As expected with Marie Lu, Emika Chen is another strong, intelligent, and skilled girl with high morals and a willingness to uphold them. While this kind of character is great in isolation, many YA veterans will notice that she mirrors half a dozen “strong female protagonists” and fails to add complexity to this cardboard cutout of a character. Other than her hacking ability, her personality is almost indistinguishable from many YA protagonists; however, anyone who is not bored to death with the “strong female protagonist” archetype will find a new favorite character in Emika, as she uses strategy to solve her problems instead of brute force and learns the power of teamwork.
Warcross is a fun and exciting read. From beginning to end, the book’s pacing never let up, constantly flying from conflict to conflict and accumulating intensity with each chapter. The plot somehow manages to combine a spy mystery with science fiction action creating an addictive, enthralling storyline that anyone would attempt to finish in one sitting.
The story does have a small weakness in the fact that it is unbelievably predictable, but this happens to one of the few times where the journey is better than the destination. Even though all the plot twists can be seen from a mile away, the story is still interesting and engaging especially due to the books stunning visual descriptions.
With unbelievable skill and talent, Marie Lu somehow manages to create absolutely stunning and lengthy visual description that enhances the story without slowing down the plot pacing. The artful descriptions allow readers to almost visualize the entire book like a movie, showing off the stunning backdrop without overshadowing the main plot progression and characters.
Although many of the characters are about as multifaceted as Emika is (a.k.a. no at all), Marie Lu does manage to subtly create a diverse cast of characters, all of which are respected for their skills and not their race, sexual identity, etc.
However, where the book starts to fall apart is in the romance. Not only is it predictable from the first description of dark, mysterious eyes, long lashes, or thick, midnight hair, but it also doesn’t seem to make sense. There is no real chemistry established between the two characters, and while Emika falling in love makes perfect sense, no one really understands why her love interest loves her back. While reading the story, it is extremely easy to get caught up in the love story with all the romantic hints Marie Lu drops, but the romance quickly falls apart after any level of objective scrutiny.
I give this 353 page book 4 stars.