Little Brother

Little Brother is a novel for young adults which is set a few years in the future. A serious terrorist act shakes San Francisco and a group of teenagers get caught up in the aftermath.

The central themes are civil rights, privacy and freedom and a lot of interesting ground is covered in the book. However, as with other Cory Doctorow novels I've read, he has a point to make and uses the story as the vehicle for his opinions. Sometimes that makes the story seem incidental to the proselytising that is going on. The story is probably (hopefully?!) far fetched in parts but the ending seemed at odds to the rest of the book and too tidy and well resolved.

There is quite a lot of technological content and most is well explained but I am already familiar with most of the tech he includes so I'm not sure how the less geeky reader would feel about it.

I'm over the age of the target audience and I can imagine that the young adult readers that this book is intended for would get a lot out of discussing the themes with other young adult readers. Regardless of your age; if you have never considered how surveillance features in your daily life then this book could open your eyes.

Simply put, this is an amazing read. Informative and entertaining at the same time and stretches the boundaries of young adult fiction. I will most definitely be recommending this to most readers I know.