Hiya, everyone! Noreen here with a book review on “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow.
I honestly only picked this book up because it was suggested as a similar book to “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline; if you want to read my review of that book click here to check it out, and I did find the similarities in this book to “Ready Player One”, but this book can stand on its own. It’s not some rip off, it’s an actually fantastic read. The story, though not as quirky and full of 80’s knowledge as “Ready Player One” was, has something just as interesting. It actually has you feeling emotion. Fear, sadness, and anger played a prominent role in both the characters in this book and me as I read. This may have been the most emotional read I’ve had in a while, and I absolutely love it.
I found myself getting very attached to two of the main characters, Marcus and Jolu. Both are very good with computers and have some amazing moments. This book tackles a lot of topics most forms of media don’t like to touch on a lot. Race, terrorist attacks, and the such. It’s extremely refreshing to read how these two react to the things happening around them. Jolu may be my favorite of them all, because at one point in the book he does something not many characters do. He quits the mission. He knows that if he gets caught he’ll be in much more trouble than Marcus. Jolu understands the consequences and acts appropriately. He doesn’t go hop on a soap box preaching about how no matter how hard this task may seem that he can the rest of the people can do it. No, he thinks like a normal person, not some action movie hero and I love it. He may not be the main protagonist, that’s Marcus, but he definitely takes center stage in my heart. Marcus is very good as well, just more similar to your average hero archetype. That doesn’t make him bad, however, because Doctorow writes it well, very well. Marcus will think about how he’s put a lot of people in danger for his lack of thinking things through. He eventually notices that he can’t do it alone. Ah, I could go on and on about the amazing characters in this book, but I think you get the point.
Doctorow writing about such sensitive topics is very difficult to pull of well. You’re bound to offend someone and some point with including things like the mention of 9/11 and how the cops will just assume you’re in the wrong because you are anything other than white. Saying those things, never mind putting them in a book where it will be forever known is risky and very, very impressive. He didn’t write what people wanted to hear, he wrote the truth. He wrote what people would say in the situation and he did didn’t dance around anything. Everything about this book is a whole amazing take on life and what it is. It has some good points as well, like how Marus says that terrorist live to inflict terror on to us. Its definitely something to think about. I can’t say I agree 100%, but what I do like is the fact an risky opinion was stated and gave me something to think on. Marcus says that to really get the better of them we should not be afraid and hide behind overly extreme security measures. I don’t agree with no security measures thing, but in the book it’s way too much over kill so it makes a little more sense.
Overall, I want every single one of you to read it. I do not care what you are doing, go out, get this book, and enjoy the living hell out of it. It has gladly become my second favorite book and I’m sure it’ll be up there you too. Doctorow had a good plot and wrote it well. Many books are considered to be awful by me because the author is no better than a stack of wood. I don’t care how good the plot is, if you write it wrong it will never live up to its full potential. “Little Brother” however lives up and more. When I first picked this up it was because it was similar to my favorite book, now I’m going to be on the hunt for books similar to this book. The cycle never ends. So definitely check this book out as soon as possible. I promise you won’t regret it.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s book review. If you’ve read the book or you just have something to say, comment it down below (just be sure to mark your spoilers). Thanks for reading!
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