Wildcard ended up being nothing like I expected. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm disappointed (cuz I am happy with it) but I was expecting a little more. I had this idea in my mind of where I thought the story was going to go after the ending of Warcross. I think that any "disappointment" that I feel is mostly due to the fact that she took things in a different direction than I imagined. There was a new element of sci-fi added to the story this time around. Which was fun! And I loved the questions of morality that are brought to the surface throughout the ways this technology is created/used. I think this book could be a great jumping off point for some powerful discussions.

It does move a lot slower than the first one and I didn't feel as easily captivated by it. This is a much more emotional ride, verses the action packed twists we found in Warcross we don't experience anywhere near as much gaming or powerful character moments in this one. There's a lot of discussions/explaining going on. Things pick up around the half way point and after that it flows much more smoothly. But I never really got that same feel like I did reading Warcross again. It was a little disconnected and we don't get clear descriptions of how the VR works and feels. It's pretty vague and reads like we're just transported to another realm not in a Virtual World that we're controlling like a game. I missed a lot of our teammates that we got to know in the first one. We spent a good amount of time getting to know them earlier and they're hardly used in this one. It was a bit of a wasted opportunity in my opinion. There was some decent character development for the new cast members though. I loved getting into the deep backstories that tugged on our heart strings. It's most likely just me being emotional this week but I cried several times. It worked for me.

The ending was bittersweet, but also a little too convenient. Not as many consequences as I expected. I was hoping for more "tug-and-pull" in achieving the end result. The last few chapters of Marie Lu's books are always my favorite. Some people don't like her style but I love the way she orchestrates her endings! They're just a pleasure to read and make me feel so happy. I was pleased with the way things wrapped up for our characters. All in all I feel content with where things left off and ready for a new story.

I still really enjoy this author and I'll be looking forward to seeing what story she gives us next.

*review will be posted on 8/2/24

Can I just say that I love Marie Lu and I'm so glad I went through her backlist of books? I have yet to read anything from this author that I didn't genuinely enjoy. After the last book, I was itching to get my hands on this and I was not disappointed. The stakes were so much higher in this book for everyone involved. 

What I loved more than anything was getting to know more about Zero, Sasuke, and Hideo. They had such a sad, complicated history that really tugged at my heartstrings. I felt bad for everyone involved because they lost so much. I think what made it great was that each "villain" in this book was so complex. I love it when it's never as simple as them being "bad" because I was invested in reading to the end and seeing them hopefully get a good ending. 

I loved the pacing and direction that the plot took. It became about so much more than warcross, but it still gave me enough of that stunning online world. Maybe not as much as the last book--the vibe is definitely different--but I still enjoyed it. 

The ending was everything I wanted and more. It wasn't perfect, but it was what each character needed to redeem themselves. I loved it! This is a duology I would highly recommend to anyone who likes YA fantasy/sci-fi.

Warcross was a really interesting book and when this sequel was announced I was really excited to dig into it. This preview gave us a taste for what is to come with Hideo and Emika. I hope that the full novel is as exciting as the first.

I loved this book and hope there will be more! Marie Lu has a way of bringing her characters to life and making the reader feel what they are feeling.

I loved Warcross so I was eager to jump
on this sample to see what Emika and her Team does next. This book picks up sooner after those events, and now I cannot wait to read the full story.

The sneek peek of the book showed the first few chapters of the book and it was jsut as exciting and fast-paced as book one. Personally, I really enjoyed reading about Emika's character and I'm excited to read the rest of the book.

This was only a small preview for the book. I purchased the book and I loved it. There was so many things going on that I could not put down this book. The only thing I didn’t like was that this was the last book in the series. There was still so many questions that were left unanswered. So many things I wanted to see happen between Emika and Hideo.

This finale drops its colossal conclusion and mixed wrap-ups revelations.

The once astounding mind-addicting virtual game becomes the most insidious destruction for humanity. Wildcard will surely drive you to its core full of uncovering truths and deadly tracks. Amazing ventures to follow through and one last shot of end game to watch.

I do want to linger long for this sort of story. There is something, everyone can’t deny having or fantasize to exist in the present. Neurolink (is the ‘something’) goes beyond what technology can offer nowadays, but nevertheless possible if somehow someone accidentally thinks about it (maybe me or you – yeah, you who reads this, I challenge you to make it happens). Its features are really attractively interesting. Imagine you have that certain tech which virtually does calls and play with your faraway friends – whoa, that is amazingly cool. Though, the book gives pointers, too, for its deceiving evil effects if handled inhumanly (I might slip away spoiler if I narrow that ‘deceiving evil effects’, in case you haven’t read the book yet). Thinking outside the box, the idea of this virtual reality seems undeniable coming to us and only worst will happen if we did it out of selfishness.

This surreal grasps of reality contort the human mind of mine and vividly hype my conscious nerdy soul. Marie Lu creatively constructs an unimaginable world where her wild mind works its way and upshots into an incredible matrix of codes of interweaving narrative and vision. She manages everything to pull this off quite satisfyingly. It is fulfilling for me that the book settles for that finality. It deserves all the praises it receives.

One thing I learned, a human can sometimes go beyond his limits no matter what his intentions are good or not when he lost the right path of what really should be and everything will fall down afterward. We think we are doing the good part but we are just concealing the true labor of our actions that affect the population around us. Due to the fact that we are chained to our past which cast seed to bad thinking into fruit of evil, once taken – evil is born.

Wildcard is a great YA book I’ve read that entwines with every turn. Daring and unique. I’m still imagining the things happened that the book left me. You just have to deal with its entire story that delves into deeper sense and the looming fear on the surface. Not bad closure for this duology – one of the series I’ve finished by Marie Lu.

Finishing this book was a personal achievement but you can’t really brag about that at dinner parties. It’s just…the kind of book you read, and it fills you with the wrong things: you use a lot of energy to get through this chapter, and in the end, you feel emptier and less comfortable than ever. This excerpr was a pain in the ass to get through

This book has been so high on my to be read pile and I was so excited to be able to get a sneak peek of the book before it came out. I love how unique this series is between the plot line and the characters. The sneak peek definitely makes me want to pick the rest of the book up right away so I can find out what ends up happening with these characters. The end of book one left us with such a cliffhanger and I feel like the sneak peak at the beginning of book two already shows that things are going to continue getting intense. The characters are a lot of fun to read and I love that each one has their own personality and it shows. Marie Lu does a great job time and time again with fun characters and plots and knows how to keep her readers guessing and wanting more.

Marie Lu is an incredibly talented writer. Emika and Hideo's continuing story is well developed and keeps you thoroughly entertained. I own all her books and re read them often.

Read this preview, then moved on to the full novel which we ordered for our library system. I am enjoying this series very much!

rating 2.5 stars

I'm not really surprised that I didn't love this book, but I am also surprised that I didn't love this book? I really don't know if it's the fact that I read Warcross awhile ago or if the book is just confusing, but I was lost. For like a lot of it.

Again, take this with a grain of salt, but the neurolink didn't make any sense to me? Like I understand it's a sci-fi and we don't have this technology, but I'd still like my sci-fi to be rooted in some sort of reality. There are parts in the second half of the book that I just didn't understand how they were happening??? There was no technical explanation, and all I could think about was how none of it made sense. (If this type of thing doesn't bother you, then I'm sure you'll love it!)

I did not like the love interest in Warcross, and that dislike continued into this book. Their scenes did keep me entertained, but I still feel like it was forced and maybe unnecessary for the story? I guess it was a driving factor for some of Emika's choices, but UGH I was over it.

It's possible I didn't care about the side characters because I didn't remember anything about them from the first book, or it's possible they were just boring. I wasn't invested in their plot lines at all (and there were some scenes where I really should have cared based on what was happening, but I just didn't) and a day after finishing, I barely remember anything about them.

The plot spun out of control at the end and took a turn I was NOT expecting. I'm not mad at it, but it seemed kind of like the book was barely related to the first in this series? I honestly can't tell if this is a critique on the book or not because it didn't necessarily tarnish my reading experience, but just an observation. If you're look for a book with the same tone of Warcross, I don't think this is it.

Overall, I did not hate this book. I think most of my problems with it are personal, and I'm sure a TON of people who read it with love it. I can guarantee a big factor on my experience was the fact that I couldn't remember everything that happened in the first book (I read a recap, but alas it was not enough.) I wouldn't deter you from reading this book if you loved the first one or love YA sci-fi in general.

Wildcard is a phenomenal sequel to Warcross that picks up where Warcross left off. Marie Lu weaves her thoughtful characters in a beautifully imaginative world with action, adventure, and multiple layers. Her story telling ability is also top-notch. While I have read other series by Lu, this series does not disappoint and does not copy her other series. A true sci-fi/ fantasy novel with everything a reader could want in a plot-driven novel.

I only received the first chapters of this one, but loved it so much! Excited to read the full book!

i dont remember reading this book, but according to my goodreads i did. no idea what happened, but i did NOT like it.

After finishing Warcross, I was anxious to read the sequel as soon as I could. While waiting, I enjoyed this excerpt and felt I could already tell that the second book would live up to the first. The second picks up right where the former left off and expertly reminds the reader of where things are without being overly explanatory or didactic. We're immediately reminded that Emika Chen is still in love with Hideo, but she doesn't like that and her feelings are conflicting and complex. The scene of Tokyo, as seen through the glasses, is immediately recreated, and Emika soon meets up with her team, whose characters are just as real they were in Warcross. Within only a dozen or so pages, we're already immersed back into the primary problem Emika and her friends need to take care of, and foreshadowing and introductions to other smaller subplots have already begun to take shape. By the end of this excerpt, we can tell Emika will have even more contact with Zero than she did before in this book, and we meet a new character, Jax, who seems like she'll play a major part in this book. Naturally, the excerpt ends at a cliffhanger, but I was already excited to read the next book. This excerpt was just the appetizer that confirmed it would be as good as I was already expecting.

This wasn't quite as good as Warcross but still an okay read and a nice to have a wrap up for the series. I think the plot took a little to long to get going and for some reason didn't really feel like starting point from where we left on in Warcross. I also felt like the game of Warcross was missing from this book and that was kind of sad. It was a super fun part of the first book and while we still had some of the camaraderie of the teams that wasn't as solid and fun.

It was nice to find out what had happened to Zero and see his story play out but even that was a little slow. By the end I was glad to have read it but didn't feel the same excitement as I did with the first book.

I read Warcross a year ago, and loved it so much. Wildcard appears to have all the promise of Warcross with lots more excitement to come.

Since this review is based only an excerpt, I obviously can't comment for the whole novel. However, this first section just seemed be missing that spark from the first book? Wildcard didn't seem nearly as exciting, as thrilling as Warcross had been. I was less invested in Emika as a character, and found myself having to push through while reading this excerpt. I was pretty excited for Wildcard too, since I thought Warcross was really fun and interesting, but this excerpt just seemed rather bland. I don't think I will be picking up the completed work as I am simply not invested in these characters or the world anymore.
That said, I loved seeing places like Paris and Tokyo in literature. Definitely loving the diverse rep and diverse locations. It just makes everything that much cooler.
Still have faith in Marie Lu as a writer, and will be keeping an eye out for what she writes next.