Wildcard

by Marie Lu

Amazon Prices:

Paperback: $13.48

Hardcover: $18.99

Kindle: $18.99 (Not available on Kindle Unlimited)

Audible: $32.99 (Not available on Kindle Unlimited)

Before Reading Facts:

Wildcard by Marie Lu was published in 2018 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Page Count: 352 pages (paperback) 352 (hardcover) 352 (Kindle)

Audiobook length: 10 hrs 51 mins

Chapters: 35

Languages: English 

Summary of Book:

“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?

In this explosive sequel to the New York Times bestselling Warcross, Marie Lu delivers an addictive finale that will hold you captive till the very last page” -G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Author Biography:

“Marie Lu is the author of the#1 New York Times bestselling series The Young Elites, as well as the blockbuster bestselling Legend series. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry as an artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing games, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her illustrator/author husband, Promo Gallanosa, and their dogs” -G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Book Review:

Overall Book Rating: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★

Wildcard was a novel I anticipated to read after having read Warcross. After the amazing first part to Emica’s story, I was interested to see what Lu would do next for this character and how she would utilize her video game technology in this novel. The novel was full of interesting and unexpected revelations, and i was intrigued to know more and more about the characters and the fate Lu had for them.

I read this novel in a hurry, as I did with Warcross, in order to have enough of the novel read for Marie Lu’s author signing event. I got through over half of the novel in the span of three days. I did not want to stop and wanted to continue listening to this story on Audible. I did not finish this novel until after the signing event but was surprised near the end. This novel gave an ending to the characters’ story in a way that the reader/listen does not expect a third novel. It may not be a satisfying ending for some, but I found it to be just right.

Both Warcross and Wildcard were novels that I extremely enjoyed and will be revisiting them and re-reading both of them when I have more time and I am not in graduate school. I want to re-visit both these novels and spend more time with these characters. I want to relive the adventure these characters have to offer. Once more, I recommend both these novels to anyone interested in novels that incorporate video gaming technology.

Audible Review:

Narration Rating: ★★★★★ / ★★★★★

Narration by Nancy Wu

Like Warcross, Wilcard is narrated by Nancy Wu who does an excellent job in portraying the second part of Emika’s story. Wu’s narration captivates the characters and their encounters very well, and I am eager to re-listen to both novels one after the other to get the full adventure all at once. For those of us who like to multitask and listen on the go, I recommend listening at a 1.75 speed, so one does not miss anything. For those who are listening while reading the book, I found  2.5 speed to be the best speeds. 3.0 was too fast for me, and I was missing a lot of what the narrator was saying and had to eventually slow down the narrator’s reading speed. 

Other works by this Author:

Novels

Batman: Nightwalker

Legend Series

• Legend
• Prodigy
• Champion

The Young Elites Series

• The Young Elites 
• The Rose Society
• The Midnight Star

Warcross Duology

• Warcross
• Wildcard