Warcross

Let's talk about Warcross.

I have never read a Marie Lu book before so I really didn't know what to expect but I saw the great reviews and I got so excited.

I see why it got such fantastic reviews. The world building is some of the best I've ever read. With each page I found myself craving more and desperately wishing warcross to be real, like when can I preorder my lenses??? Huh? When!?!??

Lu brought Tokyo to life in a way I've never read before and I felt like I was there. She also did a stupendous job at the levels and the layout of the game, I really appreciated how familiar it felt to anyone like myself who is also a huge gamer. This book is like crack for gamers.

She also get a 10/10 for diversity. The characters are all of different races and backgrounds and some are disabled. And it felt so natural, I often find diversity in YA to feel forced, but not here, everything was mentioned in passing as just like real life. And I loved it.

If only the characters hadn't been so bland.

We have Emika rainbow-colored-hair Chen. Seriously the fact that her hair was described as rainbow colored so many times throughout the book passed me off to no end. We get it she very special and edgy let's move on.

The we have Hideo Tanaka who is about as interesting as a 2x4. He's the 21 yr old genius who changed the world but acts like a pompous 45 year old man who forgot to take his stool softener. I really wanted to love the “brooding lonely genius” thing but there was really no other side to him regardless of how often emika said things like “this was the real hideo” “he let me in to see who he really was beyond his walls”. Nope nothing he's boring and I felt nothing about the plot twist at the end because my two main characters were so meh.

Then there's the supporting cast.
Hello Phenoix Riders!! I would love them to have more. More personality more backstory more details. But for the most part they were just there to fill in spots that weren't just Hideo being a billionaire genius.

Also the romance. Ughhhhhhh
Not good. I dont like the pairing I thought it was forced and the spark just wasn't there. And even though the age difference is only 3 years it felt more like 10 because emika acts more like 16 and Hideo acts more like he's 25 or older. It just felt eww to me.

However the way the book ended left me wanting to read the next one and hoping that the sequel will be better.