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A review by mizz_mack
Warcross by Marie Lu
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Finished another one! Audiobooks are really helping me out tbh.
Anyways, I really enjoyed this book. It had a kind of...shounen anime quality to me, which is a positive in my book. Marie Lu has a real knack for writing action scenes that I find fun, and fast pace, and engaging. The world building may feel a little thin in some respect, there are a lot of questions one could ask about the setting, but I think its detailed enough to give it a real sense of place without it being overbearing. I feel this way especially about all of the tech in the world, but, I will say, I don't know much about the inner workings of computers and hacking. If you do this aspect of the book might annoy you or pull you out of the story.
I think the characters, overall, are fun!
Emika Chen, out main character, is fun to follow. She starts off down and out: broke, in massive debt from her late, father, on the verge of being homeless. She can't get a stable job because of some criminal activity in her past. She's going through a lot 🥺. Her only escape is the mega popular Warcross. Some kind of game-slash-virtual world thing. She tried to hack into one of the games to steal something, some kind of code to sell on the digital black market, but get found out. Caught in 4k 📸📸📸.
But instead of going to jail she gets sent on a Cinderella type story, whisked away to Tokyo by her #1 idol, the creator of Warcross himself, Hideo Tanaka. He was her light in the dark when she was younger, basically inspired her to get into coding and all of that. So, you would think she'd be star struck. And she sort of is, but she's mostly suspicious. Why had he flown her all the way out to Tokyo? Well it turns out he needs her elite hacking skills to help him find and catch a criminal named Zero. And she'll have to go undercover as a Warcross player to do it.
Once she's set on her mission she's determined to see it through to the end. Firstly, because the bounty she's being paid is 10 million dollars, and that kind of money is literally lie changing, and secondly, because she starts to catch serious romantic feelings for Hideo (that he reciprocates) and doesn't want any harm to come to him. I like her, she's setting up plans, going into the black market to spy on people, confronting the villain, ect, ect. She's a proactive lady.
I will say, toward the middle of the book, if you're not feeling the Hideo and Emika romance it might feel a lot slower to you. There is a lot of page time developing them, which is good for the ending. I do think, from Hideo's perspective it feels a little..."insta-lovey" but I don't have a problem with that trope at all if the ensuing relationship is written in a fun, interesting, and compelling way. And I would say that the development between Hideo and Emika is interesting, especially considering where they end up.
The other characters, most of whom are Emika's teammates in the Warcross game, are pretty thinly sketched, but I get the feeling that they will be more important in the second book. And while they are thinly sketched there was still enough that gave them a decent sense of character. So much so that when the 3rd act argument happened between Emika and her teammates I was legitimate worried that they wouldn't talk to each other any more. So I would call it effective.
Also, I did in fact call one of the final twist, but I still gasped (a story being predictable isn't bad, ya see) cause it was a fun ride to get there.
All in all, very solid YA outing.
Anyways, I really enjoyed this book. It had a kind of...shounen anime quality to me, which is a positive in my book. Marie Lu has a real knack for writing action scenes that I find fun, and fast pace, and engaging. The world building may feel a little thin in some respect, there are a lot of questions one could ask about the setting, but I think its detailed enough to give it a real sense of place without it being overbearing. I feel this way especially about all of the tech in the world, but, I will say, I don't know much about the inner workings of computers and hacking. If you do this aspect of the book might annoy you or pull you out of the story.
I think the characters, overall, are fun!
Emika Chen, out main character, is fun to follow. She starts off down and out: broke, in massive debt from her late, father, on the verge of being homeless. She can't get a stable job because of some criminal activity in her past. She's going through a lot 🥺. Her only escape is the mega popular Warcross. Some kind of game-slash-virtual world thing. She tried to hack into one of the games to steal something, some kind of code to sell on the digital black market, but get found out. Caught in 4k 📸📸📸.
But instead of going to jail she gets sent on a Cinderella type story, whisked away to Tokyo by her #1 idol, the creator of Warcross himself, Hideo Tanaka. He was her light in the dark when she was younger, basically inspired her to get into coding and all of that. So, you would think she'd be star struck. And she sort of is, but she's mostly suspicious. Why had he flown her all the way out to Tokyo? Well it turns out he needs her elite hacking skills to help him find and catch a criminal named Zero. And she'll have to go undercover as a Warcross player to do it.
Once she's set on her mission she's determined to see it through to the end. Firstly, because the bounty she's being paid is 10 million dollars, and that kind of money is literally lie changing, and secondly, because she starts to catch serious romantic feelings for Hideo (that he reciprocates) and doesn't want any harm to come to him. I like her, she's setting up plans, going into the black market to spy on people, confronting the villain, ect, ect. She's a proactive lady.
I will say, toward the middle of the book, if you're not feeling the Hideo and Emika romance it might feel a lot slower to you. There is a lot of page time developing them, which is good for the ending. I do think, from Hideo's perspective it feels a little..."insta-lovey" but I don't have a problem with that trope at all if the ensuing relationship is written in a fun, interesting, and compelling way. And I would say that the development between Hideo and Emika is interesting, especially considering where they end up.
The other characters, most of whom are Emika's teammates in the Warcross game, are pretty thinly sketched, but I get the feeling that they will be more important in the second book. And while they are thinly sketched there was still enough that gave them a decent sense of character. So much so that when the 3rd act argument happened between Emika and her teammates I was legitimate worried that they wouldn't talk to each other any more. So I would call it effective.
Also, I did in fact call one of the final twist, but I still gasped (a story being predictable isn't bad, ya see) cause it was a fun ride to get there.
All in all, very solid YA outing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Terminal illness, Kidnapping
Minor: Bullying