3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

This book is ...pretty good. It's hard to follow the technical parts and the names (and from the acknowledgements, you can tell the co-author agrees with me!). The tech that Kevin is hacking is just so outdated that even after reading this 400 page book about hacking phone companies, I have no idea what a phone switch is or how Kevin got free phone calls.

The second half is wildly better than the first half and I recommend sticking it out. The fun really starts when Kevin starts going on the run and evading the FBI. The phone phreaker stuff from when he was very young is confusing and mildly interesting at best.

Regardless, I had a good time. It was good. It just wasn't great, although I'm having a hard time figuring out how to make a book of this nature great.