Amar es temer. Tienes miedo, estás mortalmente aterrorizado porque algo les pase a aquellos a los que amas. Piensa en las posibilidades. ¿Tu corazón se encoge con cada pensamiento? Eso, amigo mío, es amor. Y el amor nos esclaviza a todos puesto que no puedes amar sin temor.
alphabet edits—eforemika chen, chosen by @juliettecai
butsometimes, you find yourself standing in exactly the right position, wielding exactly the right weapon to hit back. so i hit. i hit fast and hard and furious. i hit with nothing but the language whispered between circuits and wire, the language that can bring people to their knees. and in spite of everything, i’d do it all over again.
alphabet edits—eforemika chen, chosen by @juliettecai
butsometimes, you find yourself standing in exactly the right position, wielding exactly the right weapon to hit back. so i hit. i hit fast and hard and furious. i hit with nothing but the language whispered between circuits and wire, the language that can bring people to their knees. and in spite of everything, i’d do it all over again.
“That’s the difference between the real and the virtual. Reality is where you can lose the ones you love. Reality is the place where you can feel the cracks in your heart.”
Year Read: 2022
Rating:3/5
About:There are spoilers ahead for Warcross. Emika has escaped the Warcross Championships with her life, but it’s only a matter of time until Hideo’s NeuroLink algorithm goes live in the beta lenses, putting almost the entire world under his control. Emi and the Phoenix Riders are determined to stop him, with offered help from Zero and his Darkweb group, the Blackcoats, but even after discovering his real identity, she isn’t sure she can trust him. The NeuroLink is a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, and there are people who would kill to get control of it. Trigger warnings: character death (on-page), parent/child/sibling death, abduction, captivity, explosions, violence, guns, brain-washing, severe illness.
Thoughts:This is fun, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as Warcross. Partly, I think it’s just that questions are typically more interesting than answers. I wasn’t all that invested in how Sasuke had become Zero, and the more it was explained to me, the less interested I got. The first half of the book flounders around in this mystery/conspiracy, and as weird as it sounds coming from me, I wanted to get back to the video games. Warcross and the virtual reality world were some of my favorite parts of the first book, and they’re not as well-utilized here.
I’d also hoped that Emika would have more page-time working with her teammates, but there isn’t much of that either until the final confrontation. I just wasn’t as interested in the newer characters, the Blackcoats, or what turns out to be a rather lukewarm villain. In terms of development, Emi and Hideo’s relationship takes some interesting turns, but on a solo level, it seems like she’s doing all the same things she did in the first book (having, apparently, learned nothing from those mistakes). I like where it ends, but all in all, I’d hoped for more.
Batman: Nightwalker, by Marie Lu was just released on January 2nd! I admit I was looking forward to this release ever since it was announced, being a huge batman fan and a fan of Marie Lu’s Young Elite books. So far it’s been incredible, it jumps right into the excitement and the detail is amazing! I haven’t finished it, yet, but I would already recommend it.
“Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time.”
Hope I see you guys on tour in the next couple of weeks! Warcross is almost here, ahhhh!
I’m going to be joining Marie at Wellesley Books in Wellesley, MA, next Thursday (Sept. 14)! Come out and help us celebrate her brand-new science fiction thriller WARCROSS!
“My mother used to hope that I would rise up from my humble roots. Become someone successful, or even famous. I’m famous all right, but I don’t think it’s what she had in mind.”
