A summary of anthropologist Gabriella Coleman's time observing and floating on the surface of Anonymous. It walks through their history coming from places like /b/ to bursting on the scene taking aim at Scientology through times like OpTunisia and Occupy and ending with Stratfor.

The characterization of Anonymous as being the digital version of the trickster gods is apt - the chaos of the extreme decentralization of Anonymous along with their tactics (legal, illegal, and everything in between) resulted in some spectacular wins and some equally spectacular losses.

The book ended with the breaking of Edward Snowden's expose of the NSA's extensive surveillance activitiers, though that wasn't something that involved Anonymous. It attempts to end on a positive note that groups like Anonymous and the other groups might provide some sort of defense against the surveillance state, but in hindsight that hopeful optimism seems to have been rather misplaced.

The biggest observation in the book for me was the note that for those years Anonymous was the only group stepping forward in a time when more people needed to throw off the apathy and lend their voice to things like the Occupy movement.