Continuing to chip away at my Shelf Control pile. Read this one in a day.
See my Shelf Control post for the summary.
Why I (sort of) recommend it:
So I was quite eager to read this book as it sounded like it was along the same lines as Ready Player One and Silence of the Six, both books I enjoyed immensely. I should have approached with caution though, as Warcross features a female lead and experience has taught me that a female lead in a YA book (regardless of genre) means romance of some sort. I don’t dislike all romantic elements but they have to be well done and not gratuitous as so often happens. I find authors tend to rush any elements of romance and thus it feels forced and thrown together. That’s what happened with Warcross. I liked Emika and Hideo and given time and attention their relationship might have worked for me, but I never understood how an international Japanese billionaire would fall instantly for a street rat nobody from the US. It was never explained. Hideo was known as a very private man and one of the first rules of meeting him was not to ask about his family. Yet in no time at all he’s introducing Emika to his parents and talking about his brother. Lu also did not take the time to establish and build Emika’s connection with her teammates either. They too took instantly to Emika.
The world of the Warcross game was vivid and very enjoyable, and the imminent threat to Hideo kept me reading. I was especially curious about Zero and was sure I knew who he was. Turned out I was wrong but somehow I still think my guy is involved in the conspiracy.
This book should have been told in two or even three novels. There’s enough material there and I would love to have seen the relationships and characters more drawn out and developed. There’s nothing like a slow burn to make the out come far more satisfying.
My final beef with this book is that it ended at 89% on my Kobo. There I am, thinking I still have 10% to read and expecting a wrap up when boom, no ending at all. The final 10% of the “book” is an excerpt from Legend. Why that is needed I don’t know? I felt cheated.
Not sure if I’m going to seek out the second book or not. Seems to be a trend for me with Marie Lu books. I loved Legend but never finished the trilogy and Young Elites has been awaiting me for ages. The sequel to Warcross (Wildcard) comes out soon though, so I may give it a go.
Rating: Three stars
Suitable for teens. I would advise caution as there’s quite a bit of violence and some fade to black sex.
So when I first started to make a list of the books I adored when I was a kid, I had no trouble rattling off a dozen very quickly. My problem was those I could vaguely remember loving but couldn’t remember titles or authors; I just had fleeting memories of what they were about. My brother had the same problem when he tried to tell me about his favourite. He could remember vague details, like three brothers, 1800’s and Utah. Well it appeared that was enough info to go on as after a little research, I tracked down 
I often wonder about the censoring that occurs in the schools. Luckily I don’t often encounter it as Canada tends to be quite open-minded but I sure there’s still more than necessary in other countries around the world. Still, as a teacher, I tend to err on the side of caution as what I might think is perfectly fine may present a problem for some parents and families.
I had read Are You There God It’s Me, Margaret, which all my friends were talking about, and I was dying to read the rest of her books. I had no idea that they would shortly become some of the most contested and maligned children’s books to date.
Then Again Maybe I Won’t gave us an insight into what happens to boys when they hit puberty, something no one ever talked to us girls about. I went on to read (and own) all of Blume’s books, but it’s Forever that I remember most vividly. Forever dealt with first love and losing virginity. The raciest topic yet. I remember passing Forever back and forth during band practice one day when I was in grade 7. One of the older girls had it and was sharing with us. We were hiding it behind our music and pointing out the “good parts” (Have you seen page 113!). It was about sex and we were pretty sure we weren’t supposed to be reading about sex, so the forbidden fruit attraction was definitely a draw. 
As an adult, I now realize what a frank and thoughtful insight that novel is into first love. My twelve year old self just recognized good characters I could root for. In very true-to-life Blume fashion, there was a realistic rather than a happy ending, which I appreciate now.
I’m on a roll! This is the Third Read from my Shelf Control pile!
An Ode to Lois Duncan
Then everything else she had written. All psychological thrillers before “gripping psychological thrillers” were a thing, or even a genre. I had all of Lois Duncan’s books (and still have them) and even hooked my brother on them. He used to snatch them from me as soon as I finished them. Now, again, this was the 80’s so there was no Amazon to tell you when the next one was coming out, no author website to keep you up to date on the author’s life. All I knew was that around 1990, new Lois Duncan books stopped. I looked every time I went into a bookstore but by then I’d moved onto Stephen King, so I wasn’t too concerned. I never thought to look in the adult section though. Maybe I should have after finding Judy Blume there. But this wasn’t like Judy Blume.
It was ten years later that I found a new Lois Duncan on the adult shelves. It was called Who Killed My Daughter. I can still remember reaching up to take it down to read the back, not believing that it was a true story. Seems there was a very good reason Lois Duncan stopped writing. She became somewhat obsessed with finding her daughter’s killer yet years later the case remains unsolved. Of course before the internet there was no way of knowing what had happened. Now, I can go to her 
Title: Warcross
My Childhood Bookshelf 