Warcross / Marie Lu

4.5/5

Warcross is exciting and new and has me anxiously anticipating the sequel. Marie Lu, you've got me again.

Set in futuristic world where everyone is connected into a virtual reality game called Warcross, Marie Lu weaves the story of Emika Chen after Emika hacks her way through Warcross security and earns the notice of Warcross founder Hideo Tanaka. Hoping to use Emika's hacking talent to his advantage, Hideo invites her to participate in the Warcross championship games while helping him address a bigger threat: an anonymous hacker trying with an unknown endgame. 

First, I want to recognize the diversity Lu included in her novel. Warcross takes participants from all  over the world, and Lu makes sure that her characters reflect that. I loved the ethnic names and various languages, the LGBT representation, the characters with disabilities. And she included all of this without making a big deal out of it; their "differences" never had to be outrightly acknowledged because they're not differences at all-- they're normal. Walk around in the real world and you'll encounter plenty of ethnic names and non-straight people and people with disabilities-- it's normal. Other than diversity, Lu also included culture. I loved that she chose to place her novel against Tokyo, and that her main characters were Asian. As an Asian-American, I am painfully aware of how little representation Asian culture gets, and so this was very meaningful to me. Yes, Tokyo may have been the most sensible location for such a technology heavy plot, but I think Lu chose this location for more than that reason. Her writing shows her appreciation for Japanese culture, and I love that she was brave enough and proud enough to share that with the world, especially with how important it is to have this representation.

In case you couldn't already tell, I love Warcross-- I only write reviews this long when I feel very passionately! It has everything I need in a novel: strong characters and a plot that hooks me in. Emika is definitely strong, and reading her felt natural. Though at first the world may not seem extremely original, as there are plenty of novels that have similar futuristic technology, what Lu chooses to do with the technology is still exciting. Players face off in a virtual world, and I loved being thrown into all of these wild settings that defy physics and always have new obstacles. Throughout the novel I was always eagerly awaiting the next battle, the next twist, the next challenge. The speed grows and grows, and ending left me reeling in the best way.

I could go on about all of the well-developed characters, the intricate world, the fun action, but I think it's best if YA fantasy and science fictions lovers like me read Warcross and experience it themselves. I'm not saying the novel was flawless-- Emika's initial treatment of her teammates was understandable but frustrating, I would have liked to see more development between Emika and Hideo earlier on, and there were some technicalities that made me frown-- but Warcross was so fun that these details are almost trivial. Warcross has reminded me why I am such a steadfast fan of YA science fiction: it's a fun, exciting, wild ride that lets me live lives I couldn't otherwise.