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A review by readivine
Warcross by Marie Lu
5.0
First off, THIS IS A REAL SURPRISE FOR ME AND I'M NOT REGRETTING MY CHOICE W/ THIS ONE.
To be honest, I wasn't really expecting anything. I mean sure, the hype was kind of unsettling and well, Marie Lu??? Need I say more?
But you see, it's usually either a hit or miss for me with sci-fi's involving virtual gaming realities. You know what? Actually, it has always been a miss for me, and Marie Lu for the first time hit the mark unflinchingly. I've already read her Young Elites series and likewise, I didn't expect much from it after reading it's blurb. Of course, again, it was also a pleasant surprise because Lu always manages to snare her readers w/ her words effortlessly.
Honestly speaking, I think Warcross is her masterpiece as of now, and to think that she was able to skirt across different genres in consecutive years (YA Dystopian, YA Fantasy, YA Sci-fi) really nailed her place in the glittery pedestal.
Warcross has opened a new world for us readers, it's a burst of technicolored magnificence overlaying reality giving off a psychedelic feel you'd love. It's like the internet on steroids finally breaking free from their confined compartments and seeped through our world. This, in fact, was one of the many strong points of the book. It's prose delivered a sense of realism making the world building more coherently solid w/o a glitch. (D'you see what I did there, hurhurhurhur) For me, this is kind of a crucial point of the narrative because, without it, the plot would be useless. I wouldn't be able to concentrate w/o patching up the insufficient setting first on my own. Lu was able to shake off the usual vagueness of this world and gave us a trip to Neon Tokyo in its full splendor. Gawd, I love the world building so much I'm already dying to read more of it!
Aside from that, the character designs complemented the world as well. Emika Chen, our heroine is the exclamation point in here. What with her rainbow-streaked hair and myriad of tattoos in her arms, she for me was like the personification of Warcross. Not only that, what makes it more exciting also is its diversity among the players. Every single race is showed in here, all mixed with different orientations and quirks that made each character stand out among us readers. Another thing to be commended for is the easy flow of dialogues between them, trust me, you'd never be bored.
The technicalities of the game were also easy to digest without overloading too much info and that's something! Especially for non-gamer readers like myself. Not to mention the book's overall pacing. Every chapter is a surprise and balances off the pacing of the previous chapter. It's all a blend of thrill and satisfaction for me. Storywise, I just have to bow down to Marie Lu. I LOVED IT SO MUCH from the time Emika was thrown into this glittering neon world, to the championship games, to *coughs* HIDEO'S ARMS, to the emotional ropes gripping you for more with every chapter. It's a wondrous ride and I'm so thankful to have picked this up! Unlike other series, this first book was able to give a nice sweep of an ending. It wasn't much of a cliffhanger for me, instead, it was a promise. A promise I would so desperately like to be fulfilled ON SEPTEMBER 18 AS THE SECOND BOOK WILL BE ALREADY PUBLISHED! *sighs* Warcross is deserving of a 5 star!
To be honest, I wasn't really expecting anything. I mean sure, the hype was kind of unsettling and well, Marie Lu??? Need I say more?
But you see, it's usually either a hit or miss for me with sci-fi's involving virtual gaming realities. You know what? Actually, it has always been a miss for me, and Marie Lu for the first time hit the mark unflinchingly. I've already read her Young Elites series and likewise, I didn't expect much from it after reading it's blurb. Of course, again, it was also a pleasant surprise because Lu always manages to snare her readers w/ her words effortlessly.
Honestly speaking, I think Warcross is her masterpiece as of now, and to think that she was able to skirt across different genres in consecutive years (YA Dystopian, YA Fantasy, YA Sci-fi) really nailed her place in the glittery pedestal.
Warcross has opened a new world for us readers, it's a burst of technicolored magnificence overlaying reality giving off a psychedelic feel you'd love. It's like the internet on steroids finally breaking free from their confined compartments and seeped through our world. This, in fact, was one of the many strong points of the book. It's prose delivered a sense of realism making the world building more coherently solid w/o a glitch. (D'you see what I did there, hurhurhurhur) For me, this is kind of a crucial point of the narrative because, without it, the plot would be useless. I wouldn't be able to concentrate w/o patching up the insufficient setting first on my own. Lu was able to shake off the usual vagueness of this world and gave us a trip to Neon Tokyo in its full splendor. Gawd, I love the world building so much I'm already dying to read more of it!
Aside from that, the character designs complemented the world as well. Emika Chen, our heroine is the exclamation point in here. What with her rainbow-streaked hair and myriad of tattoos in her arms, she for me was like the personification of Warcross. Not only that, what makes it more exciting also is its diversity among the players. Every single race is showed in here, all mixed with different orientations and quirks that made each character stand out among us readers. Another thing to be commended for is the easy flow of dialogues between them, trust me, you'd never be bored.
The technicalities of the game were also easy to digest without overloading too much info and that's something! Especially for non-gamer readers like myself. Not to mention the book's overall pacing. Every chapter is a surprise and balances off the pacing of the previous chapter. It's all a blend of thrill and satisfaction for me. Storywise, I just have to bow down to Marie Lu. I LOVED IT SO MUCH from the time Emika was thrown into this glittering neon world, to the championship games, to *coughs* HIDEO'S ARMS, to the emotional ropes gripping you for more with every chapter. It's a wondrous ride and I'm so thankful to have picked this up! Unlike other series, this first book was able to give a nice sweep of an ending. It wasn't much of a cliffhanger for me, instead, it was a promise. A promise I would so desperately like to be fulfilled ON SEPTEMBER 18 AS THE SECOND BOOK WILL BE ALREADY PUBLISHED! *sighs* Warcross is deserving of a 5 star!