Wildcard (Warcross, #2)

by Marie Lu

[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