4/5 stars

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

This was another road trip audio book–and as it turns out it was a pretty lucky library find!

I’d never heard of the book, but the author, Cory Doctorow, recieved a positive shout-out in my favorite book of 2011–Ready Player One. So I picked it up, and I’m glad I did.

It’s a bit left wing fanatical for my moderatly conservative tastes, but I really enjoyed the story. Can you imagine what would happen if the Department of Homeland Security went completely overboard in their response to a terrorist attack? If you need some help getting there, Little Brother will help you.

Terrorists have blown up the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, and in an effort to catch the terrorists and prevent additional attacks the DHS goes a little (a lot) nuts. Rights are violated, innocent people are accused, and the constitution gets trampled on. Luckily for America, there is a group of smart teenagers who figure out how to thwart Homeland Securities efforts. They do what they can to impede the government’s plans to rip away every last bit of our human rights. The kids do it with brains and lots of nerdy techno-smarts, and it makes for a really fun story.

Are the teenagers heroes–or terrorists themselves?

There’s a small bit of language and some non-descriptive teenage sex I wish I would have known about, but other than that I enjoyed Little Brother and I’ll recommend it to you!