Bringing the DHS, one hack at a time

By Yuri M.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is a fiction, yet chillingly realistic story about the terrorist attack on San Francisco and the dystopian aftermath where the government watches everybody. The protagonist, a teenager named Marcus, and his two friends get arrested by the DHS and interrogated for two days straight before they are let off. Marcus decides that he want to rid San Francisco of the DHS, one hack at a time.

In my opinion the book was fairly realistic in its portrayal of technological items, such as ParanoidLinux, which is used in the book in the same way as in the real world, which is to mask yourself when you are online. Another thing I enjoyed is that it is more down to earth than most books of this category, the author does not try too hard to put in geeky teenage stereotypes, they come more fluidly than most books. The last main thing I liked about the book is that it has a tale of struggle familiar to any teenager, about those moments when you choose what your life is going to be.

The main dislike I had with this book is that the author got rid of some characters too quickly and brought some in unexpectedly too. Just as you were finally over a character disappearing another comes to take their place, but wait, some of those characters make unexpected and random appearances in some parts of the book. Luckily there are only 2 of those faults, but both are only seen once after their unexpected return.

I would recommend this book to any nerd immediately, because there are a lot of familiar terms that they(or you) would know. The second group I would recommend this to are teens, since there are a lot of relatable teenage problems and decisions that you will probably experience.

You can Pick this up at the school or Nashua Library.