Warcross

This was a 3-star book for me up until the last 15 pages and just wow.

I'm usually great at predicting endings of books but even I didn't see that coming. I'm shook.

But in other news, for the first time in two months I FINISHED A BOOK!!!!

Also the main character is named Emika Emi and I wanna know who let her have that name? It's mine. She can't have it.

Anyways, Me, Emi, and not the Emi in the book have actually finished a book. I actually remembered how to read!!! I'm just as surprised as you are.

I had my problems with it, obviously. I wanted to give it 3 stars for most of my read. But that might have to do with the fact for the two months I've been in this horrendous slump, I've spent more time then I probably should admit watching a group of dudes who suck at video games play video games. I'm not used to finding enjoyment if people playing video games well. If that makes sense?

Also Ready Player One exists and my brain really latched onto that mentality.

I might write a review. I might not. Who knows? Do people even miss my reviews? It's been two months.

Fast paced and fun, with plenty of competition, good world building, and a bit of steamy romance. The characters were mostly well developed but the plot twists telegraph pretty early on. There's enough to enjoy here for both gamers and nongamers. Medium interested in sticking around for the next in the series.

The first three-quarters of this book is amazing, then it kind of goes downhill. There's a romance in here. It's very obviously telegraphed and it reads a bit like bad fanfiction. There's a shift in the tone of the writing from a ‘tough-as-nails' heroine to a softer ‘girl-in-love' child. It's jarring. Unfortunately, when it starts heating up everything else is derived from it, and if you're not buying that romance you're probably not buying what's going on with the end.

The bad guy is a bit telegraphed too. I called that one immediately.

That being said, there are several things I really like about this book.
1. The world and technology: I love that it takes place in a not so distant future from our own with technology that we almost have now. And I like the few details we get about that technology. I'm definitely not a Neurologist, but I can totally buy the description of how Warcross works.
2. The ‘bad guy': He's not bad just because he's evil and has unfathomable motivations. He has motivations that we understand or can at least relate to.
3. The action: I'd read a book just about the action.

Warcross was a book, a book with technology, games and stress packed in over 300 pages.

I could go on and on and on about how much I love Emika and her rainbow hair and the fact that Hideo "fell in love" with her and then fell out of it because of him wanting to become what she would call a dictator.... is another thing for another day.

The team aspect is common in games but I really enjoyed the roles that the team members had, and how they all banded together like a family .
I never trusted some characters and went from loving some, to then hating them, to having no idea about how i felt about most of them. A ride with my emotions regarding the characters was something that I love to have and to fear for their lives and anticipate what they do next.

If I could read it again for the first time, not knowing how it ends or what happens at all, I would, believe me.

I started the book and then before I knew what time it was in the morning, I'd finished and I was left with questions, but I have to wait a while for them to be answered.

If you are a fan of “The Hunger Games” and “Ready Player One,” this book is a dream come true for you. It has espionage, gaming, technology, love, relationships, teamwork, and a little bit of backstabbing.

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD!

Warcross isn't just a game—it's a way of life. Struggling to make ends meet after her father died, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the International Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation - something she didn't even realize she could do.

The next day, Emika is shocked when she gets a call from the game's creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year's tournament in order to uncover a security problem and he wants Emika for the job. After getting drafted to play in the game for the Phoenix Riders as an architect and finds out she's actually pretty good at it. Her relationships with her teammates are torn when they find out about her relationship with Hideo (they know the romantic side, not the business side) and her mission is almost a disaster.

What she comes to find out about the creator and her love interest breaks her apart. Does she have the strength to follow through?

“Every locked door has a key”

I really liked this book!! THE ENDING LEFT ME SHOOK!!!!! Y'all need to read this book if you haven't already! It's beautifully written, the characters are amazing, and guys the diversity!!!!

Writing: 4.5☆
Plot: 4☆
Enjoyment: 4☆
Characters: 5☆
Average: 4.25☆

Writing: I really liked Marie Lu's writing and world building. It made me feel like I was there with Emika. This actually made me want to read her other books. Although it took me 2 weeks to read this book most of the time it was fast paced, but I did find myself getting bored in a few parts.
Plot: warcross was really unique and unlike anything I've read before. I know it's been compared to ready player one but the I haven't read it so for me it's not like anything I've read

This is so hard to rate. About 80% of this book, I would give 3.5★... but the last few chapters are worth 5★ due to the twists, one which I saw coming and the other which I totally did not expect.

But anyway, I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I would. It is still a good read and it was definitely because I expected too much, but the VR gaming world isn't too expansive and so it doesn't really feel like MMORPG-like. Feels like it's much heavier on the competition side and doesn't offer as much in-game exploration as opposed to the VR features it brings to real life. The writing, however, is really nice and easy to follow as always, and the action scenes were pretty engaging that I wish there were more chapters about Emika's involvement in the Warcross matches.

The romance never felt sincere. There's a whole chunk of telling instead of showing, so I never really get how Hideo falls for Emika to begin with. All that was said, was that they started talking everyday. What they talked about and how it became that way, we will never know since it was summed up like that in a single scene. I did not see the development so I couldn't help but be skeptical by the whole thing... Well, until the last few chapters kick in and it all kind of falls into place. The ending was brilliantly done, leaving a great deal of things for the next books to develop.

The Japanese phrases, though... they kinda bother me. They are not wrong, but the usage and the nuance isn't right either and it makes the writing feel much more amateur for these particular parts only. It's such a shame because if only these were done right, the book would feel much more polished especially to those who actually do understand the language.

First of all, it's unnatural for children to use formal speech when talking to their parents like Hideo does. It is not strange in prestigious / noble families, but the atmosphere in Hideo's family is casual enough for him to help out in the kitchen and even cook a meal for his parents, so it feels weird seeing him using formal speech to his mother. Most people only do this once in a while, oftentimes they have something really serious to talk about, but definitely not all the time and definitely not when they are just reunited after a long time of not seeing each other.

And then there's this one phrase Hideo said: “Yukkuri, (name)-kun!”. Name is omitted because spoilers. He's using the word yukkuri to say slow down in English, but it's not meant to be used like that. No one would just throw the word by itself to ask someone to slow down, it's always ゆっくりで行こうよ or ゆっくりでやろうよ so even if the word has the right meaning, it's not the correct usage and it feels really unnatural. I hope this can be improved if the next books are going to contain more Japanese phrases, it'll have a much more refined feel to it and not feel kind of weeaboo-ish.

tl;dr I LIKE THIS BOOK, but I gotta tsukkomi what I need to tsukkomi. I'm sorry.

Let's talk about Warcross.

I have never read a Marie Lu book before so I really didn't know what to expect but I saw the great reviews and I got so excited.

I see why it got such fantastic reviews. The world building is some of the best I've ever read. With each page I found myself craving more and desperately wishing warcross to be real, like when can I preorder my lenses??? Huh? When!?!??

Lu brought Tokyo to life in a way I've never read before and I felt like I was there. She also did a stupendous job at the levels and the layout of the game, I really appreciated how familiar it felt to anyone like myself who is also a huge gamer. This book is like crack for gamers.

She also get a 10/10 for diversity. The characters are all of different races and backgrounds and some are disabled. And it felt so natural, I often find diversity in YA to feel forced, but not here, everything was mentioned in passing as just like real life. And I loved it.

If only the characters hadn't been so bland.

We have Emika rainbow-colored-hair Chen. Seriously the fact that her hair was described as rainbow colored so many times throughout the book passed me off to no end. We get it she very special and edgy let's move on.

The we have Hideo Tanaka who is about as interesting as a 2x4. He's the 21 yr old genius who changed the world but acts like a pompous 45 year old man who forgot to take his stool softener. I really wanted to love the “brooding lonely genius” thing but there was really no other side to him regardless of how often emika said things like “this was the real hideo” “he let me in to see who he really was beyond his walls”. Nope nothing he's boring and I felt nothing about the plot twist at the end because my two main characters were so meh.

Then there's the supporting cast.
Hello Phenoix Riders!! I would love them to have more. More personality more backstory more details. But for the most part they were just there to fill in spots that weren't just Hideo being a billionaire genius.

Also the romance. Ughhhhhhh
Not good. I dont like the pairing I thought it was forced and the spark just wasn't there. And even though the age difference is only 3 years it felt more like 10 because emika acts more like 16 and Hideo acts more like he's 25 or older. It just felt eww to me.

However the way the book ended left me wanting to read the next one and hoping that the sequel will be better.

This juuuust eked out a third star from me, due to a few funny nerd in-jokes.

It was OK, but really failed to keep my interest. In a lot of ways it read more like a treatment for a movie that will be billed as “the next Hunger Games!” than a novel. A lot of ink was invested in describing settings, action sequences, and clothing rather than advancing the plot.

Said plot is fine - I was curious how things would play out, and the solution to the mystery was reasonably satisfying, if a tad predictable. The romance was probably at the normal level for YA - there was definitely some heat generated, but nothing gets too horizontal.

I won't be reading any possible sequels, but I'm game to take my kids to see it if it's rendered on the big screen in all its neon, CGI, Big Badass Battle Sequence glory.

Oh. My. God.

This book. It killed me

I need to recover a bit, because not only my ship, my opt, has been destroyed. I'm destroyed too. Damn, I really shipped those two.

This book was so so so extremely good. The writing was on point and the story was fantastic. Damn it, Marie Lu. You did it again!

I absolutely loved all the characters. The good and the bad. They are written so well that I just had to love them. Sorry not sorry.