I finished this book back in October, but it took me this long to properly draft a review. Marie Lu is so unbelievable talented at writing within a range of genres, and she definitely proved herself again in Warcross. This book was INCREDIBLE, and I started it not knowing much about the plot. At first, I thought it was going to be fairly similar to Ready Player One (one of my favorite books), but it turned out to be completely and delightfully different. While there are some similar elements, Ready Player One is more of an ode to the eighties while Warcross is a brief dip into the possibilities of that kind of world. For me, it’s kind of like comparing The Lord of the Rings with The Wheel of Time - while The Wheel of Time has some elements that read like Tolkien fan-fiction, it ultimately takes the series in a new and creative way. But, back to Warcross.

Marie has an incredible knack for creating immersive worlds that are vivid, believable, and difficult to put down. Warcross held a world that I wanted to learn and read more about, and the plot progression was only an added bonus. The world was interesting, plausible, and entertaining. Marie also did a wonderful job of creating a diverse cast of characters that interacted and were each their own personality without seeming forced.

But, Warcross was also difficult for me to read and I found I had to convince myself to pick it up and continue. I flew through the first 278 pages (I marked it), but the remaining pages were a struggle for me to get through. In fact, this book was 5 stars all the way up until the ending, where it plummeted for me.

First of all, I easily get secondhand embarrassment from characters, and some of Emika’s actions were so different than how I would have handled things. I really enjoyed Emika’s character, but some of the situations Marie forced her into did not really seem to fit the rest of the story. Many parts of the ending (with both the main villain and with Hideo) could have benefited from better explanations. While Emika was in the dark for most of the book, the reader also seemed to be. With that said, however, I was able to guess several parts of the major plot twist pretty early on, but kept reading in the hopes that I would be wrong. To find out that I had been right was fairly soul-crushing (so good job on Marie’s part, even if I’m not happy about it).

This book is definitely not a standalone, and I’m not sure if I want to read the sequel, but I probably will just for the incredible world building and my love of Emika’s character.