Marie Lu
Series: Warcross, #1
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads
I knew pretty much nothing about Warcross going into it, except that I thought it kind of sounded like a similar concept to the movie Summer Wars (which I highly recommend watching, just saying) and that Marie Lu wrote it (so basically I had to read it). Just like Summer Wars, I absolutely loved Warcross!
Warcross follows Emika Chen, a hacker from New York who works as a bounty hunter to try and make ends meet. When she gets recruited by Hideo Tanaka, the inventor of Warcross, she is thrown into the Warcross championship tournament as a spy, uncovering secrets she never would have expected.
I absolutely LOVED the characters in Warcross! Emi is an absolutely brilliant character, and I think I just really enjoy hacker characters in general because it's so cool!!! She made me think of Mr. Robot. Emi is a strong and crafty heroine with a lot of heart, and she went through a lot of personal growth, figuring out what was important to her, throughout the story.
While the other characters were not as prominent until the end, I thought her teammates were really interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more about them in the next installment. Hammie, in particular, was awesome (I have a bias toward strong female characters). Since Emi is more of a loner type of character, there wasn't a lot of friendship built with these characters, but I have faith that there will be more in the next book!
The romance in this book was so swoony and sweet. I enjoyed that even though there was an element of instant connection, it took a while for the characters to break down the walls they built around themselves before letting each other in. Marie Lu, as always, did an incredible job making me feel all the feels about this relationship.
In terms of the world building, this world is so cool!!! It's extremely well thought out and fabulously executed. Marie Lu was able to built a world similar to ours but fully enhanced by technology and virtual reality. It in no way felt forced, and it was so well described that I felt like I was using the technology. I even nerded out a little bit at the end with talks of algorithms because it reminded me of some of the machine learning I'll be doing soon. #nerdlife.
Overall, Warcross was a thrilling first installment to this new series. Marie Lu, once again, has delivered with a book that pulled me in and kept me reading until the end. Even though I thought this was a standalone until I got to the end (that was a tough blow), I am so excited to see where this book goes after the shocking end. It's not a cliffhanger, but it definitely left me craving more.
**I would like to thank the publisher for the advanced reading copy!
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I've been hearing good things about this one. The characters especially sound great. I think I'm going to wait a bit before reading this series though because Marie Lu tends to write endings that I don't really care for. But glad you enjoyed this one! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so very glad you enjoyed this one! I thought the world was super cool too! :)
ReplyDeleteOh lovely review :) I'm really glad you enjoyed this one so much. I read and loved it just as well, the world was really cool and that ending...well, it had me craving for more just as well ahah, I did NOT see that coming! :)
ReplyDeleteI probably won't get to this one any time soon, but it sounds like a really fun book! If my husband was a reader, he'd probably be into something like this.
ReplyDeleteI have heard a lot of great things about Warcross. It looks like the author does a great job with the story and setting up the world. Great review!
ReplyDeleteIt is the first I am hearing of this one. Sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis wasn't on my radar until a week ago, and dang it..it sound so good.
ReplyDeleteI liked this one a lot, and Hammie was awesome! In fact I liked the whole team, and it was fun seeing them work together.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it the worst when you don't realize a book is the first in a series until the end?! It's always such a love/hate matter for me - love that there's more but hate that now I have to wait. Anyhow, this book has been high on my radar ( I love Marie's books!) Emi does sound like a great character, and I'm glad to hear the romance is likable even with the insta connection. Great review, Sam!
ReplyDeleteI loved Warcross so much. Glad to hear you enjoyed it too. I'm already wanting to get my hands on the next book!
ReplyDeleteI feel like I totally should have started reading her work earlier, dammit! This sounds brilliant and everyone who's reviewed it has loved it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I've seen Summer Wars before yet remember none of the story. Maybe I watched the trailer before? It looks awesome though and if Warcross is even half as good as the trailer makes Summer Wars look then I am all over it. I sort of forgot about Marie Lu until Warcross came out, I loved the Legend series and then I missed the Young Elites books by accident (I own the first one though) and now this came out and I seriously feel like I'm missing out. I may just have to go shopping later.
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