Wildcard (Warcross, #2)

by Marie Lu

Nancy Wu (Narrator)

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.

• ISBN10: 0525638164
• ISBN13: 9780525638162
• Publish Date: 28 October 2018 (first published 18 September 2018)
• Publish Status: Withdrawn
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Listening Library
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 10 hours and 51 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[alisoninbookland]

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Well, that was a bit disappointing. I had so much fun with Warcross. It was one of those books that I picked up because it sounded interesting enough and ended up having a blast with. I had hoped to have just as much fun with Wildcard but alas there was just something missing.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what was different. We still got snippets of the game and virtual world. We still got Emika and Hideo and the tension there. We still got the Phoenix Riders. It was just lacking that little bit of magic that made Warcross so much fun.

The story really takes a while to get going. There was so much talking and planning about how the plans were going to be executed. We had to get almost 3/4 of the way through the story for the story to get kicked into high gear and have me really care about the story.

Morally gray characters are always engaging to read about so the twists and turns about Hideo, Taylor, and company are interesting. No one and nothing is exactly what it seems. Emika felt so disconnected from the story. She didn’t engage that much with what was happening.

Ultimately, Wildcard isn’t a terrible book. It’s what I would normally label as middle book syndrome except this isn’t the middle book of a series. It’s the end of a duology which makes the misstep a bit unfortunate.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: 4 Stars 💛

I’m not sure yet. RTC.

[Kat @ Novels & Waffles]

I wasn't particularly in love with Warcross, but I liked it enough to pick up the second book. I thought maybe Wildcard might turn things around for me – but the result was the same as the first installment. It was a vanilla ice-cream sort of book: Nobody is going to say no to a big bowl of vanilla ice-cream, but it’s probably not going to be anybody’s first choice for a desert either. Similarly, this book was good but not great. Enjoyable, but not particularly memorable.

The things I liked:
-Emika's RAINBOW HAIR. I will never stop shouting about this
-That it was set in Japan (though sometimes the authenticity was questionable)
-There were no clear-cut "good" or "bad" guys. The bad guys sometimes did good things and the good guys sometimes did bad things. Marie Lu is the QUEEN of morally grey characters and I love it. She explored these same sort of themes (but more successfully, in my opinion) in her series The Young Elites, which is one of my recent favorites.

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[sa090]

Last book of my October TBR and I’m just so glad to have it done before the new month starts. Ultimately, I’ll say I’m pretty disappointed with this follow up and conclusion to the series.

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It took me a bit to remember where we started out in this one, but it wasn’t difficult to reimagine the world once I got onboard again. That being said, this book deals with the choices of the characters, more so than the game itself which is not really that surprising to see, but I honestly wish it was done better than this. You see, revising something gives a new perspective every single time and I can’t help, but notice how much this world Marie Lu built and the story’s progression seems like it’s been burrowed from different anime I’ve previously see before; specifically Death Note, Psycho-Pass and Code Geass. Now burrowed ideas, don’t mean automatic fail assuming it’s entertaining, but if it’s not then the media I’m consuming with said burrowed ideas feels like it’s the cheaper not so good alternative which is unfortunately what Wildcard was to me.

The world remains pretty interesting, I won’t deny that given how much I love realities like these but since the focus on the characters is what’s taking priority here, I find the world to be one of the very few saving graces to this novel. For example, the way Emika deals with what’s around her is baffling and honestly moronically naive when it comes to Hideo. Not only that, but all of the build up of how she’s changed and how she should be smarter than this, gets brushed under the rug the minute her object of affection is in her view again. I can’t handle garbage like this, really, if you’re with a someone I can classify as a psychopath and you still remain with said feelings despite everything then there is something seriously wrong with you. Unfortunately Emika continuously proves that despite everything, she’s still a complete love sick idiot when it comes to him and it wasn’t a fun thing to read with the amount of focus it took in the book.

Now when it comes to the side characters, things are a little more interesting because they are in fact more interesting than Emika and whatever is going on with her and Hideo. Zero gets explored, the team finally get some more spotlights and we meet some new faces as well. I liked how we went about Zero’s past and what happened to him to reach that stage, some of the details were given in small hints but the bigger picture needed a bigger focus and we got that in a way. Seeing Emika work with the team again was interesting as well, but I kind of wish that it took a bigger portion of the book when it came to that sort of action instead of focusing on what I consider irrelevant in some cases.

I won’t call the book bad, since I’m sure it has its audiences, but I will say that I’m very disappointed with how Marie Lu went about it. This could’ve been a fun book where the main heroine doesn’t act like the idiot she’s dictated to be in YA, but instead acts with her mind. The worst thing about this is that Emika does have quite a few instances where she’s trying to be relevant in a good way, but whenever she comes in contact with Hideo I honestly feel like all of that gets thrown aside and I have to watch her act without consulting her mind at all. It’s frustrating to see a potential for growth that never gets utilized for “reasons”

October had more disappointments than not so I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but honestly, there is nothing that’s worse than following something only to have it punch me in the gut when I didn’t expect it to. I have a couple spoiler filled comments I will be discussing in the comment section below so yeah, such a shame for an easy to read book.

Final rating: 2/5

[Sam@WLABB]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I let loose some tears, while reading this one. Lu sure knows how to hit me in the feels. There were a lot of big reveals, and I loved being back with and learning more about all the Phoenix riders.

I was really happy with the ending Lu gave to all these characters, who I grew to care about, and was grateful for that last bit she added at the very end.

Another wonderful Marie Lu book! There was action, suspense, romance, answers, and lots of feels.

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[Ashley]

Ugh 3 stars may even be generous. I completely skimmed the last third. I think it just took a direction that didn't interest me. I was bored and didn't care about anyone or anything. Blargh.

[writehollydavis]

4.25/5. This book started off a bit slow for me, as Warcross was jam packed with action and that's what I was expecting from Wildcard. Most of the action, however, came at the end. Although the climax is supposed to be this big showdown with tons of action, I felt there should have been more of that sprinkled throughout the novel. Despite that, I LOVED finding out the true past of Zero (not gonna spoil anything here) and how the plot wrapped up with Emika at the end. A solid read, but I'm hoping book 3(?) gives us a little more of that oomph I wanted.

[emruth13]

I loved this book! I love how things ended up. I love how the characters interacted. I just loved the whole thing.