Welcome to my amazing, unfiltered, completely original review of Little Brother by Cody Doctorow!!!
This Cricket is not impressed with me.
This book is the most gripping, intense experience that I didn't want to read, and now, was my opinion changed? Will this actually turn out to be a decent book? Will I ever stop talking in the first person? (The answer is no.) Find out next time on... This Blog post right now!!!
In all seriousness however, let's get down to this nitty gritty review of this book, where I will look at the Plot, Characters, Setting, and Theme, to find out who would win a...
Oh wait, never mind, wrong thing, to find out if this is actually worth the time it takes to read it!!!
Just going off the back cover, Little Brother is a "A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion." "A worthy younger sibling to Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four." and "The right book at the right time for the right author.". That's a great deal of praise for this book, but what about the plot? After all there was no "Greatest Plot Ever" quote. This would normally make me nervous, but at least these are all author's quotes. Not that I've heard of any of the people that are being Quoted, but hey, they must've been published by someone.
The plot of Little Brother goes somewhat like this... Marcus is a 17-year old hacker who lives in San Fransisco. However, when out of school with his friends, Darryl, Van, and Jolu, a bomb blows up the Bay Bridge, and as they are trying to get into the bomb shelter, Darryl gets stabbed, the group then goes above ground to try and get him medical attention, and are promptly detained by the Department of Home Security, as the suspected terrorists. They are all taken towards a secret prison, and in the ride there Marcus refuses to unlock his phone for the boss of the people. After days of torture at Schitt's Creek the secret government prison, Marcus gives in, and is released, with a warning to not do anything that the DHS doesn't want him to. Marcus then seeks revenge, as although he, Van, and Jolu, were all released, Darryl wasn't. In order to get revenge against the DHS, Marcus uses his XBOX and makes a program called Xnet, and all of this business grows out of hand, until through this problem Marcus gets a Girlfriend, (in)fame, and a new social group. But does he get revenge??? That is truly the question.
Now my first critique of this is that the Title does not make sense, as nowhere in this book is ANY reference to a "Little Brother". That seems nitpicky, but still, false advertising to the max.
There are none of these.
After that, there is the slight problem that that book made me feel Paranoid as all Hell. I can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing, but hey, maybe that's what Doctorow set out to do, so if it is, good job, now I feel like Andrew!
After those two complaints(one?) the plot is excellent. The slow development of Marcus is represented, metaphorically, by his rebellion against the government, which slowly grows more and more serious, and he becomes more and more focused on his goals.
The slow addition of new central characters, and these characters are added only where they become a vehicle to lead Marcus closer to his ultimate goal.
This is The Vehicle where Marcus is.
All of the events are interesting, and normally are explained in-depth by the author, which is quite helpful for someone who doesn't at all understand how technology works. Like me, this really enhances one's enjoyment of the book, as without these points, it would be like reading the last book in the Inheritance Cycle, without ever reading the other three. You just wouldn't understand how this all works at all.
Lastly the actual Man vs Man storyline is really engaging, as you'll start reading at 9:00 before bed, and be up until 1:00 in the morning just to finish the book. The points that are covered are interesting.
As briefly brushed over in the Plot section, the characters are quite good in Little Brother. Especially the way that they were introduced gradually. In fact a two of the characters are so good that they deserve individual attention, so let's take a look at Marcus, and Ange.
First of is Marcus, our Protagonist. He's a 17 year old hacker who either goes by the online alias of W1n5t0n (early story, pre-story.) and M1k3y (After imprisonment, as leader of the Xnet.). His character has a strong sense of justice, but not, at the moment, , the American justice system. He has strong leadership capabilities, as shown by his unintentional status as the leader of Xnet. His character goes from a stubborn, selfishly fighting character, to one who eventually does the right thing and he stops fighting for just himself. The entire story is told from his perspective, and sometimes you will magically receive his Technomancer Skillz. You end up feeling not just for him, but for his fight, and your view of the world becomes tainted by his opinions, which is the sign of an engaging character.
Ange is Marcus' Girlfriend, who is introduced about mid-novel, and quickly becomes the Dueteragonist. She is Asian, with a horse like mouth. She is an Xnetter and as such completely understands all of the weird things going on with the technology. Her views are largely the same as Marcus', just slightly less extreme. She ends up becoming the second in command, even sometimes taking over the role of M1k3y. She is an engaging character, and when some bad things happen to her, you really feel bad for her.
Also important are several minor characters, despite them being quite one-dimensional, the annoyed one, the cowardly one, the angry at the establishment one, the stereotypical bad guy. However, the development of these two characters makes the novel worthwhile, and you end up really hoping that everything turns out all right for them. In this Doctorow shows one of the great points of his writing strengths. After that comes...
In Little Brother, the setting is just how I personally like it, it leaves enough of it to the imagination to decide, telling you, for instance about how there are these high-tech underwater BART Trains, but not telling you how they work, or just kinda saying it's in San Francisco, and expecting you to fill in the blanks as to how it looks. Now, normally there are two sides that you can take to this. One is that less is more, and that's normally my camp, giving you snapshots of what it all looks like and letting you imagine the rest. Or there's the more is more idea, saying that they should describe everything. However, with a book like this, with such a big plot and characters, you kinda have to stop expecting to much. Roger Zelazny (The Author of Nine Princes in Amber, Creatures of Light and Darkness, etc) once said that there are plot writers, character writers, prose writers... and nobody's great at every thing. Overall the setting is very minamalist, and it really works for this novel.
And now, after the setting comes the Theme Song!!!
Oh, wait, I mean the Theme of the Book. (DANG IT EDITOR)
In this novel, the central theme is Technology, Rebellion, and Coming of Age. In terms of technology, there's mention of things like "Xbox Universal", or "Wifinder" or "ParanoidLinux". And it really does have a lot of security, and spyware all over the place. The Rebellion comes in Marcus' fight against the establishment, or the DHS. How he feels like he's been wronged, and everyone has been wronged. Then he strikes back.The coming of age shows up in how he matures as he fights in many... different ways. The end has him do a lot of things.which you couldn't have perceived him even thinking of doing at the start of the book. These themes are all looked at in interestin and unique ways. Which is yet another strong point of this novel.
Andrew Wiggins' Overall Rating.
In conclusion, this novel was definitely worth the time, as it had an excellent balance, of deep plot, good character development, strong and prominent themes, and a less complicated setting to compensate. It most certainly changed my opinion about non-Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels. I rate it better than ANY OTHER WHITE PINE I'VE EVER READ. It may not be from this year, but this is almost the Pinnacle of The Forest of Reading.
Zomboy is a book by award-winning author Richard Scrimger about a zombie(duh). When Bob has a new odd student named Imre in his class, he thinks that he's hiding something. Bob's suspicions were confirmed when it was made public that Imre had no heart beat, and was a zombie. However, Imre isn't your average flesh eating monster. Imre is strong enough to carry a bus, has limbs that constantly fall off and most importantly, he is not interested in eating you for dinner. Bob's best friend Evil-O (Her real name is Olive but she likes it backwards) likes Imre very much, but Bob has trouble getting over the whole "undead" thing. After Imre saves Bob from a bully and an insane dog in one day, Bob begins to like Imre. Later, Bob discovers that Imre has a sister that's a regular, flesh eating zombie which is followed by her attempting to eat Bob and Evil-O. Imre stops his sister before she manages to eat Bob and Evil-O and then decides to run away with his zombie sister. That's essentially the ending.
Characters:
The characters developed quite well, with the exception of Bob. Bob was an unintelligent germaphobe throughout the entire book, but out of the blue he solves this mystery and connects seemingly random things. This was completely out of his unintelligent characteristic and felt like the author was out of ideas to realistically progress the plot. The other main characters had consistent traits, but they didn't really change or develop. Also, each character had minimal physical features described, to the point that there's a secondary character with no plot importance whatsoever with more description than the main character. Speaking of secondary characters, they seemed like expressionless zombies (see what I did there?), and just seemed to be space fillers.
Overall I give the characters a 2/5 for lack of logical development, description and unnecessary secondary characters.
Voice:
The voice in this novel was Bob's, and it was was conveyed extremely well. Everything he said was awkward, which made the whole book funny. The dialogue of all of the main characters seemed to flow like a real conversation for the most part and was easy to understand. There were a few oddly worded sentences here and there but other than that it was great.
I give this a 5/5 for realistic and humorous dialogue.
Setting:
This book took place in the town of Dresden, Ontario. The main characters go to many places in this town, including Bob's house, Imre's house, and primarily Their school. Out of these settings, only the location of Imre's house was explained with detail. The other settings were barely described at all, which made it harder to know what was going on. The settings themselves weren't confusing, but the poor portrayal of these places were. The setting did not play a particularly large part in the story, so I understand why there was such a lack of description. I like how this setting is a real place, but I dislike the lack of description.
I give this a 2/5 for good settings but poor detail.
Theme:
The theme of this book seemed to be acceptance and racism. The theme is acceptance in the way that people are trying to accept a zombie into society but certain people don't want a zombie near them. The theme is racism for the same reasons. These themes were apparent throughout the story, and were interestingly explored at unique angles throughout the book. The book was consistent with these themes for almost the entire story, and I quite liked it.
Overall I give it 5/5 for uniquely exploring an interesting and deep theme.
Plot:
The plot was creative and appealing. It was interesting to see the relationships between the 3 main characters change, and left you wanting to read more. The only down side of the plot was that it was somewhat uninteresting at times. The book was like this, until the ending. The end took everything great about the rest of the book, and ruined it. It went from an innocent book about a middle schooler fitting in to a gory slaughterfest in a matter of pages. Certain aspects of the book that you think would be explored at the end, like the hint of romance between characters were not even touched and left many loose ends. The ending ruined the entire message that the book delivered. The ending seemed rushed and much too unrealistic compared to the rest of the book. It seemed ridiculous, out of place, and ruined the entire book for me.
Overall I give it 2/5 for good plot that was ruined by the ending.
Final Mark:
I give Zomboy a 3.5/5, or B-. Certain aspects of this book were outstanding, but others were quite bad. My main problem with this book was the plot. I've already gone over this, but I think the ending was absolute garbage. The theme and voice were great, but that doesn't outweigh the mediocre characters, awful setting and bad plot. There's so much potential with this idea of a half-zombie, which makes this book even more disappointing. If the author fixed these unsatisfactory aspects of this book, it could easily be a 9/10, or even 10/10. Overall, this book has its pros and cons, and I wouldn't recommend this book.
That concludes my review on Zomboy. Hope you enjoyed!
Summer Days and Starry Nights is told from the perspective of a twelve year old girl named Maureen, or Reenie Starr. The story takes place in the summer of 1962. She wants nothing more than to be a part of her family's resort, Sandy Shores, but when Gwendolyn Cates is hired as Sandy Shores' dance teacher, Reenie's life is turned upside down and she realizes that there is more to life than fishing and campfires. Throughout the story, her will is tested as her plan for Sandy Shores falls into ruin. Although the book is well written, with an unpredictable plot, I did not like it, simply because I prefer other types of books. From my personal point of view, I would give the book 6/10
stars, but from a different point of view I would give the book 9/10 stars Plot:
The plot of the book was entirely new to me, as I have never read any book with a storyline like that of Summer Days and Starry Nights. The book was creatively written and well thought out, and so the plot was twisted in ways I never would have guessed. I like the fact that the book is written in first person form, because it brings in the factor of emotion that a story written in the form of second person or narration can't capture nearly as well. The plot seems rather simple at the beginning of the book, and that brings the illusion that there will be no great revelations, and that makes them even more so. Reenie changes drastically throughout the book, as a result of the mix of city girl and country girl that resides in her and Gwendolyn's friendship, and so I find that it is Gwendolyn who brings the change to the lives of the Starr family.
Characters:
The characters are well planned, and they all bring a certain element to the book. There are conflicts between the characters, but also the emerging relationships between a city girl used to the high life
and a family that owns a humble beach resort in southern Ontario. The characters develop and
change so much that they seem to be completely different people by the end. The characters react to certain things based on their personality, and their personality changes with them throughout the book, so the reader is able to imagine what a character is thinking at a certain point in time. And although they change, characters also have certain qualities that stay with them throughout the novel, and I like that, because it reminds a reader of what the characters were like at the beginning of the book. To focus on the main character, in the beginning of the book, she is a simple girl who has no interest in meeting new people, and who loves her family's resort, and wants only to grow up and run it. However, near the end of the book, she has fallen for somebody, and discovered qualities that she never knew she had.
Setting:
The book takes place at a small resort owned by the family of the main character. The author did a very good job of describing that place, and making it seem like such a peaceful place where nothing
ever goes wrong. The main character knows the property like the back of her hand, and she has certain places that act as her getaway from the turmoils of the world, and the way the author describes the property, and the love the main character has for it, is phenomonal. The amount of imagination that must have been put into the setting is huge. I personally believe that that is the best described aspect of the book, and again, it is very thoroughly planned.
Themes:
There are several themes in the book that add an extra flare to the book, as the themes intertwine and cause conflict. The first theme was that of love. For reasons I will leave unexplained, Reenie meets a boy named Ray, and she falls for him, and that is one of the factors that comes into play while her character is developing. Another theme is that of false imagination, for lack of a better term. Reenie plans a large event for Sandy Shores, and although it happens perfectly, in her imagination while she plans it, although that is not the case when it actually happens. What I am trying to portray is that
things don't always go as planned, and the failure of the plan is yet another of the factors that allows the characters to develop.
Finally, the book is well written, and shows the meaning within it well. The book is original, and I believe that it could also portray other meanings, less obvious, and that may or may not be intentional, although it helps give the story an added sense of realism. Less and less things are original nowadays, and it surprised me how different a story this is from others. I congratulate the author, Vikki VanSickle for thinking of this idea, and I hope to read more books that surprise me as
this one did.
Recently, I read Outside In by Sarah Ellis. Although the book was nominated for a Red Maple award, I didn't have high hopes for it because the Forest of Reading books don't usually intrigue me. None the less, the book had a great plot and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Summary: The book is about a girl named Lynn who lives with her careless, free spirited, and annoying mother, Shakti. The story really begins when Lynn starts choking at a bus stop. A girl in a kilt does the Heimlich Maneuver on her, but runs off before Lynn gets a chance to know her. Lynn and her friends, Kas and Celia, try to track down the girl, but they aren't successful. Meanwhile, all 3 of them are preparing for the choir competition. Although Lynn was really excited to go, Shakti didn't mail in her passport application form. This resulted in Lynn yelling at Shakti about how she wanted to go to the choir competition to get away from her.
Lynn is disappointed that she's missing the competition, but it may be a good thing. Lynn finally meets the Heimlich Maneuver girl. Her name is Blossom and she is an Underlander.
It took a while for Lynn to fully understand the Underlanders. They live underground and make or trade for the things they need. The Underlanders also use things that the "Citizens" throw out. Blossom, her father Fossick, and her brothers Larch and Tron are a family, but they aren't biologically related. The Underlanders have to stay a secret, otherwise Blossom, Larch, and Tron would be taken away and Fossick would go to jail. Lynn thinks that their lifestyle is amazing, and swears to secrecy.
After a while, Shakti, Kas and Celia are all mad at Lynn. Shakti is mad that Lynn stayed out all night with people she doesn't know, and Kas and Celia think that Lynn has found better friends than them. Lynn ends up telling her mother about the Underlanders, but makes her promise not to tell anyone. Shakti agrees, but she gets irritated and spills the whole story to the news.
Lynn's very upset and worried about the Underlanders. They are no longer at their home underground. Lynn attempts to find them and...
I won't spoil the book, but I must say, I didn't really like the ending. I felt as though there was more to be said.
Characters: The main character was Lynn. I thought Lynn was a realistic, well-rounded girl. The only problem I really had with Lynn was that there was no description of how old she was, or what she looked like. I would guess that she's around 13. The other characters were also well described, and I liked most of them.
Setting: There were many different settings in this book. My favourite setting was the Underlanders' home. There was a thorough description of it, and there were also interesting things described, within such as cardboard chairs and toilets that you have to climb up to. I could easily imagine every setting.
In the end, I thought the book had a great plot and it really made me think. My favourite quote from the book is this:
"You could. You could call Sunday Wednesday. Be awake and living at 3 a.m. Use T-shirts instead of sheets. Eat lettuce like an apple. Blow your nose on socks. Take four unrelated people and make a family."
I loved this quote because it's true (and well written). You could call Sunday Wednesday and blow your nose on socks. It's just uncommon in society.
I loved Outside In and will definitely read more books by Sarah Ellis.
