Book: Wildcard
Author: Marie Lu
Synopsis:
Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo’s new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she’s always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.
Determined to put a stop to Hideo’s grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone’s put a bounty on Emika’s head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn’t all that he seems-and his protection comes at a price.
Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?
Rating: 3/5
Spoiler Free
Review:
Wildcard is the thrilling sequel to one of my favorite books of last year. Sadly, it didn’t quite meet my built up expectations. I did get to have the wonderful experience of meeting Marie Lu earlier this month. This duology was such an adventure, and I already miss the world. But, I do wish the books had left off on a more satisfying note.
Characters: ⅗
In Warcross, the characters were my favorite part because we got see Emika interacting and growing towards these new people and learning to open up. There was quite a notable absence of these characters in Wildcard. They are a team, and it felt like they were brought in at convenient times. Emika was one of my favorite kickbutt characters, but in this book, she was a shell. I got very little emotions from her, and I didn’t feel she had any part to play in the story. If I did feel a connection to her, it was annoyance because she was really whiny and impulsive. At no point in the story did I could tell she stopped to think everything out.
Hideo was also somewhat of a shell. I could tell he was a big part of the story, but I didn’t feel we had put any focus or importance on him. To me, he really just lurked around the edges of the story as more of a plot point than character.
There are some new additions to cast. I loved all of them. We got to explore Zero’s arc a lot more, and I felt he held up majority of the story. He had a little help of lifting up the story from another new character, which I also loved so much.
Plot: ⅖
This is where most of my problems lie. 90% of this was planning and plotting, and it wasn’t until the very end that we got an interesting bit of a fight scene. When I met with Marie Lu, she had talked about condensing the series into two books was harder because the second book is much like a planning/filler book. I felt like she had too much planning in the beginning to try and compensate for the missing book.
The series is based around Warcross, but there was barely any actual Warcross. I had expected to get more world development in this book, but I really felt like we took a step back. I am slightly shocked I made it through this book as fast as I did because I kept losing my focus. The scenes didn’t flow, and there was no action, so I kept taking a break and cruising my phone. I loved the overall plot style, and once we got into that, things got interesting. The ending was incredibly unsatisfying. I felt like it could have given us more.
Writing Style: ⅗
You know the classic phrase, “show not tell.” I feel like Marie Lu could have used that a bit more. The story relies a lot of the narration and dialogue of it’s characters. I didn’t feel like I was a part of the story; I felt like I was being read the story. If I had liked Emika more as a narrator, it would have worked a lot more effectively too.
World Building: ⅖
Warcross had a lot of world building, but I was expecting more from Wildcard. There was barely any Warcross, and I could not tell you what was happening outside of Emika’s bubble. She was so cut off from the world we barely heard about the effect on the public, how the other teams were, or exploration of the Darkworld. We glaze over the effects, and we don’t delve deep enough to feel a connection to the story.
So as you can probably tell, I was disappointed in this book. But the series has drawn to a close, and it was sad to let all that go.
Paper Thieves 