{"id":8173,"date":"2021-01-11T22:52:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T02:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=8173"},"modified":"2021-01-11T22:52:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T02:52:19","slug":"book-review-a-for-anonymous-how-a-mysterious-hacker-collective-transformed-the-world-by-david-kushner-illustrated-by-koren-shadmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-a-for-anonymous-how-a-mysterious-hacker-collective-transformed-the-world-by-david-kushner-illustrated-by-koren-shadmi\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: A for Anonymous: How A Mysterious Hacker Collective Transformed the World by David Kushner, illustrated by Koren Shadmi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover<\/a>\u00a0<\/em> (\u00a0Bookshop.org<\/a> | Amazon.com<\/a>\u00a0)<\/p>\n

A for Anonymous:<\/em> How a Mysterious Hacker Collective Transformed the World <\/em>by David Kushner, illustrated by Koren Shadmi<\/p>\n

Bold Type Books, 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 9781568588797<\/p>\n

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While\u00a0A for Anonymous\u00a0<\/em>doesn’t fall into the category of horror and dark fiction or horror-adjacent titles that Monster Librarian typically reviews,\u00a0\u00a0 there are a number of real-world horrors that are addressed by author David Kushner and illustrator Koren Shadmi in these pages. Anonymous is known for exposing some of these human monsters.<\/p>\n

The A for Anonymous<\/em> graphic novel presents an interview between Kushner, who wrote a number of articles on Anonymous, and Commander X, a faceless member of the hacktivist group who agrees to discuss the resistance group’s founding, history, and activities. It presents a decent introduction into Anonymous and some of their activities that garnered national attention. Some of their attacks were leveled at governments, corporations, and religious institutions, just to name a few. Kushner discusses how Anonymous went after the Church of Scientology; the case of Geohot and hacking Sony; the influence of the hacktivist movement involved in exposing the Steubenville, Ohio rape case; and more. The author acknowledges both the successes and the failures of Anonymous regarding their actions as well.<\/p>\n

While it makes for a good overview of the movement, the book does not provide any real analysis or insight into Anonymous’ philosophy or lesser-known activities. Other reviewers have noted that information contained in the graphic novel can be found with a simple Google search, and chances are that a good portion of those search results are linked to articles that Kushner himself wrote for magazines such as the New Yorker<\/em> and Rolling Stone<\/em>. It would also have added value to the book for Kushner to include citations from his previous work for those interested in reading more about Anonymous.\u00a0 Recommended.<\/p>\n

Contains: discussion of racism and rape<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 (\u00a0Bookshop.org | Amazon.com\u00a0) A for Anonymous: How a Mysterious Hacker Collective Transformed the World by David Kushner, illustrated by Koren Shadmi Bold Type Books, 2020 ISBN-13: 9781568588797 Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle   While\u00a0A for Anonymous\u00a0doesn’t fall into the category of horror and dark fiction or horror-adjacent titles that Monster Librarian typically reviews,\u00a0\u00a0 there are<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4702,4704,4703,4707,4708,2894,4705,2231,4236,4701,4706],"class_list":["post-8173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-for-anonymous-how-a-mysterious-hacker-collective-transformed-the-world","tag-anonymous","tag-david-kushner","tag-ferguson","tag-freedom-of-information","tag-graphic-novel","tag-hacktivism","tag-human-monsters","tag-koren-shadmi","tag-nonfiction-novel","tag-steubenville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8176,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8173\/revisions\/8176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}