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.
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| Here's my reppin'' with my Warcross shirt! |
Ooooh man! I finished this audiobook right before I arrived home, and I immediately wanted to sit down and write this review while everything was still churning in my mind. It's now a few hours later (domestic duties called), but I'm pretty much still reeling.
I am the reader who never gets the twist and is always surprised. So I was completely floored with the last few chapters of this book. I was listening to it on audio, so I kept saying to my CD player, "What?!?! Wait a minute!!! What?!?!"
But the ending wasn't the only engaging part of this story. Warcross started strong and kept the momentum throughout. There was never a lag or a dull point at any part in the story. The world building in this book is incredible! Marie Lu put so much imagination into creating a world where anyone can create worlds. That is the thing about this novel -- it seems so fantastical, but also so realistic at the very same time. The bridges, the steps that it would take to get from our world to the world of Warcross do not seem very far at all. But seriously. I loved seeing Tokyo through the neurolink lenses. I loved the idea that you can save your memories and enter into them -- and that you can bring other people into them with you. I was intrigued with the way that Hideo communicated with Emika by pulling up a screen and showing her things, instead of just describing them with words.
There were a few circumstances that made me go, "Really though?" Emika kept bailing on her teammates and the scene would shift before we, the reader, got to see anything else about it.
Hideo is such a complex character. Emika makes a comment at the end of the book about how she is still trying to figure him out -- and I am, too! I have some more to say about that and about Sasuke (and Tremaine), but I will do it under a spoiler tag on my Goodreads review, so as not to spoil the book here for anyone who hasn't read it. Side note: I definitely would have been pronouncing Sasuke wrong if it wasn't for the audiobook. The reader, Nancy Yu, read it as SAS-EW-KAY.
Nancy Yu did a great job narrating this audiobook. I felt all of Emika's emotions as she was reading them -- the drive, the nerves, the anger, the disbelief, and everything else on the spectrum.
I've had several people tell me how good this book is, and I have to agree. I am eagerly awaiting the second installment and will be adding this book to the top of my Recommend Reads list.
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