* I got this book form the publisher for my honest thoughts*

I really adored this sequel to Warcross. I loved how it expanded the world and also really made the mystery and the drama in book one even more complex. It was super fast pace read. I loved the balance between older characters in book one and the newer characters we meet in book 2. It was a good balance. It was a super fast read. I just loved how well marie lu created this world so diverse and and did it in such semless way and it made the world seem so "real" to me. I loved all the game play we got as well in this novel. I would def. be interested in seeing more books in this world because this world was so much fun to read about! ( )

* I got this book form the publisher for my honest thoughts*

I really adored this sequel to Warcross. I loved how it expanded the world and also really made the mystery and the drama in book one even more complex. It was super fast pace read. I loved the balance between older characters in book one and the newer characters we meet in book 2. It was a good balance. It was a super fast read. I just loved how well marie lu created this world so diverse and and did it in such semless way and it made the world seem so "real" to me. I loved all the game play we got as well in this novel. I would def. be interested in seeing more books in this world because this world was so much fun to read about! ( )

Man, has it been a while since I.... A) Finished a book series and B) Finished a MAINSTREAM book series.

Seriously, I pick up so many books and rarely do I get the rest of the series. I did manage to pick this book up not long after I finished Warcross, I just ended up losing it in my TBR shelves and didn't pick it up. Then, I managed to find it and stare at it for months because I was scared it wouldn't live up to the hype. Honestly, it wasn't that bad and I think it did a good job. There weren't many ways that this series was going to end. It did it's job and I applaud Marie Lu. There was no disappointment from this reader!

Emika Chen is back in the second and final round of the Warcross series. After a giant hack and lots of drama in the last book, she's suddenly trying to ensure the world isn't going to end (like most dystopian novels) with her local band of misfits (and super awesome video game players). Hideo's plan is evil, but somebody else has an even more sinister plan. You think that would be it? Of course not! People will come out of the woodwork to show their true colours, and show us a past we never knew existed... And one they were trying to hide.

This book has it's positives and negatives. I think it does a great job finishing this story up because it had a BIG job to do. I do think Emika and some of the characters are a little dull. The romance card really doesn't go anywhere so why bother with it to begin with? Lots of this book just... happens. There's no rhyme or reason, but things tie themselves up nicely with a bow and make sure all is said and done. There's definitely ways this book is lesser than Warcross, but at the same time I think it's a great sequel. I did take time between the books though, so I wasn't expecting this book to be way better or do something magical. I wanted to see how the story would end and what would happen to my favourite characters.

Overall, I liked this book! Definitely a nice two book series to hide away from the world in. It gave me Ready Player One vibes, but in a very different universe.

Three out of five stars. ( )

I finished and now I'm wondering if it's all done or there's more cause it could go either way.

I'm also just like what am I supposed to do now lol. This was a great book with a lot of twists and highs and lows. It also had a great ending.

I was stressed reading this much like the last half of Warcross except I was stressed pretty much the whole book instead of only part of it.

There was a lot I identified with and could see how they were trying to find the right balance of tech vs reality - something we are trying to find a balance of more as our world had more screentime and tech so easily and readily available.

Also trying to find a place of peace with dealing with losses in life with how to grieve and deal with death and use all these things to fuel positive changes and how to help others and be loving.

A quote from this book that stands out to me is ”To destroy is always easier than to create” - this applies to so much, but I feel this with trying to do writing a lot. It also leads me to the thought of its always easier to quit than to keep trying - easier to quit than to succeed because of how much you have to keep going before you succeed.

If you haven't checked this out, you should - check out and read Warcross and Wildcard now!!!
( )

This was not WARCROSS. This was a sequel to WARCROSS. And that's quite sad, because I adored WARCROSS and thought it could have done an excellent job as a standalone, a bit thicker of a standalone, perhaps. This got too ambiguous and fell into my often touted trap of dystopias--it got too complicated and required too much suspension of disbelief. I liked WARCROSS because it was so elegantly written and easy to visualize (to the extent that I gave my ARC to a friend who's obsessed with Overwatch because I thought he'd enjoy it despite not having read a book in forever.) WILDCARD lost those elements and was a lot less video-gamey, sadly.

I also found that none of the characters had really stuck in my head from the first, and while I thought it had done a good job in giving them each personalities, here they all felt rather minor and trivial. I loved the newer characters--Jax in particular--but Taylor seemed entirely out of left field and I had no connection to Emika's teammates.

So yet another example of why good dystopian novels should just stay good dystopian novels. At least they didn't turn it into a trilogy. ( )