wildcard: book review

Title: Wildcard (Warcross #2)

Author: Marie Lu

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Publisher: Penguin Teen Australia

Pages: 343

Buy: Book Depository (affiliate), Booktopia

Synopsis:
(SPOILERS FOR WARCROSS)
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?

My Review:

(Thank you Penguin Teen Australia for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review. This in no way affects my thoughts or opinions on this book)

This book was one of my most anticipated releases for 2018 and it did not disappoint. Warcross was one of my favourite reads last year and so I could not wait to get my hands on the sequel, and when I did, not going to lie, I squealed and had to read it almost immediately. I mean, how could I not?

But anyway, onto my actual thoughts.

Wildcard starts right where Warcross left off, and the second I started reading it I felt transported straight back into the world. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t remember some of the important plot points since I read the first book over a year ago, but everything came back to me almost from the first page. Now, this may not seem like that big of a deal but my memory is usually shocking, so this was a big deal for me.

The story itself was just as good as the first book. It was full of action and drama and I really enjoyed seeing the characters again and getting a bit more depth to them all as well. There were a lot of twists that I didn’t see coming despite trying SO HARD to guess what would happen, which I loved and it kept me wanting to read to find out more.

The writing style was super fast-paced and easy to read, and I just really loved it. Marie Lu is one of my favourite authors and her writing is just so addictive to read and extremely difficult to put down.

I think the only thing that was missing in Wildcard for me was the action and fun that was brought in with the Warcross games. Wildcard focused a lot more on the real world and tracking things down to ‘save the world’, which was still enjoyable but I really loved the virtual reality games in the first book so I was a little disappointed that they didn’t play as big a part in the sequel.

Overall, Wildcard was a fun, action-packed novel and a wonderful conclusion to an amazing sci-fi world. I’d love to see more from the Warcross world and the characters, but I also look forward to seeing what else Marie Lu can do as it seems like she can do no wrong.

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

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Have you read this duology? What were your thoughts?

Until next time,