SOLVED. YA book, main character gets caught up in a big emergency (maybe a terrorist attack) gets falsely accused, is tortured by the U.S. government, is eventually let free. [s]

[Anonymous]

I read this book a few years ago, maybe 2016? I got it from the new hampshire online book website (by overdrive I believe). It isn't in my history, I guess because I read it more than two years ago. I never finished it, I only got about halfway through it, so there will be some spoilers but not for the ending or later half of the book.


It starts off with the mc (I can't remember his name) in the middle of some kind of large scale emergency/crisis. I believe it might have been a terrorist attack. He ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and gets pulled into a truck with a bag over his head. I think he wakes up in some kind of cell. The mc eventually learns from his captors that he was kidnapped by the U.S. government. I remember that the mc says that this is illegal, and his captors explain they're on some remote island out of the U.S.A's jurisdiction, so they can do whatever they want to him. I forget if there's any hard torture, or if he's just held in a cell with terrible living conditions and hardly any food + water. They keep telling him to unlock his phone/laptop for them, and his condition will improve. Eventually he breaks and unlocks it for them. In it they find no incriminating evidence, but some suspicious material, I think he was learning how to hack or he was just into weird stuff. I remember he lamented that he didn't set up his device so that he could put in one password and access everything, and put in another to access a clean os, and wipe all of his data. His conditions gradually improve, and he's eventually let go. When he gets back home he still has a lot of lingering resentment, and shares his experiences with an online group of people. Eventually he gets some of them together, and he distributes devices that scan rfid chips from a distance, gets people's credit cards (and I think there was something having to do with cars), and charges them. I remember that what he was doing also had some kind impact on the traffic. One day on their online message group one of the members details his/her experience being rounded up, with maybe a hundred people, and being investigated by cops, but their were so many people this member got away scott free. This makes mc realize the danger his people might be in, so he gives them all advice, and gets all of the members or only the ones he's closest to (I forget) to come to the beach. There he has a barbeque or something, but also distributes public and private keys (for encryption) so they can have conversations that won't be compromised. I think a female lead might have been introduced around here, or earlier in the story. Anyway I believe the main character continues his uprising, but I don't remember/didn't read past here.

-Additional information
His father might have been a government worker (I'm not sure), but he definitely supported the U.S. government
The main character was a fairly proficient programmer/hacker.
In the beginning I think he was out with his friends.

Thank you for your help :)

[Yonkers]

I suspect this is Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

[Sycorax]

Seconding Little Brother!

[Anonymous]

Yonkers wrote: "I suspect this is Little Brother by Cory Doctorow."

Thanks!

[Kris]

Anonymous, I see your request is marked Solved. Glad you found your book.