Review: Wildcard by Marie Lu

Wildcard (Warcross #2) 
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons BYR
Publication Date: September 18, 2018
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover/Own

Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo's new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she's always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.

Determined to put a stop to Hideo's grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone's put a bounty on Emika's head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn't all that he seems--and his protection comes at a price.

Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?

Review: So I wasn't the biggest fan of Warcross. I loved the whole idea behind the story, but just found it predictable and slow for a while. However, I absolutely loved Wildcard. I wasn't sure I was going to read it but I'm so glad I did. Wildcard completely outdid Warcross and is honestly my favorite Marie Lu finale book. We know I didn't enjoy the endings of the Legend trilogy and The Young Elites trilogy, but this has completely changed things for me. This is the first Marie Lu ending I have thoroughly enjoyed without complaint. I really enjoyed this whole story because it felt so different from the slow, predictable pace of Warcross.

So I wasn't sold on the whole romance between Emika and Hideo in Warcross. I wasn't feeling it at all. This book completely changed that. There was a lot of raw emotions expressed by Hideo and it softened my view of him immensely. The fact he was so vulnerable with all Emika told him about his brother, and not just with one memory, really made me start to like him. Everything about the romance just felt incredibly weird to me in Warcross and to me, it felt more genuine and heartfelt in Wildcard. You could see how Emika really felt for Hideo and wanted to make him feel better. You could see Hideo genuinely let Emika in. The romance just had a whole different tone which completely changed my view on it. 

I also thought the whole backstory with Zero being Sasuke, Hideo's brother, was incredibly interesting. We ended Warcross with Emika seeing that Zero's account had the name Sasuke Tanaka on it. And we see this whole story about Sasuke take off from that in Wildcard. I was not even close to expecting or predicting his story at all. In fact, Sasuke's story really broke my heart. I really can't talk much about it without spoiling a huge part of Wildcard. But man. His disappearance ends up being linked to a study his parents had willing put him in to try and help him. And poor Sasuke slowly has his memories taken from his during this study. Which eventually leads to him becoming Zero with almost no memory of his life. Like, I just can't with all the stuff regarding Sasuke. That tiny bit of information is literally just scratching the surface of his story and it was just so heartbreaking to read. I was not expecting the story to take this turn at all, but it truly made for a great overall story. 

I also loved that we don't even know who the real villain is. It starts off being Hideo wanting to use his Neurolink to control the population and prevent crimes like his brothers abduction and find his brother abductor. But then it leads to looking at Dr. Taylor as the villain for her huge role in Sasuke's disappearance and the fact she was the head of the study Sasuke was in in the first place. She definitely seemed the worst evil for a while since we also learned she wanted Hideo's algorithm for herself. But then we add in Zero was a villain when he undermines Dr. Taylor and uses Hideo's rage towards Dr. Taylor against him to get the algorithm for himself. It was just a whirlwind of trying to see who was the bigger villain and who wanted to use the algorithm for the worst purpose. Overall, despite Hideo seeming bad at the beginning, he definitely had the least awful use for the algorithm. It seemed bad, but in reality, he was just trying to find his brother's abductor from all the criminals turning themselves in. 

All the side characters. I still love the Phoenix Riders. They are such real, true friends to Emika and I loved seeing these friendships throughout the book. The backstory regarding Tremaine and Roshan's relationship. Definitely a little sad. I can't imagine being Tremaine and constantly thinking he will never be good enough for Roshan because of his upbringing. I'm glad we got to see them work through some of their issues. Dr. Taylor and her Blackcoats. Dr. Taylor is just a piece of work. What an awful excuse for a human being thinking that everything she did was justified. And Jax. I definitely wasn't sure of her at first, but she grew on me. Seeing her share her story, how it intertwined with Sasuke's, how she wanted to fight against everything Dr. Taylor and Zero were trying to do but didn't have any allies until she met Emika. I just really grew to like her. She seemed bad but only really was forced into a bad situation from her youth but ended up choosing the right people to help in the end. She was definitely one of my favorite characters. 

I thought it was fitting that in order to stop Zero using Hideo's algorithm for his own purposes, they had to play a game of Warcross through Zero's mind to get to the little bit of Sasuke left in him and release his memories. I just thought it was so fitting that this whole story started with Emika hacking into Warcross, and then it ends with Emika and Hideo playing Warcross to stop everything. I also loved that through the whole story and even this last game of Warcross through Zero's mind, the Phoenix Riders stuck with Emika and had her back through the whole thing. I loved that the friendships she built in Warcross held this strong in Wildcard. 

Like I said, this is the first Marie Lu ending that I really enjoyed. I thought this ending really was fantastic and wrapped things up nicely. Jax could have easily put Hideo behind bars for life with her testimony about the algorithm, but instead, she made it seem like he solely did it to find Sasuke. Many people knew it was a little more than that, but she knew Hideo didn't deserve that awful of a punishment despite what he did. And Emika being offered an actual job at Henka Games to help them rebuild with something good. I just loved it. With all Emika did in these books, she definitely deserved that job. And the "news story" last page. AHHHH. That is so cool. Can't spoil, but DEFINITELY cool. Loved it! Also, glad that Emika and Hideo were able to put the past in the past and have a relationship in the midst of the algorithm aftermath. I just think this book wrapped up so nicely, but also, in an unexpected way for me.