Rating: 4 out of 5

Written in 2006 it has dated well and isn’t (to my mind) laughably out-of-date technically which is always a risk with such things. It plays on the theme of privacy vs security and terrorism vs freedom fighting. A good read with relatively engaging characters who have the emotional and political naivety you’d expect from 17 year olds. This is my first Cory Doctorow novel and I deliberately chose this one for two reasons - firstly it was a recommendation from a friend (always a great reason to read something) and secondly because I was a bit intimidated about how clever I’d need to be to follow the adult focussed ones. I’m less intimidated now and will add one to my reading list.

The chapters all start with bookshop reviews. I liked the reviews but found they got in the way of my reading experience and interrupted the flow - and I’m not very good at skipping bits in books so I had to read them.

Originally posted to my Goodreads account