Title: Wildcard (Warcross #2)
Author: Marie Lu
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Format: Hardcover
Length: 341 pages
Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Publish Date: September 18, 2018
Setting: Tokyo, Japan
Violence, Murder
Japanese, Latinx, Disabled, Gay
Do you know how shook I am that I legit finished this duology back to back so quickly?! I mean, I know that I should be better at finishing series, even something as short as a duology but I think you guys know how much of a serial-non finisher I really am! This is book five of Marie Lu for me, and I have not been disappointed with these books that I’ve read from her, and I’m just so happy about this. I mentioned on my Instagram post that I was going to flail about my thoughts on this book, and seriously get ready for that because I don’t even know if I’m going to make any sense in this review. But I’m going to try!
So I was going to format this the way I usually format my longer reviews… but clearly I can’t seem to focus on my thoughts so this is just going to be a straight up brain dump of my emotions and feelings and just everything that I loved about this novel. If you want to read my thoughts for Warcross, here’s the link.
It’s been days now since I finished this novel, and usually it’s super hard for me to think back to what I’ve read in the past when there’s so many books in between then and now. But I know that ever since I finished this, I’ve been having a Warcross hangover because that was one of the greatest worlds I’ve ever seen in a novel. Seriously, I was really impressed with the technology that Lu created for this story – the NeuroLink and even just how integrated it was into real life – and how cool the video game of Warcross itself was. I probably said this in my first review but seeing Lu’s background in the video game world really brought a whole different kind of feel for this novel and reinforced that Lu knows what the heck she’s talking about. I know some authors will do extensive research on their books for the time period of the culture – well…. some of them do and you’ll be able to see that when you read – but Lu being able to dig into her own experience for something that people probably wouldn’t even consider a career that a woman (or an Asian woman, let’s be real) would have had. Did I get my point across? I hope so. Basically Lu knows what the hell she’s talking about and it’s clear in this novel too.
As I’m writing this, I’m watching The Lion King and surfing on Twitter so I got a bit distracted with this review, my bad. I’m also choosing to share some fanart that I’m finding out in the world of Warcross so enjoy that. The links are the captions for the photos to show credit so there you go.
I’m also trying to make this review spoiler free as much as possible, but there’s this HUGE aspect of the novels that needs to be said in order for it to make sense but I can’t say it… UGH it’s killing me.
ANYWAY.
Listen. I have to say this again but I am going to say it again. I am so, so, SO freaking proud of Emika realizing that she can’t take on the world alone. She has her friends from the Phoenix Riders, and even Tremaine from the Demons… ugh I keep forgetting their full name but yes him too. She has finally learned to open up to accepting help from them, but I also understood why she didn’t want them getting involved because of the danger involved. Once she went on the run from the true bad guy – can I say who the bad guy is? I think it’s in the synopsis but that could be considered a spoiler? I just will say the bad guy – it’s not like things got any easier. I mean SHE HAD A BOUNTY ON HER HEAD AND WAS TARGETED BY ASSASSINS! If that’s not the definition of “shit just got real” then I don’t know what is.
There’s a part where Emika is talking about how she won’t give up on this villain because this person was the one that helped her find the will to live on again when she was at an extremely low point in her life. This person may not have realized it because they didn’t directly do anything to her, but having that kind of faith in someone to not immediately write them off and try to save them rather than punish them was really great. Some people are so quick to make someone else the bad guy when they make one mistake. Granted, this “mistake” wasn’t so much a mistake as it was a calculated move to try to change the world for the better, and while it was done with good intentions, the end result wasn’t as noble as first intended. But either way, even if the rest of Emi’s teammates and those that weren’t under the control of the NeuroLink’s algorithm pretty much were quick to write this person off. It even got to the point that there may have even been traitors in their midst without their knowledge, and that’s why the minds behind the Blackcoats was able to manipulate what was going on and make some crazy moves that were just absolutely terrifying.
I’ve been trying to find a good fanart of Jax – one of the newest characters that we get to meet in this story – but I haven’t found anything. It’s actually pretty disheartening to be honest. Because she was one of my favorite characters in the entire book and I’m just so upset with what she had to deal with growing up. Like, you need to read this because for Jax to be able to maintain her own identity and values after everything that she was grown up to believe. She’s just… ugh wow I really love her. I want to hear more about Jax and find out what ends up happening with her after the events of this story. I mean, I really want to find out what ends up happening with everyone especially with the outcome of what happened after this technological war that pretty much went down. There’s so much that ended up being affected and it would be interesting to see how the world is dealing with that.
I think I’ve said as much as I could about this, which I don’t even know if any of it even makes sense or would even be a true review but clearly… I’m really into this book and I loved it so much. I think because there’s so much I want to talk about that would go into spoiler territory that I can’t say as much as I want to. But it’s okay! Because I think I typed out a lot more than I thought I would and I’m just hoping that you guys understand what I’m trying to say!
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 
I’m glad you enjoyed this, too.
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