It's a book about 4chan. In a way, it's a fantastic book, because if you want to read a book about 4chan, this is pretty much the only game in town. In another way, it's a book about 4chan.

The title implies it's about capital-A Anonymous, the semi-political group of scientology protestors/internet freedom fighters that grew out of 4chan and, while the book does cover that, that's only a very small portion of the entire book.

Most of the book is devoted to the formation of 4chan, it's history rooted in other chan boards, the various types of boards, and of course /b/. Lots of chapters are devoted to /b/'s raids like in Second Life and Habbo Hotel, and then eventually it gets to Project Chanology and other protests.

It's quite current - including some pretty recent lulzy material, though I was irritated during the covering of the Jessie Slaughter incident that no mention was made of the fact that Jessie's father died, which is a critical piece of the story.

Ultimately, the book sometimes seems desperate for content, and it's clear that not even the author thinks 4chan is really worthy of an entire book. But for the most part, it's an entertaining read, and as a longtime lurker on /b/, /v/, /tv/, and a few other boards, I found Cole's descriptions to be surprisingly adept.

The book definitely paints as positive a portrait of 4chan as possible, frequently touching on the value of a completely anonymous place to post content. Stryker is, overall, eager to defend 4chan as much as possible, talking up the strengths of the board when appropriate, discussing with an even-handed fairness the more trollish behaviors such as raids, and rightfully calling 4chan out on some of it's shittiest incidents.

This book is like the anti book about Facebook, because it's about the site that is the anti-facebook. If you like internet culture or you know a little about 4chan but are afraid to visit yourself, the book is worth reading.