Rebel Seoul

Jaewon grew up as an orphan in the slums of Old Seoul.  After a stint in a street gang, he won a spot in a military academy.  It's the key to a different future in a world that is constantly at war.  His success at the academy gets him a job in a top-secret weapons program. 

His new job is to partner a girl named Tera.  He isn't her first partner.  All the others have quit.  She seems like a normal teenage girl, but she's actually a weapon.  She was raised as part of an experimental program where she was fed a steady stream of chemical enhancers until she became a super soldier.  Jaewon's job is to observe her, but he quickly begins to feel compassion.

As things progress and Jaewon learns more about the workings of the military, he begins to doubt a regime that callously spends the lives of the poor and turns young orphans into weapons.

Axie Oh's futuristic first novel is a dark vision of a world overtaken by violence.  There are some good ideas here, but there are too many one-dimensional side characters, and you already know how I feel about insta-love.  I think there is an audience for this book, and it's great to have another book with Asian characters.  This was just not as good as I wanted it to be.  Grades 8 and up.