Cover Analysis: Little Brother

Cover Explanation
For the cover, I selected images of events and symbols of events that occurred in Little Brother. The colllapsed bridge represents the terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge that spiraled San Francisco into it’s version of a police state. The bug and the phone awaiting passcode are mental punishments that the DHS inflicted on Marcus when they tortured him into giving them his passcode and continued monitoring him. Marcus constantly wrote code, ratifying the laptop, and showed his love for it with statements like “I never thought I’d be paid to write code,”(Doctorow 154). Marcus was held in a secret prison alone in a cell where he was tortured. In San Francisco, to punish the riotting XNetters, the police would rain pepperspray
down upon the revolts. At the end of the book, Carrie Jonstone ordered waterboard torture for Marcus where “‘You get strapped down like this, and we pour water over your head, up your nose and down your mouth,’” (Doctorow 344) to torture him before Barbara burst in and saved his life.
About the Author
Husband and father Cory Doctorow is an award winning novelist, blogger for boingboing.net, and technological activist.
Residing in Canada, Doctorow is an activist for Creative Commons and Copyright laws. Doctorow works for many groups that work for technological freedom. He also is a visiting professor at the Open University where he holds an honorary doctorate in computer science. All of his books get published online under Creative Commons to advocate the re-use and sharing of his works. He has won Locus and Sunburst awards and been nominated for Nebula, British Science Fiction, and Hugo awards. Cory is married to Alice Doctorow and they have a daughter, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor
Doctorow.
Review
Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother is a phenomenal book about technological revolution of ups and downs and twists you will not believe. From page one, you are on the edge of your seat, anxious for the next crazy event. From creating the XNet to heading giant revolts like the VampMob, Marcus instills a sense of revolutionary community in the teenagers on San Francisco. These teenagers declared war on the Department of Homeland Security and lived by the saying “Don’t trust anyone over 25!” (Doctorow 191). While exteriorly, this appears like a revolutionary book, a love story between Ange and Marcus is budding throughout the tale. This book is great for either gender and is very relatable for any teenager in this generation. The will for freedom that these teenagers exude is inspiring for all readers. The emotional connection that a reader will have for the characters is so strong that you feel everything than Marcus and Ange and the rest of their characters feel. This fantastic book is as amazing as “Harajuku Fun Madness, which happens to be the best game ever invented,” (Doctorow 10). I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fantastic suspense novel. 
Summary
Imagine an ordinary day when you realize your home has eliminated the Bill of Rights.
When Marcus ditched school, he did not expect for a terrorist attack to destroy San Francisco as he knew it. After being captured and illegally held in a secret prison by the DHS for nearly a week, Marcus and his friends are released and find that San Francisco is now a police state. Once he realizes one of his friends has not been released, Marcus declares war on the DHS. Marcus detirmined to save his country and the Bill of Rights it was built around. Soon, he accidentally begins a teenage revolution and people are intent on regaining their freedom. From revolution to romance, Marcus has to figure out how to get his friend back from the DHS. When things spiral out of control, Marcus has to control his XNetters while avoiding the DHS discovering him. Will Marcus destroy the DHS and save Darryl or will the Bill of Rights be destroyed
forever?