Hearth and Pages: Warcross by Marie Lu (Warcross #1)

“I’ve never been good at following instructions. I’m a bounty hunter.

And if my bounty’s still out there somewhere, I need to finish this.”

I received a free digital ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All quoted lines have not been corrected and are subject to change.

Ever since her father died, Emika Chen spend her life trying to survive by becoming a bounty hunter. She dropped out of school and take risky jobs of catching criminals by hacking into a virtual reality game called Warcross. People all over the world play this game, and like most of things in the world, there are the dark side of Warcross’ world where some people doing their bad deeds for money. Warcross is created by a 21 years old tech prodigy, Hideo Tanaka when he was only a child. Desperate to gain money to pay his debt, Emika gambles her life by hacking into an annual Warcross International Tournament to grab some rare items that she can sell to the black market. Unfortunately, her plan is ruin when her identity exposed. Confidence that she will be jailed, Emika is surprised to find that she is being offered to work as Hideo Tanaka’s personal hunter instead. Her job is to go undercover as a contestant to hunt and investigate a hacker who threatens Warcross International Tournament. As her investigation getting deeper, Emika uncovers a sinister plot which could affect more than just Warcross empire, but also the rest of the world.

Warcross is my first Marie Lu’s book. I know that she is a big name in YA literature world, and she’s one of number 1 NYT Best-Selling Author, but I never really interested to read her books. That maybe because I try to read Legend but I end up quitting it on the first chapter. Not because the writing is bad, but because at that time I’m really tired of dystopian book and I just need to stop. But then this book get so much hype and I get so curious and the plot is quite interesting so I requested the ARC from NetGalley. And I really glad I did that and the publisher pick me, because this book is amazing!

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about this book first, because I know that there are going to be some portrayals of Japanese culture in this book since the second character mentioned is a Japanese dude. Here’s the thing, I am not a Japanese but I grow up reading manga, watching anime and I love Japanese culture. I even end up with a bachelor degree of studying Japanese. Not only the language but also the culture, politics, history, geography, everything about Japan. The thing is almost every fiction about Japan or has Japanese characters or set in Japan—that is written by non-Japanese—I’ve read tend to have some Japanese stereotypes which annoys me to hell. But luckily this book handles the portrayals of Japanese culture quite well. There are use of Japanese suffix and words here and there but it was done correctly and not in an excessive manner. Lu also does a great job in creating the Japanese atmosphere without being exaggerated. There are also some great subtle way to introduce Japanese and some Asian customs in this book which I really love and appreciated. Kudos to Marie Lu for those.

Now, about the Warcross world. I really love to see Marie Lu’s take on gaming world. I won’t say I’m a gamer girl, but I do spend my younger years playing games for hours every day and getting excited of some games even until now. And Lu’s Warcross really took me back to my love of gaming. It brings back such nostalgic and warm feelings that full of wonders when I play some games that I love. There’s even a mention of this game that I still play at least thrice every week:

And if you love that game, you will love the Warcross tournament as well because there’s a round which really reminds me of Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing but in more brutal manner. Speaking of the tournament, I love every second of it because it was so magical and the writing of every game is so vivid. Every stage and every world that Marie Lu created in Warcross game are so detail and feels like I’m playing the game. And I do wish the game is real because it has things like these:

If you want to get a glimpse of what a wonderful gaming experience Marie Lu wrote in this book, you can visit playwarcross.com. You will get a better understanding by visiting that website. God, I wish this game is a real thing.

There’s also a great amount of diversity in this book, which I also really love. Many great characters come from different cultural background, races, sexuality, and there’s some cool disable characters as well. If you’re looking for a fun and great diverse book, you might want to consider reading Warcross.

Other little things that made me love this book is the reference to other pop culture. I’ve already mentioned Mario Kart, but there are also other games that will make appearance in this book. Well, not the game exactly, and Marie Lu did not mention it by name, but let’s just say that you will stumble upon these two ladies when you read Warcross:

There’s also a reference to one of the most popular musical ever. It was one of my favorite and it turns out it’s also Marie Lu’s favorite. If your guess is Hamilton then you’re right. There is one of my favorite character in this book named Hamilton a.k.a Hammie, and Lu certainly was not throwing away her shot when she inserted a Hamilton joke in there. My reaction when I first read that line:

I was questioning myself, “Did she just did that? Yep, Marie Lu just did that.”

So, do I have something that I didn’t like about this book? Well, to be honest not really. There are things that quite bothers me when I read it, but it seems like Marie Lu has predicted all of my questions. So, when I came across something that is questionable, a couple paragraphs or pages later Marie Lu give me the answer. If I have to say some things that was quite bothering me is the technology parts, but it got resolved in a pretty acceptable manner, so I’m okay with that.

The other thing that quite bothers me is the romance. I can’t say that I don’t like it because I do like it a bit, but I also can’t say that I love it because there are things that feels off. Honestly, I love the interaction between Emika and her love interest. There’s enough sweet moments and quite steamy scene between those two and I kind of rooting for them when those moments happen. But, most of the time, I feel like I can’t root for them because of my hunch. I can’t dwell much about this because I don’t want to give you spoilers. All I can say is, from the first time Marie Lu introduce the main character’s love interest I knew that something is wrong and let’s just say my hunch is right and it never failed me so far. And of course, when all the card is revealed this was my reaction:

In conclusion, Warcross is one amazing book and I really recommend it especially if you love playing games. The plot is great, the execution of the mystery and twist is well done, and there are many flawed but good characters to love. I know some people hate the cover, but honestly after I read the book the cover quite reflects the main character style so I like it. I don’t know if this going to be a duology or trilogy, but I know that the second book will come out next year, and I can’t wait to read it. For now, I will wait patiently for the first book to officially come out so I can shove it to all my friends so they can read it, because I know they will appreciate it as much as I do.