Kim M. (Eucalia) reviewed on 2/13/2009 + 52 more book reviews

This is half cautionary tale about allowing the government to invade our privacy and half "so you want to be a hacker." Terrorists have blown up the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and the Department of Homeland Security has taken over the city. In the name of security they monitor where everyone swipes their bus pass, their rapid transit pass, their bridge toll card, and their debit or credit card along with monitoring phone calls and internet usage. Most of the adult citizens are ok with this because they feel like it makes them safer, but Marcus, a 17-year-old hacker, has his eyes opened when he's detained and tortured by the DHS after being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Marcus is determined to fight back and regain the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution, no matter how dangerous the situation becomes for him. It's an interesting look at just why we should guard our privacy even when it doesn't seem immediately important. Throughout the story the author explains a lot of details about hacking and cryptography and at the end there's a very complete and well-explained bibliography which I think would be very useful to anybody with even a flicker of interest in getting into that sort of thing. This book is aimed at a young adult audience and it does feel that way in that it's not very deep and it's a very easy read. My biggest complaint is that I feel that a book aimed at young adults shouldn't depict teenagers having sex, no matter how many condoms they use.

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