My rating: 4 of 5 stars
MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE BOOK:
I read this in one sitting and was completely blown away! THIS IS MY FAVOURITE MARIE LU STORY YET. And I’ve read the Legend trilogy and the first two in The Young Elites.
CHARACTERS/DYNAMICS:
Emika was a delight and I thoroughly enjoyed her POV. She wasn’t whiney or too “I’m Celaena Sardothien and I’m a badass without proving it.”
Some reviews wrote they didn’t enjoy Hideo, the love interest. Why???
He was charming and cliche and cute and had a great backstory. I’ll admit, he sounds like a hero from a trashy romance novel: H meets spunky girl. H conveniently is a billionaire (and young too). H tries to romance woman by helping her out financially. HEA, the end.
But cmon who doesn’t love that???
I wasn’t expecting Lu to have such a tropey romance in this series: BUT I’M LIVING FOR IT. Yes Marie Lu, yaaaas, write more like this. These were the kind of characters I adore reading. They’re so enjoyable and loveable. What’s not to like?
PLOT:
Allegedy a knock-off of Ready Player One, however I have never read that book. So maybe I’ll come back to this and re-rate it, after reading RPO.
I found it very romantic and a trope fest: MY FAVE THINGS IN READING. I felt like I was 13 again and I had just discovered YA dystopian-romances (shout-out to Roth for making me want to read!!!)
STRUCTURE:
This book had decent paragraphs, and never felt like it dragged.
THEMES:
– morality
– artificial intelligence
– capitalism
– socialism
– technology vs reality
– good vs evil
THE ENDING:
A little predictable IMO, but thrilling nonetheless. I was disappointed that there wasn’t many scenes of actual Warcross game-play. Half the book was taken up by describing Emi’s life in NYC (which I was pleasantly surprised by– I thought the whole thing was based in Tokyo. I love NY, so that was great!). A third was spent on the romance and flirtation etc. Then 11/64ths were focused on game-play. Which I won’t complain too much about– I’m not one for action (but I’ll endure anything with romance on the side). All I’m saying is; I expected to more immersed in the game.
IMPACT:
I ADORED THIS BOOK! It was an excellent story. I can’t wait for the next instalment.
Cal's Reading Corner 
It was really fun! High octane, very-in. It wasn’t the epitome of meaningful fiction, but it was hella enjoyable to read 😉
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I’d love to review this book incase I get my hands on it. It seems to be interesting and sci fi is one of my favs.
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I loved this book, too! I also found the characters to be wonderful, and I don’t mind tropes and such unlike many other people do. This easily became one of my favorites, and I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂
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Oh I loved this book and I want to live in the world of Warcross. I loved how the technology was easily decided to where even me who is horrible at that kind of stuff understood it. The world building was so real. The ending plots, I seen one come but the other one (last one blew my mind.) Why!? How!? I can’t wait till the second book! Great review 😊
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