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A review by cellardoor10
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
4.0
I could have done without the afterword, but the story itself is pretty solid. Seventeen year old small time hacker/anti-surveillance high schooler gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time when a terrorist attack hits San Francisco. The Department of Homeland Security finds him and friends in the area and decides they are Threats.
And then all hell breaks loose.
I appreciated the protagonist (a white guy with several BIPOC friends) gradually being forced to realize that he was an exception as a white guy, that mostly BIPOC folks were receiving the brunt of these actions. But it took a little while for his tendency toward very white-coded anarchic chaos to see that particular issue in front of him.
Also, I think Doctorow was trying to seem "hip" and like a "realist" when he wrote the narration about parts of San Francisco, but using slurs like tr*nny and being judgemental about homeless folks and sex workers, etc., just makes your protagonist sound like an asshole. It just felt really out of place and a little try hard to me personally.
CW for detailed, first person descriptions of torture, "enhanced interrogations" and terrible imprisonment conditions, many of the victims are minors.
And then all hell breaks loose.
I appreciated the protagonist (a white guy with several BIPOC friends) gradually being forced to realize that he was an exception as a white guy, that mostly BIPOC folks were receiving the brunt of these actions. But it took a little while for his tendency toward very white-coded anarchic chaos to see that particular issue in front of him.
Also, I think Doctorow was trying to seem "hip" and like a "realist" when he wrote the narration about parts of San Francisco, but using slurs like tr*nny and being judgemental about homeless folks and sex workers, etc., just makes your protagonist sound like an asshole. It just felt really out of place and a little try hard to me personally.
CW for detailed, first person descriptions of torture, "enhanced interrogations" and terrible imprisonment conditions, many of the victims are minors.