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A review by lilyevangeline
Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh
3.0
Dystopian government? Enhanced humans? Big robot things? Childhood trauma? Sounds like it's time for the teenagers to save the world!!!
The romance is meh, but the friendship between Young/Jaewon was the secret heart of the story.
I looked long and hard, but still wasn't really able to find any personality for our female lead aside from being perpetually lonely and angsty, fighty-fighty invincible, and also pretty. Obviously Jaewon falls madly in love. I mean, he realizes he's the only one who can save her (emotionally)...and she's the only one who can save him (physically...literally so many times. Why is he always jumping and falling from heights?????). It was a little comical. Thankfully the romance wasn't the only plot line in the story, plus I'm sort of used to YA romances being a little hit or miss sooo nbd. Even if I don't think they're love?? If they think they're in love? Like, I guess that's all that matters???
On the plus side, though, the plot and worldbuilding was at least twice as complex as I expected it to be (actually pretty good? made up for lackluster relationship building?), and there were a few secondary characters who I thought I had pigeonholed who later on came back to surprise me.
As a YA novel, I really enjoyed this. I've complained a lot, but legit actually I had a good time here. Almost gave it four stars, actually (but there was too much romance in the last chapter so I had a bad taste in my mouth). Dystopian YA has been a little out of vogue lately, so it was fun to visit these tropes again (bringing me back to those Hunger Games days), but in a Korean setting which made it all feel fresh.
Considering that this is Axie Oh's debut novel, I'm really looking forward to reading some of her more recent novels! The moments of surprise and the way she surprised me with a few characterizations bodes well for her development as an author.
The romance is meh, but the friendship between Young/Jaewon was the secret heart of the story.
I looked long and hard, but still wasn't really able to find any personality for our female lead aside from being perpetually lonely and angsty, fighty-fighty invincible, and also pretty. Obviously Jaewon falls madly in love. I mean, he realizes he's the only one who can save her (emotionally)...and she's the only one who can save him (physically...literally so many times. Why is he always jumping and falling from heights?????). It was a little comical. Thankfully the romance wasn't the only plot line in the story, plus I'm sort of used to YA romances being a little hit or miss sooo nbd. Even if I don't think they're love?? If they think they're in love? Like, I guess that's all that matters???
On the plus side, though, the plot and worldbuilding was at least twice as complex as I expected it to be (actually pretty good? made up for lackluster relationship building?), and there were a few secondary characters who I thought I had pigeonholed who later on came back to surprise me.
As a YA novel, I really enjoyed this. I've complained a lot, but legit actually I had a good time here. Almost gave it four stars, actually (but there was too much romance in the last chapter so I had a bad taste in my mouth). Dystopian YA has been a little out of vogue lately, so it was fun to visit these tropes again (bringing me back to those Hunger Games days), but in a Korean setting which made it all feel fresh.
Considering that this is Axie Oh's debut novel, I'm really looking forward to reading some of her more recent novels! The moments of surprise and the way she surprised me with a few characterizations bodes well for her development as an author.