Little Brother

Little Brother
author: Cory Doctorow
published by: Tor Teen
released: January 1st 2008
pages: 384
my rating: 5 out of 5 stars













Marcus aka “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, his injured best friend Darryl does not come out. The city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: "M1k3y" will take down the DHS himself.

“There's something really liberating about having some corner of your life that's yours, that no one gets to see except you. It's a little like nudity or taking a dump. Everyone gets naked every once in a while. Everyone has to squat on the toilet. There's nothing shameful, deviant or weird about either of them.” 

This book gets all the stars. To be honest, I didn't even plan on writing a review for this book, because it's already kind of old and I had it standing on my shelf for a while and didn't think it would be that good. But it was.

This book explained perfectly why the whole "if you don't have anything to hide, you have nothing to fear" is nothing but rubbish. It shows, why privacy is so important, especially with the internet around. I felt like this authors took all my opinions about privacy and surveillance and put them in book form.

Marcus and his friends are suspected to be a terrorist for no reason whatsoever by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and even after they are released the DHS is still keeping an eye on them. But Marcus is so infuriated by this incident that he decides to change something about it.
He is an awesome hacker and even though I didn't understand half of the technical explanations, I still want to start hacking now. So he starts a huge movement against the DHS all while being anonymous.
The people in "Little Brother", Marcus included of course, where all really cool. Almost everyone was a computer geek and it was so much fun to read about.

But even though hacking and just computers in general are a huge part of this book, it was't the only part. The parts where he is interrogated kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
And it was hilarious. So many parts of this book made me chuckle or made me really satisfied.
This might be a odd comparison but if you liked the chaos Fred and George caused in the Harry Potter books, I think you might really enjoy "Little Brother". Also this is the kind of book you read until its actually way too late but you keep reading regardless, even if your really tired or know that you need to wake up early tomorrow.

So if I didn't make it really clear already, I loved "Little Brother". I would recommend it to everyone but I guess if you don't enjoy lots of talk about computers and freedom, this might not be your kind of book. If you do, then read it as soon as possible!