REVIEW: WARCROSS by Marie Lu

Title: Warcross
Author: Marie Lu
Series: Warcross #1
Genres: YA, Scifi, Adventure
Publisher:  G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Release: September 12th 2017
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 368

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BLURB:

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

EXPECTATIONS: It is such a hyped book that I eventually got caught in all that hype too.

THE WORLD: If you read Ready Player One it is pretty much same. If not well then let me give you a brief description. Basically the world as we know is going downhill fast, technology is taking over and economy is collapsing because even waitresses are now robots. Does it sound like one of these conspiracy theories from people that are putting technology and advancements on witch trials? Yeah that's the vibe I got too. But yeah, that's what we have, technology is taking over the world. Do people care much? Well not really because at some point this super awesome crazy virtual world was invented and now everybody just logs in for hours just to get away from real problems. It is actually so big that when the championship takes place it is of a level of pretty much Olympics, whole world is crazy about it. Frankly, I did not like this world. Not that it was a total copy paste of Ready Player One (I actually did not love Ready Player One much but even I get mad about such a big copy) but also everybody is shown like a total brainless virtual world slaves. Something like Tokyo is fully digitized, you put on these lenses or glasses and you see everything around you with enhancement of virtual world as in there would be models walking with items by the shops, levels and names of each strangers above them. Sorta like Sims. I dunno, I am a huge fan of Virtual World but I am really tired of seeing it only as something bad and extreme.

CHARACTERS: Emika Chen is this poor girl with huge money problems and a criminal record. But she is also despite being a biracial character in reality just well that trope mousy girl that everybody overlooks and suddenly becomes this big star with most desired man in the world falling for her. Seriously. Why cannot we have anything original? And yes Emika as mentioned is biracial as well as a hacker but do we actually make it important? No. We rather talk for pages and pages about the lips of a boy and wonder for another chapter if he likes Emika or not. Ah. I disliked Emika, she was just flat and shallow and really I had no care for her at all. Plus that criminal record that should make her endearing and seem bad? Yeah nope, that was actually as cheesy good thing as it gets just of course nobody would understand it and Emika ends up being a victim here, as always. Then there is Hideo Tanaka, an inventor of this famous virtual world. Of course he is this self controlled cold person who never speaks much or smiles. Like really I was getting so much Edward from Twilight vibe I could not shake the feeling I was reading Twilight with virtual world.

ROMANCE: The mousy overlooked poor girl apparently is a programming genius and even the most desired man in the world falls in love with her. I was pushing through their romance at first but later all the pages of a kiss and if he likes me if he likes me not...let's just say I pushed numerous time the skip 15s ahead button.

GOOD: I love virtual world and I am very excited for it's future in our world but I felt like I was robbed. I expected a lot of it considering the book is even called Warcross but nope sorry, besides few expressions this was just another romance book.

BAD: Am I the only one who could not see anything unique in this book? And also...Red Queen much? Seriously is there anybody who did not see the ending coming?

OVERALL: Nope, just nope. I wanted a cool virtual world book with amazing genius characters. Instead I was told how genius our characters were. Did I see them actually being genius? Nope. So yeah...big nope from me to this book. Way way overhyped.

What do you think about WARCROSS?