Wildcard (Warcross #2)
By Marie Lue
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Recommended For: Ages 15+ and lovers of games and virtual reality mixed with the angst that comes with love.

****CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR WARCROSS, BOOK ONE*****

Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo’s new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she’s always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.

 

Determined to put a stop to Hideo’s grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone’s put a bounty on Emika’s head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn’t all that he seems–and his protection comes at a price.

Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?

 

The Gist:
This is, what I consider to be, an absolutely excellent sequel for this duology. Warcross was an unexpected love for me last year, and Wildcard continued to delight me and my sense of imagination. In book one, we are introduced to the Warcross world tech genius and tycoon Hideo Tanaka created. In Wildcard, we see all the damage and drama it has caused and the potential of using technology for evil purposes. Marie Lu continued to pile more and more tension on while weaving in an ethical element of using technology to control people. While I enjoyed Warcross slightly more, Wildcard was still a top-notch sequel that I got immense pleasure from reading. I was left feeling extremely disappointed that this was only a duology because I felt so immersed in the world and characters that I didn’t want it to end.

 

What I Liked:
ALL THOSE TWISTS! It seemed like there were at least 3 or 4 major twists that I did NOT see coming, and they were pretty evenly spaced throughout the story. Those kinds of delicious surprises and good pacing left me with an edge-of-your-seat feeling because I never knew what could possibly happen next!

Lots of gray area. Usually gray areas bother me, but Marie created such an interesting and realistic gray area in this book by making us question which of the characters is evil and which is good. But more than that, Emi questions the motives because every person’s actions. Why would they pursue the course of action they are on? It deepened each character and prevented the cookie-cutter, flat villain so many stories are plagued with.

Learning about the past of other characters was a true delight for me. To read the heartbreak in some of their stories made me connect with those characters on a deeper level and drew me into the story even more because I became very invested in their outcome.

At the end of this book, I was left with no questions. Lu did an amazing job of wrapping up loose ends and answering all the questions I had about the plot. Good, tight, wrapped up ending like this a a true joy in my life and I appreciate them so much because it leaves me feeling satisfied at the end of a series.

 

What I Didn’t Like:
One of my favorite parts of book one was the romance between Emika and Hideo. Obviously, given their separation at the end of book two, I knew it wasn’t going to be as prevalent as the first book, but I was still hoping for more. I wanted to see them in rooms together and feel the tension of them disagreeing on something but still caring about each other. That’s so realistic and so juicy, but I missed a lot of that because they weren’t ever together that often.

Kind of bouncing off of that, I wished Hideo would have been in the book more. I missed having him around. And I thought Lu almost went overboard painting him as an evil tech dictator. She did offer moments where Emika tried to understand his motives, but I think she spent too much time trying to make Emika mad at Hideo. It felt far-fetched to me. Like she was trying to take this one bad thing Hideo did and paint him as an evil horrible person, which he just isn’t.

 

LunasLuckyRating: 4/5 Lunas