A Breech In National Security

I have decided to stretch my crime spree. By this time, through the books I’ve blogged about, we’ve racked up criminal charges on grand theft auto, underage driving and wreckless driving, manslaughter and theft from gangbanging. We’ve been sent to Juvie and bailed out and sent to NY. Then we became pickpockets in NY and escaped that as well. But we are about to go into the most horrifying crime of them all: terrorism. In Cory Doctorow’s suspense thriller, Little Brother, some ordinary kids are suspected for terrorists.

Marcus Yallow, in real life, is a normal high school senior who skips class and gets in trouble. Better known in his online life as W1n5t0n, which means Winston for those unaware of number-letters, Marcus runs some underground stuff that causes controversy. He doesn’t like authority, especially the school’s principal who loves to try framing things on Marcus; he always gets away though. Mr. Benson hates Marcus because of that, and his teachers are not much different.

What I haven’t said about Marcus is that he’s a brilliant hacker. He knows his way through a computer and he figures out a way past any system or block. He has a team, too. First on his team is the seriously smart, Darryl, who has a serious crush on the third member, a Korean girl named Van. Van is extremely laid back and always teases Darryl, knowing he likes her, and knows how to fight thanks to her all girls’ school. The last member is Jose-Luis Torrez, aka Jolu, he goes to a really strict catholic school, but he still knows how to skip.

In the opening chapters, Marcus and his friends skip periods in school to go play their favorite online game that has a sort of treasure hunt in various parts of the city. They start to go, but something happens. San Francisco, where they live, has just been attacked by terrorist, close to where Marcus is. Afterwards, Marcus and his team an=re lead to some strange place where the DHS (department of Homeland Security) are interrogating them. They are accused of terrorism and tortured by the DHS people for information.

Marcus is determined to find his friends and fight back once he is released. He finds new people to help him and he quickly gains popularity in the online world. The end of this book, and how far Marcus goes to get the truth out, blew my mind. Cory Doctorow has written a fascinating thriller that puts an interesting spin on hacking and how far the nation will go for security. This is an outstanding book, and I can’t say enough great things about it.

RED’S ALL STAR REVIEW:  4 ½ out of 5 stars, absolutely. With rave reviews from authors like Scott Westerfeild, Steven Gould and Neil Gaiman, and being on the New York Times best seller list, and winning so many awards, this book is impossible to pass up.

MASS APPEAL: Everyone can and MUST read this book! It is too good to skip out on.

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