The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: Wildcard

Series: Warcross #2

Author: Maire Lu

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

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? – summary from Goodreads

Wildcard was a thrilling conclusion to the Warcross duology!

The main character, Emika, was amazing! I loved her character and the adventures she went through and how she handled everything. One of my favorite parts of this book is how Emika tries to see the best in people, especially Hideo. She also tries her best to save as many people as she can and protect all of her friends. I love a good protective main character. Emika does do a good job of letting other people help her, though she does struggle with this throughout the book, but I enjoy how she works through this.

Hideo is still my favorite! I know he is kind of the antagonist in this book, but Emika always tries to see the best in him, which probably skews my perspective a little, but I still really like him. I love how he works through his grief in this book. It was incredibly moving and sad. He has such a heavy story, and Marie Lu does a wonderful job with this aspect of the story.

Speaking of this heavy storyline, we finally learn what happened to Sasuke. It was truly devastating, and definitely some of the hardest parts of the book, for every character. I did like the ending we got for this character, though- it wasn’t perfect and still sad, but we did get some closure.

The other Phoenix Riders were more prominent characters in this book, and we were able to get to know them a little more. They were still definitely side characters, but I liked that they played a bigger role and that we got to know them a little better. Tremaine played a much bigger role! I was super intrigued by him in the last book, so I’m so happy we got to see more of him in this book. We got his backstory- another sad one- and he started becoming closer friends with Emika. This deepened the story and fleshed out the book a little more.

The storyline was good. It was super twisty, with a lot of adventures. There was a lot of moving pieces, and it was written really well. I was totally engrossed in the story; this is definitely a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat!

While it still took place in Japan, we got to explore some new settings. There was more diving into the Underworld, which I really enjoyed and there was exploring some new parts of Japan and the city. I loved these new settings and the adventures that came along with them.

A lot of this book took place in the Internet realm, but it wasn’t as focused on the gaming side of things as much. This is still very much a technological-advanced story, though.

There were some interesting concepts explored this book. The biggest one was someone controlling a lot of people’s emotions to stop crime. This was a fascinating concept and really well written. Marie Lu did a good job showing how complex this issue was, too.

Wildcard was a twisty conclusion to a dystopian duology, with complex ideas, friendship, and realistic characters!