The novel is available for free on the author's website under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA), keeping it accessible and remixable to all.

[9] The New York Times says, "'Little Brother' isn't shy about its intent to disseminate subversive ideas to a young audience."

[10] Hacker Peiter Zatko stated that the book is now used as training material for new NSA recruits in order to give them a different point of view.

After a series of interrogations that take place over a period of six days, Marcus, Jolu, and Vanessa are finally released; Darryl's whereabouts are unknown.

While introducing a group to cryptography during a key signing party, Marcus meets Ange, and shortly thereafter they begin to date.

Darryl is subsequently freed and Marcus, after his parents have to pay his bail to make sure he does not go to prison, finally returns to his life the way it was before the terrorist attacks.

The Hollywood Reporter remarked, "The book tackles many themes, including civil liberties and social activism".

Small personal victories for the protagonist and his friends are present, but the power of Big Brother is hardly tempered by their work, and the folks who tangled with the government are all permanently scarred by the encounter.

"[16] The book has also been characterized as "[expressing] astonishment, fear, uncertainty, shame, and guilt"[17] and addressing "issues of political authority, social order, individual freedom and electronic security.

"[20] Cindy Dobrez in her review for Booklist said that "Doctorow's novel blurs the lines between current and potential technologies, and readers will delight in the details of how Marcus attempts to stage a techno-revolution.

Obvious parallels to Orwellian warnings and post-9/11 policies, such as the Patriot Act, will provide opportunity for classroom discussion and raise questions about our enthusiasm for technology, who monitors our school library collections, and how we contribute to our own lack of privacy.

"[21] Publishers Weekly said that it was "filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract gait-recognition cameras, RFID's (radio frequency ID tags), wireless Internet tracers and other surveillance devices, this work makes its admittedly didactic point within a tautly crafted fictional framework.

Roberts also described Cory Doctorow, a Canadian author living in England, as "an outsider to the George W. Bush administration.