Little Brother - Cory Doctorow

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
I read the first 111 pages of Little Brother in Starbucks. I was that person who would not leave. Overall I was amazed by Little Brother. The book takes place in a near future San Francisco. 17yr old Marcus Yallow is very tech savvy and playing an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) with three friends. If you have no idea what ARG is don't worry Doctorow does a great job explaining it and everything for US (the non tech savvy, non gamers) While Marcus and his friends are out in search of a ARG clue, there is a terrorist attack a few blocks away. Anyone found in the area was detained and questioned by Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Marcus and his friends are forced to surrender everything. When they are finally let go, San Francisco is no longer their city. In the name of national security, public privacy is a thing of the past. Marcus is too upset to forget and ignore so he decides to fight back. The first thing he does is create Xnet, an underground Internet using Xbox.
Doctorow does for San Francisco what Eric Larson did for Chicago with The Devil in the White City. This is a beautiful and important book. Touching on many issues that are a lot closer then we want them to be. Though Little Brother is a young adult novel, everyone can and should take something away from it.