face it—math homework doesn't...

P.J. O'Rourke once said, "Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern, like bad wallpaper." It seems like O'Rourke must have read Monster, right? Jerry looks up to Ste...

We're not talking haunted-house-at-Halloween scary, or things that go bump in the night. In Monster, Steve's fear ripples through his entire body. Steve's fear manifests in two different ways—phy...

Jail violence? Check. Neighborhood violence? Check. Internal violence? Check. Numbness? Yeah, that too. The thing about violence is that it's like a rubber band around the wrist. The first time you...

Who doesn't like a good detective show? Law and Order, CSI: Wherever, and, for the diehards, good old Murder, She Wrote. The best part about (most) TV shows is that the bad guys end up with their j...

"One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do," crooned Harry Nilsson, and in Monster Steve feels the weight of those lyrics' meaning over and over again. Steve is alone all the time—as he sit...