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# Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member

From [Books Read 2016](https://listium.com/@anlyri/4544/books-read-2016)  
By [Anna R. (@anlyri)](https://listium.com/@anlyri)

List stats: 544 views · 2 likes  
Published 29 November 2016 · Updated 27 December 2016

Category: books & literature

- Author: Sanyika Shakur
- Year Published: 2004
- Genre: Memoir
- Date Started: 21 Dec 2016
- Date Finished: 24 Dec 2016
- First Reading: true
- Recommended: Yes
- Plot Summary: After pumping eight blasts from a sawed-off shotgun at a group of rival gang members, twelve-year-old Kody Scott was initiated into the L.A. gang the Crips. He quickly matured into one of the most formidable Crip combat soldiers, earning the name “Monster” for committing acts of brutality and violence that repulsed even his fellow gang members. When the inevitable jail term confined him to a maximum-security cell, a complete political and personal transformation followed: from Monster to Sanyika Shakur, black nationalist, member of the New Afrikan Independence Movement, and crusader against the causes of gangsterism. In a document that has been compared to The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, Shakur makes palpable the despair and decay of America’s inner cities and gives eloquent voice to one aspect of the black ghetto experience today.