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destinyandpaper's review against another edition
I skimmed through the first 150 pages and it was so boring?? The dialogue was clunky and weird, and anytime a character mentioned something about themselves, it ended up feeling directed towards the reader so the plot made more sense.
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
2.0
Warcross was a puzzling read for me. Usually if a book did what Warcross did I would hate it or at the very least it would be far less appealing. Warcross, despite its flaws, managed to not completely lose all my goodwill by its conclusion; a rarity, I assure you.
Warcross reminds me a lot of Children of Blood and Bone in that it sells you on a cool premise only for the bulk of the novel to turn out to be a dull romance. The worldbuilding is only good if you don’t think about it too hard.
Emika is a poor genius orphan bounty hunting hacker. She hacks into a major Warcross competition in an attempt to steal a powerup that she could hopefully sell on the black market to make rent or face eviction. She gets caught almost immediately. Instead of shipping her off to jail the creator of Warcross, the young, attractive mysterious Hideo Tanaka, offers her a job working undercover as a Wildcard entry into the games in order to capture a different hacker who threatens the sanctity of Warcross. Emika is thrown into the illustrious life of a celebrity Warcross player while getting embroiled in a plot that has more at stake than she realizes.
First off, none of what I just detailed matters in this book other than Emika meeting Hideo. After initially doing some hacking Emika figures out who the spy is immediately. From there the events of the novel require almost no other effort on her part. The entire storyline unfolds in her lap. The reason for this is that there are so few details about absolutely anything of consequence.
There are like 8 teams or so competing, maybe even more. We meet two, including the team Emika is on. There are a total of three matches in the whole book, one of which is cut short due to outside interference. If Emika is supposed to be searching for a potential threat then Warcross should be the foundation for all aspects of the story. It’s a month before the tournament even starts yet we only see one instance of training. We’re told who wins when other teams play rather than attending the matches for reconnaissance nevermind the fact that all the characters are barely developed so it’s not like we know these people anyways. Only one Warcross party is mandatory or attended.
The book glosses over a majority of the gameplay. A lot of the levels are apparently well known since it’s a game anyone can theoretically master. New levels are created for the tournament, but as I understand it there are basic concepts that can be or are tweaked. But, I don’t live in the Warcross world. Warcross is not ubiquitous to me. So I wanted to dig deep into all that Warcross is; what moves are popular, how long it takes to rise in rank on average, how much money do you make playing the game, what level do you have to be to make money, does it involve a level of parasocial interaction like influencers do. It feels like Lu did not do a lot of research into how professional gaming works. The concept itself is strong and how Warcross has embedded itself into society is clearly well thought out. Underneath the surface I don’t feel like Lu really considered what it would look like to be a major Warcross player day to day or how Warcross being a gateway to success could affect the world. Like is streaming a thing for Warcross? Is Youtube or some Youtube equivalent a factor in being a Warcross player? Social media is not even given a passing mention. It’s all so homogeneous. Warcross is a catchall for the Internet. Depending on what pocket of the Internet you frequent there’s a whole different atmosphere or tools to succeed. For instance being popular on Instagram does not mean you’ll automatically blow up on Youtube or on TikTok or vice versa. Basically I’m saying that none of it holds up to any scrutiny; the more I thought about it the more apparent it became that it didn’t make any sense. I still am lost as to the practical reality of living in a Warcross obsessed landscape.
Warcross is played using this thing called the neurolink. Neurolinks are glasses that function like VR helmets except neurolinks utilize neurological transmitters. it tricks your brain into experiencing things as if they really are happening thereby bypassing the part of your brain always subconsciously being aware that it’s not. Neurolinks have totally changed the way society operates. They can translate languages into subtitles in real time so you can understand people from other countries, if your data is not privatized people can see all of your information just by looking at you, in some places you get points in Warcross just for completing basic tasks like watering a plant or getting a drink, and you can wear them all the time living in a partial fantasy partial reality paradise of your own making. Emika’s job is to hack into peoples’ neurolinks in order to find the spy within their ranks. The spy is relaying the info to another person who is the person at Hideo is looking for. Except she does this the first day or two and then finds the spy, and proceeds to ‘keep an eye on them’ for like half the book.
I think figuring out who the spy is so fast ruins the suspense, but only because Lu never takes it further than that. It’s entirely fine for Emika to find the spy as long as they were one cog. Emika treats them like they’re the whole machine right off the bat even knowing that there is a final boss in the shadows. Why doesn’t she delve more into other members of the different teams? She never pursues other leads. Why doesn’t she form relationships with other teams' members to find out info? She has no idea if there are multiple spies compromising the whole game. Why don’t we ever see her attempt to strike up a friendship with the spy in order to see what she can glean? Nope. She reports to Hideo who it is, then twiddles her thumbs until something slaps her in the face. She does not do any additional research to figure out what’s going on. For example, there are multiple other bounty hunters that have been installed in the games too. So it’s kind of a race to figure out who the spy is/who the spies are first. Emika doesn’t even try to look for these other bounty hunters. It doesn’t even cross her mind to fake an alliance or even try to steal the information they have for herself. It kills the intrigue.
I wanted the whole book to be set at the tournament. Instead Warcross takes place over like two months with matches interspersed during that time. This severely undercuts a lot of the tension. It would have raised the stakes if it was rapid fire match ups and Emika had no time before being thrown into the games. Everybody plays Warcross so she’s not a novice, she has merely lacked the means to devote time or money to Warcross like her fellow competitors thus, she’s not experienced like them. I would have preferred if Emika started the games from this position as this would give her the opportunity to showcase her ingenuity more. As I’ve said before, Emika does not do much. Her bounty hunting skills aren’t put to the test at all. In fact her bounty hunting skill set that made her such an ideal candidate for cracking the case is barely expanded on. She wasn't a particularly exceptional hacker or bounty hunter honestly but at least we saw some hacking. I struggled to see why she would be chosen if bounty hunting was part of the criteria. The literal beginning of the book actually involves her losing a huge bounty.
We don’t observe any training so there’s a lot of down time where Emika is twiddling her thumbs. You would think that would leave plenty of time for developing the other characters. Unfortunately this is more of the tell don't show variety so lots of details that would help heighten suspense are left vague. The teams are supposed to have team nights all the time to better bond the group together. We are privy to two team nights, one of which Emika ducks out of to sneak off to see Hideo. After her relationship to Hideo is outed her team captain asks if this was the reason she had been skipping team nights. I didn’t feel the weight of this moment because we literally never talk about team nights even the ones she’s apparently skipping.
There is also this whole thing about how being a celebrity will change her life. That could have added some characterization to Emika or the others seeing how they deal with all the stress that comes with fame. We never explore the city so that’s a lie as well. I can count on one hand the amount of times Emika leaves her team dorms; all of which are either for romantic reasons or to play the games. There also aren’t any Warcross required events other than one to kickoff the games, something I find really hard to believe since these elite players are essentially influencers. Influencers have a lot of rules in regards to their involvement in sponsorships. Why don’t the Warcrossers have any sort of expectations or regulations on their behavior? There’s no discussion about maintaining a ‘clean’ image or any kind of expectation of conduct. This is a billion dollar company. Am I meant to believe that they would not have some kind of contract in place?
I’m kind of harping on this I know, but I’m blown away by how quickly everything collapses after pondering it the tiniest bit. I had more and more questions as the book went on that are not touched on at all. What’s worse is that most of this is significant information that would aid in Emika’s search. It not being addressed is a symptom of the larger issue of Emika not following up on leads unless it lands in her lap.
Now onto the romance - from the jump I wasn’t about it. There’s a massive power imbalance that skews it in Hideo’s favor. It does not equalize before the two engage in a relationship so I questioned how much Emika truly felt for Hideo vs her hero worship. She idolized this man before meeting him. That does not make for a healthy foundation. Lu tries to make it kind of enemies to lovers, but it’s half-hearted at best. The two meet and Hideo naturally is not acting like she’d expect because again, she has misaligned expectations going. Then Emika literally starts acting put off and sarcastic because in her eyes he’s being condescending. It’d be one thing if he was. He’s not, though? He’s honestly just polite if not a little standoffish. But, who wouldn’t be when you became a billionaire at like 11? He can’t go around trusting any old poor genius bounty hunting orphan. Not even the cute ones who are super gullible despite their purported ‘street smarts’ being a fundamental aspect of their characters.
Aside from my other reservations about the power imbalance, the two just lack any kind of commonality from which a relationship can even grow.
I already talked about how off it is from Emika’s perspective. On the other side of the coin I don't know what's so special about Emika that Hideo would be into her. He’s met thousands of different women in his life. I know that sometimes when you know, you know. In a book though, I need more to go on. How exactly are these two ‘meant to be’? What draws him to her? It really comes out of nowhere. They both attend this fancy gala. He makes a point to make a flirty comment to her. Keep in mind this is their SECOND time meeting after the first one arguably did not go well, they are pretending not to know each other so this comment is made in front of a dozen people, and again they do not interact again until it’s time for the first match. Under these circumstances, where is this interest coming from? Not to mention it’s just a situation devoid of any chemistry since they have not had the time to build up a rapport. His comment is utterly innocuous too. The sole reason I didn’t dismiss it like Emika initially does is because I knew there had to be a romance.
Once it’s underway I have to admit it did have its moments. I love the-jerk-to-everybody-but-you trope, as toxic or dumb as it can be. And even if this didn't fully achieve that - I cannot stress enough how much Hideo was really not a jerk, just guarded (rightfully so if you ask me) - it did still give me a bit of the feeling I get when reading that trope done right.
That being said, it was overall too close to insta-love for me.
The ending is where all the flaws come to a head. It falls completely flat because I don't have any reason to root for Emika other than she's the main character nor do I feel the significance of her choice as it is anchored in a poorly constructed universe.
Huge spoiler for the ending ->
All of my complaints intersect here. Throughout this book there is a noticeable lack of any contradictory opinions regarding neurolinks or Warcross. There are no mentions of other competing companies, no conversations about privacy concerns or anti-neurolink rhetoric, no government initiatives, no discussion of downsides. Once Hideo’s plan is revealed it’s abundantly clear this was done in order to obfuscate his nefarious intentions to the detriment of its believability. It is aglaring absence as you read. I don’t care how beloved the technology is; there will always be detractors. The government as slow on the uptake as they can be would be passing laws on this, creating barriers to access, limiting its potential to do harm.
Ignoring this for the twist was a mistake. In fact the novel is better if you include it as it makes the world feel more real plus it functions as foreshadowing. Then you’ve got Emika all broken up about losing her ‘great love’ or whatever. She has known this man for two months. And this doubly highlights how ridiculous it is on Hideo’s part to be so into Emika. He actually expects this girl he just met to be onboard with computer based totalitarianism. Again, after two months. What about Emika made him think she could be the one who gets it? Why did he trust her to understand his reasoning? Because he told her his tragic backstory? A tragic backstory does not guarantee agreement. He has spent half his life secretly building to this point. Why take a chance on Emika now? This is never justified to me in-text so I couldn't be sold on the romance.
I originally was going to give this three stars. I changed my mind after writing this review. Don’t get me wrong, I, very surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not a bad book; it just doesn’t hold water upon inspection. If you can turn your brain off and read it for what it is I’d say go for it.
Warcross reminds me a lot of Children of Blood and Bone in that it sells you on a cool premise only for the bulk of the novel to turn out to be a dull romance. The worldbuilding is only good if you don’t think about it too hard.
Emika is a poor genius orphan bounty hunting hacker. She hacks into a major Warcross competition in an attempt to steal a powerup that she could hopefully sell on the black market to make rent or face eviction. She gets caught almost immediately. Instead of shipping her off to jail the creator of Warcross, the young, attractive mysterious Hideo Tanaka, offers her a job working undercover as a Wildcard entry into the games in order to capture a different hacker who threatens the sanctity of Warcross. Emika is thrown into the illustrious life of a celebrity Warcross player while getting embroiled in a plot that has more at stake than she realizes.
First off, none of what I just detailed matters in this book other than Emika meeting Hideo. After initially doing some hacking Emika figures out who the spy is immediately. From there the events of the novel require almost no other effort on her part. The entire storyline unfolds in her lap. The reason for this is that there are so few details about absolutely anything of consequence.
There are like 8 teams or so competing, maybe even more. We meet two, including the team Emika is on. There are a total of three matches in the whole book, one of which is cut short due to outside interference. If Emika is supposed to be searching for a potential threat then Warcross should be the foundation for all aspects of the story. It’s a month before the tournament even starts yet we only see one instance of training. We’re told who wins when other teams play rather than attending the matches for reconnaissance nevermind the fact that all the characters are barely developed so it’s not like we know these people anyways. Only one Warcross party is mandatory or attended.
The book glosses over a majority of the gameplay. A lot of the levels are apparently well known since it’s a game anyone can theoretically master. New levels are created for the tournament, but as I understand it there are basic concepts that can be or are tweaked. But, I don’t live in the Warcross world. Warcross is not ubiquitous to me. So I wanted to dig deep into all that Warcross is; what moves are popular, how long it takes to rise in rank on average, how much money do you make playing the game, what level do you have to be to make money, does it involve a level of parasocial interaction like influencers do. It feels like Lu did not do a lot of research into how professional gaming works. The concept itself is strong and how Warcross has embedded itself into society is clearly well thought out. Underneath the surface I don’t feel like Lu really considered what it would look like to be a major Warcross player day to day or how Warcross being a gateway to success could affect the world. Like is streaming a thing for Warcross? Is Youtube or some Youtube equivalent a factor in being a Warcross player? Social media is not even given a passing mention. It’s all so homogeneous. Warcross is a catchall for the Internet. Depending on what pocket of the Internet you frequent there’s a whole different atmosphere or tools to succeed. For instance being popular on Instagram does not mean you’ll automatically blow up on Youtube or on TikTok or vice versa. Basically I’m saying that none of it holds up to any scrutiny; the more I thought about it the more apparent it became that it didn’t make any sense. I still am lost as to the practical reality of living in a Warcross obsessed landscape.
Warcross is played using this thing called the neurolink. Neurolinks are glasses that function like VR helmets except neurolinks utilize neurological transmitters. it tricks your brain into experiencing things as if they really are happening thereby bypassing the part of your brain always subconsciously being aware that it’s not. Neurolinks have totally changed the way society operates. They can translate languages into subtitles in real time so you can understand people from other countries, if your data is not privatized people can see all of your information just by looking at you, in some places you get points in Warcross just for completing basic tasks like watering a plant or getting a drink, and you can wear them all the time living in a partial fantasy partial reality paradise of your own making. Emika’s job is to hack into peoples’ neurolinks in order to find the spy within their ranks. The spy is relaying the info to another person who is the person at Hideo is looking for. Except she does this the first day or two and then finds the spy, and proceeds to ‘keep an eye on them’ for like half the book.
I think figuring out who the spy is so fast ruins the suspense, but only because Lu never takes it further than that. It’s entirely fine for Emika to find the spy as long as they were one cog. Emika treats them like they’re the whole machine right off the bat even knowing that there is a final boss in the shadows. Why doesn’t she delve more into other members of the different teams? She never pursues other leads. Why doesn’t she form relationships with other teams' members to find out info? She has no idea if there are multiple spies compromising the whole game. Why don’t we ever see her attempt to strike up a friendship with the spy in order to see what she can glean? Nope. She reports to Hideo who it is, then twiddles her thumbs until something slaps her in the face. She does not do any additional research to figure out what’s going on. For example, there are multiple other bounty hunters that have been installed in the games too. So it’s kind of a race to figure out who the spy is/who the spies are first. Emika doesn’t even try to look for these other bounty hunters. It doesn’t even cross her mind to fake an alliance or even try to steal the information they have for herself. It kills the intrigue.
I wanted the whole book to be set at the tournament. Instead Warcross takes place over like two months with matches interspersed during that time. This severely undercuts a lot of the tension. It would have raised the stakes if it was rapid fire match ups and Emika had no time before being thrown into the games. Everybody plays Warcross so she’s not a novice, she has merely lacked the means to devote time or money to Warcross like her fellow competitors thus, she’s not experienced like them. I would have preferred if Emika started the games from this position as this would give her the opportunity to showcase her ingenuity more. As I’ve said before, Emika does not do much. Her bounty hunting skills aren’t put to the test at all. In fact her bounty hunting skill set that made her such an ideal candidate for cracking the case is barely expanded on. She wasn't a particularly exceptional hacker or bounty hunter honestly but at least we saw some hacking. I struggled to see why she would be chosen if bounty hunting was part of the criteria. The literal beginning of the book actually involves her losing a huge bounty.
We don’t observe any training so there’s a lot of down time where Emika is twiddling her thumbs. You would think that would leave plenty of time for developing the other characters. Unfortunately this is more of the tell don't show variety so lots of details that would help heighten suspense are left vague. The teams are supposed to have team nights all the time to better bond the group together. We are privy to two team nights, one of which Emika ducks out of to sneak off to see Hideo. After her relationship to Hideo is outed her team captain asks if this was the reason she had been skipping team nights. I didn’t feel the weight of this moment because we literally never talk about team nights even the ones she’s apparently skipping.
There is also this whole thing about how being a celebrity will change her life. That could have added some characterization to Emika or the others seeing how they deal with all the stress that comes with fame. We never explore the city so that’s a lie as well. I can count on one hand the amount of times Emika leaves her team dorms; all of which are either for romantic reasons or to play the games. There also aren’t any Warcross required events other than one to kickoff the games, something I find really hard to believe since these elite players are essentially influencers. Influencers have a lot of rules in regards to their involvement in sponsorships. Why don’t the Warcrossers have any sort of expectations or regulations on their behavior? There’s no discussion about maintaining a ‘clean’ image or any kind of expectation of conduct. This is a billion dollar company. Am I meant to believe that they would not have some kind of contract in place?
I’m kind of harping on this I know, but I’m blown away by how quickly everything collapses after pondering it the tiniest bit. I had more and more questions as the book went on that are not touched on at all. What’s worse is that most of this is significant information that would aid in Emika’s search. It not being addressed is a symptom of the larger issue of Emika not following up on leads unless it lands in her lap.
Now onto the romance - from the jump I wasn’t about it. There’s a massive power imbalance that skews it in Hideo’s favor. It does not equalize before the two engage in a relationship so I questioned how much Emika truly felt for Hideo vs her hero worship. She idolized this man before meeting him. That does not make for a healthy foundation. Lu tries to make it kind of enemies to lovers, but it’s half-hearted at best. The two meet and Hideo naturally is not acting like she’d expect because again, she has misaligned expectations going. Then Emika literally starts acting put off and sarcastic because in her eyes he’s being condescending. It’d be one thing if he was. He’s not, though? He’s honestly just polite if not a little standoffish. But, who wouldn’t be when you became a billionaire at like 11? He can’t go around trusting any old poor genius bounty hunting orphan. Not even the cute ones who are super gullible despite their purported ‘street smarts’ being a fundamental aspect of their characters.
Aside from my other reservations about the power imbalance, the two just lack any kind of commonality from which a relationship can even grow.
I already talked about how off it is from Emika’s perspective. On the other side of the coin I don't know what's so special about Emika that Hideo would be into her. He’s met thousands of different women in his life. I know that sometimes when you know, you know. In a book though, I need more to go on. How exactly are these two ‘meant to be’? What draws him to her? It really comes out of nowhere. They both attend this fancy gala. He makes a point to make a flirty comment to her. Keep in mind this is their SECOND time meeting after the first one arguably did not go well, they are pretending not to know each other so this comment is made in front of a dozen people, and again they do not interact again until it’s time for the first match. Under these circumstances, where is this interest coming from? Not to mention it’s just a situation devoid of any chemistry since they have not had the time to build up a rapport. His comment is utterly innocuous too. The sole reason I didn’t dismiss it like Emika initially does is because I knew there had to be a romance.
Once it’s underway I have to admit it did have its moments. I love the-jerk-to-everybody-but-you trope, as toxic or dumb as it can be. And even if this didn't fully achieve that - I cannot stress enough how much Hideo was really not a jerk, just guarded (rightfully so if you ask me) - it did still give me a bit of the feeling I get when reading that trope done right.
That being said, it was overall too close to insta-love for me.
The ending is where all the flaws come to a head. It falls completely flat because I don't have any reason to root for Emika other than she's the main character nor do I feel the significance of her choice as it is anchored in a poorly constructed universe.
Huge spoiler for the ending ->
Spoiler
So Hideo is actually the villain. His little brother went missing and possibly was kidnapped when they were kids. He created the neurolinks as a response to that. The neurolinks monitor all areas of peoples’ lives. He’s modified it so now it can control them to an extent; when a ‘bad’ impulse is triggered in the brain, the neurolink smothers it therefore stopping the action. Obviously, this has horrifying implications.All of my complaints intersect here. Throughout this book there is a noticeable lack of any contradictory opinions regarding neurolinks or Warcross. There are no mentions of other competing companies, no conversations about privacy concerns or anti-neurolink rhetoric, no government initiatives, no discussion of downsides. Once Hideo’s plan is revealed it’s abundantly clear this was done in order to obfuscate his nefarious intentions to the detriment of its believability. It is aglaring absence as you read. I don’t care how beloved the technology is; there will always be detractors. The government as slow on the uptake as they can be would be passing laws on this, creating barriers to access, limiting its potential to do harm.
Ignoring this for the twist was a mistake. In fact the novel is better if you include it as it makes the world feel more real plus it functions as foreshadowing. Then you’ve got Emika all broken up about losing her ‘great love’ or whatever. She has known this man for two months. And this doubly highlights how ridiculous it is on Hideo’s part to be so into Emika. He actually expects this girl he just met to be onboard with computer based totalitarianism. Again, after two months. What about Emika made him think she could be the one who gets it? Why did he trust her to understand his reasoning? Because he told her his tragic backstory? A tragic backstory does not guarantee agreement. He has spent half his life secretly building to this point. Why take a chance on Emika now? This is never justified to me in-text so I couldn't be sold on the romance.
I originally was going to give this three stars. I changed my mind after writing this review. Don’t get me wrong, I, very surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not a bad book; it just doesn’t hold water upon inspection. If you can turn your brain off and read it for what it is I’d say go for it.
jen77's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ashborrow's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 ⭐️ I think I would have loved this book as a younger, middle school Ashley. The setting is really cool!! I enjoyed reading about Emika’s beginnings and her hacking her way into the war cross games. The neurolink is pretty cool!! I wonder if we’ll see something like that irl eventually. The book is very YA, I didn’t realize this when I picked it up, but I’m not mad about it. I haven’t read YA in a while and it was kind of nice going back to it, very fun and easy read. I was confused about why the warcross finals was the trigger for this new neurolink feature and OF COURSE zero is (?) Hideo’s lost brother. Hideo’s sudden reveal of wanting to control everyone really feels very cartoon villain to me. I really enjoyed this book up until the last third of the book.
togidemi's review against another edition
3.0
HIS NAME IS SASUKE. SASUKE. I'M GONNA PISS MYSELF.
Really this book is a 3.5 because I DID have fun reading it. The setting of Warcross the game, while pretty generic as far as fictional online games go, was fleshed-out and adequately cool, and Warcross the novel had the AUDACITY to be about a rainbow-haired tattooed Asian #hackergirl skateboarding around Tokyo, which is already six things my simping little weeb heart adores. I even love those little weeb snippets of Japanese that made me cringe, GOD. But the cast was pretty bland and the buildup to the ending felt far, FAR too abrupt. It was definitely built up to, I guess - Emika would even mention the details foreshadowing it as she processes the new plot twist, like, "SEE! THIS WASN'T SUDDEN! IT WAS FORESHADOWED" - but yeah no still felt too damn sudden.
I guess all I can say for this book is it's very mediocre for, like, sci-fi, but pretty good for YA. I have no idea what this says about sci-fi or YA, but yeah. Fuckin' Sasuke.
Really this book is a 3.5 because I DID have fun reading it. The setting of Warcross the game, while pretty generic as far as fictional online games go, was fleshed-out and adequately cool, and Warcross the novel had the AUDACITY to be about a rainbow-haired tattooed Asian #hackergirl skateboarding around Tokyo, which is already six things my simping little weeb heart adores. I even love those little weeb snippets of Japanese that made me cringe, GOD. But the cast was pretty bland and the buildup to the ending felt far, FAR too abrupt. It was definitely built up to, I guess - Emika would even mention the details foreshadowing it as she processes the new plot twist, like, "SEE! THIS WASN'T SUDDEN! IT WAS FORESHADOWED" - but yeah no still felt too damn sudden.
Spoiler
Tremaine bounty huntering even when he was a champion player? Hideo suddenly wanting to rule the world? Fuckin SASUKE returning the memories to prove that he's not totally a bad guy?? YOU KNOW WHAT SPEAKING OF SASUKE yeah literally the moment Hideo revealed his brother was MISSING and not DEAD I immediately knew he was Zero. So. That was a very underwhelming twist.I guess all I can say for this book is it's very mediocre for, like, sci-fi, but pretty good for YA. I have no idea what this says about sci-fi or YA, but yeah. Fuckin' Sasuke.
vampire_mother's review against another edition
5.0
This was a very good read. I also am a bit angry about the whole Hideo situation. Soon a review on the blog
library_of_fairy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0