Please Note:  I received an advance audio book copy of this book from Listening Library in exchange for an honest review.  This did not influence the opinions of my review in any way.

Synopsis (From Goodreads):
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:


Characters:
Emika continues to be a conflicted character.  She is still reeling from learning of Hideo's plans to control the minds of nearly everyone on the planet.  But she can't help but feel drawn to Hideo.  This is a classic conflict that I knew would happen.  But I also was surprised that Emika did trust her teammates so much.  She started out as such a loner that it was nice to see her let a few people get close to her.
 
Camaraderie: 
I loved how the members of the Phoenix Riders took Emika into their ranks.  In the first book, Warcross, the team was full of tension between the players and Emika.  That is now gone, and they are a tight family.  Given how alone Emika has been, I really loved this.  This is also a nice contrast with the impersonal nature of all the faceless corporations and technology that saturates this universe.

Themes:
I liked how the book explored how dependent we are on technology.  In the novel, everything is connected to the NeuroLink.  Many businesses and lifestyles are so couples with this tech, it would bring down entire economies.  This could happen in real life.  What if the internet suddenly shut down for everyone?  How would that change our lives?

Also, I liked that the book brought up the issue of what actually makes us human.  Is it possible to integrate technology to the mind so much that we lose our humanity?  Can we exist without a body?  Would we want to, or would it be a prison?

Narration:
Nancy Wu did a great job with all the various voices and accents.  I particularly enjoyed how she voiced Hideo.  She played him as cautious, and genius-level smart.  I could feel his weariness as he tries to grapple with corporate intrigue and possibly finding her brother.

Ending:
I'm obviously NOT going to spoil the ending, but I can say that it was very satisfying.  Warcross ended on a big cliffhanger, which I found annoying.  But in Wildcard, the ending wraps up all the loose ends nicely. 

Need for a recap:
Wildcard picks up right where Warcross ends.  While I'm glad the action started so quickly, I wish there had been some exposition first, so anyone could pick up this book without first reading Warcross.  Also, as a reader, I would have liked a refresher.  I had to do a bunch of quick memory recall in order to remember the characters.  

                   
via GIPHY
I read many books per year, and I do not have time to re-read books in order to follow what happens in a sequel.

Some Plot Points:
Although I enjoyed the themes of this book, I found a few of the plot points to be implausible.  Without spoilers, I will attempt to explain.  If you've read Warcross, you will remember that someone wants to use the NeuroLink to control people.  This mind control technology is taken to ridiculous extremes in Wildcard.  I realize this is a work of speculative fiction, but I couldn't help but think of the SpongeBob Squarepants Movie where Plankton gives away chum buckets and then he can control everybody.  

I could understand controlling what people see, but not what they actually do.  As a reader, that was a step too far for me.

Rating: 




Release Date:  September 18th, 2018

Author:  Marie Lu

Publisher:  Listening Library

Narrator:  Nancy Wu

Genre:  Speculative Fiction

Page Length: 343 Pages

Listening Length:  10 Hours, 51 Minutes

Source:  Publisher

Format:  Audio Book

Recommendation:  A satisfying addition to Warcross.  Full of creative (if somewhat implausible) technology that will leave the reader hoping that some of it will come true.