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A review by zanybibliophile
Warcross by Marie Lu
2.0
I will begin by saying that I purchased Warcross for the cover and I read it for a book club. If not for those reasons, I probably would not have read the book. To be honest, the most positive things I have to say about this book is I kind of like the idea behind the story and I felt the writing was pretty good.
Warcross is a virtual reality game that is being tampered with, so the creator of the employs a teenage hacker to find the person and stop them. Sounded somewhat interesting, but it is not my usual preference in reading material. I was pleasantly surprised when I liked the first chapter, but for me, it went downhill from there.
The main character, Emika Chen, annoyed me with her ‘I was poor but now I have lots of money’, the constant reminder that she was more skilled than her level let on, and that whole rainbow hair being her identifying feature.
The secondary characters were not much better, all of them being vague at best. In fact, I cannot remember their names without flicking through the book. The exception to the vagueness is Hideo Tanaka – the young billionaire who created Warcross –but he is a jerk and kind of a creep. Emika idolises him and actually seems inappropriately obsessed with him, which is probably the reason we know so much about him and so little of everyone else.
Regardless of my dislike for and disappointment with the characters I spent most of the novel confused about the virtual reality and how it was supposed to work. There were a few times I thought I had finally got it, but then there would be yet another action or feature I did not understand and I was back to confused.
The part of the story that had Emika looking for the hacker tampering with the game was a sort of a mystery, which I kind of liked, but the answer to the mystery was basically handed to us on a platter. Seriously, it was about half a dozen chapters after being given the task of finding the hacker that Emika has 80% of the mystery figured out.
My last issue is the ending. It was terrifying and not in a good way. I am talking nightmare worthy and I did not sleep that night because I was freaked out. Sure, points for succeeding in scaring a 21-year-old into insomnia, but I am not a fan of the turn the story is set to take in book two.
I have given this book 2 stars mostly for effort, the pretty cover and the fact I want to reserve 1 star for books I detest. While I do not detest this book, I was not a fan of Warcross and do not see myself reading the next book.
Warcross is a virtual reality game that is being tampered with, so the creator of the employs a teenage hacker to find the person and stop them. Sounded somewhat interesting, but it is not my usual preference in reading material. I was pleasantly surprised when I liked the first chapter, but for me, it went downhill from there.
The main character, Emika Chen, annoyed me with her ‘I was poor but now I have lots of money’, the constant reminder that she was more skilled than her level let on, and that whole rainbow hair being her identifying feature.
The secondary characters were not much better, all of them being vague at best. In fact, I cannot remember their names without flicking through the book. The exception to the vagueness is Hideo Tanaka – the young billionaire who created Warcross –but he is a jerk and kind of a creep. Emika idolises him and actually seems inappropriately obsessed with him, which is probably the reason we know so much about him and so little of everyone else.
Regardless of my dislike for and disappointment with the characters I spent most of the novel confused about the virtual reality and how it was supposed to work. There were a few times I thought I had finally got it, but then there would be yet another action or feature I did not understand and I was back to confused.
The part of the story that had Emika looking for the hacker tampering with the game was a sort of a mystery, which I kind of liked, but the answer to the mystery was basically handed to us on a platter. Seriously, it was about half a dozen chapters after being given the task of finding the hacker that Emika has 80% of the mystery figured out.
My last issue is the ending. It was terrifying and not in a good way. I am talking nightmare worthy and I did not sleep that night because I was freaked out. Sure, points for succeeding in scaring a 21-year-old into insomnia, but I am not a fan of the turn the story is set to take in book two.
I have given this book 2 stars mostly for effort, the pretty cover and the fact I want to reserve 1 star for books I detest. While I do not detest this book, I was not a fan of Warcross and do not see myself reading the next book.