I tried so hard to love this but unfortunately, it wasn’t for me. It felt very info-dumpy in places and I just couldn’t wrap my head around it or find myself absorbed in the story.

I was so excited for this book and it delivered! This was a wonderful take on Korean myth. The set up and opening blew me away.

The Sea God once protected the islands nestled in between his watery abode but now he plagues them with deadly storms instead, only ever appeased and only ever momentarily by a bride sacrificed to him. Shim Cheong is this year's sacrifice and, as the most beautiful girl of the island, its inhabitants are hopeful she may be the last. For her true love, Joon, it is an unbearable sacrifice and so his little sister, Mina, plunges herself into the waves and takes Shim Cheong's place.

Mina finds her way to the ocean floor and the sleeping god who resided in silence inside his palace there. She also makes her way to discovering the inhabitants of the teeming city beyond its hallowed walls too. Where does the answer for how to save her people lie? With this petulant god, able but unwilling to aid her? Or is it contained with souls of the Spirit Realm, so bright and seemingly full of life?

I adored every aspect of this enchanting story. It was as full of whimsy and wonder as it was action and adventure, heart and humour as it was grief and gravity. The reader was spared no emotion and many a tear, of both the happy and sad variety, were shed.

Mina was a strong protagonist whose flaws only served to make her both more authentic and more lovable. She introduced the reader to her new underwater world and invited us to explore its streets together. All that was found there was fantastical in nature and intriguing in design. I loved gaining an understanding for all that the author conjured and seeing how everything had its perfect placement inside the story.

The underwater cultures and religion were perhaps the most inventive and intriguing aspects for me, only shared with my love for the blossoming romances that featured alongside them. This romantic focus was as searingly painful in some instances as it was sweet and promising in others. As in every other area, the dualities served to bond me with all that was occurring on the page and the author's exquisite prose made each scene dance vividly inside my imagination. A faultless creation!

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh is a fantasy inspired by Korean myth about a young girl who sacrifices herself to the Sea God in order to save her family. The writing is lyrical and dreamlike, with vibes of Sprited Away. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the book, and Mina as a character - she is soft and emotional, and strong and determined all at the same time. I loved the dreamlike vibes and found the beginning really strong, but as the book went on it started to drag and I felt like it kind of lost its way. Overall though, I still really enjoyed it!

I loved this book soooo sooooo much!! It felt like a historical fantasy kdrama. The descriptions brought the scenes alive , the characters stole my heart and the writing was so so beautiful . The romance was also beautifully executed and I just loved everything about this book. If there’s one teeny tine complaint I have it would be that the the book was too short. I wish this was a duology so that the characters could be fleshed out a little more and the plot had a hit more time to develop into itself fully. But I would still highly recommend this book!!
Rating: 4.5 stars

A beautiful enchanting tale of a stong young woman and the people she loves. I did nor know the myth it was based on but that did not matter because the author weaves parts of it and others into the text. I thoroughly enjoyed this and know it will captivate a young audience.

I went into this book not knowing what to truly expect. I was scared I wasn't going to love it but my god am I glad to be proven wrong.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea has become a favourite of mine.

The writing, the plot and the characters were just amazing and I will honestly admit that this book had me crying on multiple occasions.

Words cannot say how much I fell in love with this book. Just go read it, like right now.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is an absolutely lovely read that sweeps you away in to a wonderful world full of friendship, family and an exploration of just how strong those bonds can be,

This book started so well and finished even better. I loved the pacing of this book, just when things would start to slow down something would happen to prevent you from losing interest. Mina was such a strong character to follow, and i enjoyed her devotion to her family. I enjoyed how the red string of fate and the spirit world played into this. It’s not something ive read about before. The spirit world aspect reminded me so much of spirited away, which i enjoyed as i loved the movie. The romance felt very quick but im not sure if that was because of the pacing of the book or because the characters fell in love in 30 days. I did enjoy the romance though, two reluctant people who open up to each other will always have my heart. My biggest problem with the book was that it was a bit predictable, the biggest plot twist I realised quite early on in the book. And im still confused as to how Mina came to discover this as it wasnt explained too well in the book. Other than this i did really enjoy this book and would recommend it.

Once again Axie Oh does it - these are books which aren’t just pretty faces, they’re absolutely stunningly beautiful stories which leave you still in their world weeks later. This retelling is done fabulously and Axie is definitely becoming one of my favourite authors of 2022

First of all, kudos to the cover, it is exquisite.
It is a really beautiful story. Well written and fascinating.
I don't have the knowledge of the story this book is retelling, but now, I feel like I need to read about it.
I have nothing bad to say, this was good, but I'm at a point of my reading life where I need more, nonetheless this good is really good !

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea was the perfect read to accompany me on a long day of travelling. I relished every chapter in the Spirit Realm. Mina took me a while to engage with but the beautiful descriptors of the world and the clothing swiftly made me fall in love with Axie Oh's writing style. I had Studio Ghibli vibes all the way through and nostalgia hit me, reminding me of Spirited Away although I wouldn't say it's a direct comparison in the slightest but even the pastels on the cover nudged me that way! Oh has a gift in her writing indeed to instil such fantastical elements and emotions.
I'd recommend this one for a day of escapism. It was a quick read and easy to dip in and out of, not taking a lot of concentration (for me anyway). All of the characters add to the story, with some of the supporting ones being my absolute favourites. Once I warmed to Mina, I followed her plight desperately - I really enjoyed the inclusion of the threads of fate and felt this gave the story another dimension, taking it slightly away from cute in a very whimsical setting.

This is a really magical story and beautifully written. I was not aware of the original Korean mythology it's based on, but I loved Mina's story. She is a brilliant character, brave and fierce. I loved her adventures in the world of the sea god and the direction her story takes. The ending was wonderful. If you've not read this yet, I'd definitely recommend.

Thanks to Hodder for the chance to read this one. I thought the premise was particularly strong, and the underwater setting innovative and well realised, though I would have loved more exploration within the underwater city. I felt the pacing was uneven throughout despite a very punchy beginning, and wanted deeper character relationship development so that some of the reveals had a little more emotional heft.

I received this review copy thanks to the publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

“The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea” by Axie Oh [4/5]

Full disclosure: I am normally not the type to request a YA book on Netgalley or read a lot of YA in general. But this might be the best YA I have read this year ( I do not think I will read another YA book this year so I am quite sure it is). I really loved it.

Blurb taken from the author’s website:

Axie Oh’s The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is an enthralling feminist retelling of the classic Korean folktale “The Tale of Shim Cheong,” perfect for fans of Wintersong, Uprooted, and Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.
Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of Shin—a mysterious young man with no soul—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits, Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.
But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…

I was a bit sceptical at first, regarding the blurb's claim that this could be similar to Spirited Away. But I understand the claim after reading it. The setting feels magical in the same way the world of Spirited Away does and I can certainly see some similarities. While the world beneath the sea is not overly described in the book, Axie Oh’s ability to get the feeling of the world across is amazing. It feels very whimsical and the descriptions that are there paint a very lush picture of the world.

Something that is not so common when I read YA-fantasy is that I like all of the characters but think I liked most of the more important characters in this book and my biggest surprise is still that I really enjoyed the female main character. Mina is really refreshing (bear in mind I do not read a lot YA, if you do, her character might not be as refreshing) and I really liked following her POV. The male character Shin tends to be a bit less colourless in his depiction but I think his character is really entertaining, which is also true for his two friends. Some of the more minor characters are mostly characterised by one or two major traits and while I still think this is fine for a story with a more narrow focus, there is one thing that really irks me. The antagonist is not a well-written character in my opinion - not at all. They are not really present in the story in my opinion and only become a threat and more important at the end of the book. And while I do not know the folktale this book is a retelling of I think the main story with the Sea God was good enough to carry the book and the antagonist feels more like something that was put in there because a fantasy book needs a longer fighting sequence/a battle with a big bad. I also think the climax at the end of the book is very sudden and I am not so sure this did anything for the story at all because it feels a bit disconnected from the rest.

The book’s story is entertaining even though I would not call the way the story evolves very surprising. Maybe it is because I have read a lot of books but some of the secrets revealed were things I was able to guess rather quickly. If you need to be surprised, this might not the book for you. But I think this is a very individual thing because people are different and I know a lot of people who are still able to be surprised by books even though they have read a lot too.
The love story in this book is kind of weird though. It sometimes feels like a love triangle but in the end, it really isn’t? It’s weird. And if you are not into Insta-Love stay away from this book. It is very insta-lovey. And I think this might be also due to how hard it is to identify how much time passes between scenes, at least for me that was the case. The only thing I think we know is that we can measure the times in days and not in months.

Oh’s writing style is amazing. It is a very good mix of easy-to-understand language and more whimsical language when the situation calls for it. This type of whimsical language tends to be a bit more flowery than needed but I think it matches the story well.

I have never read anything quite like this! Reading The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea made me feel like I was playing one of those beautiful indie Nintendo Switch games, where reality and magic meld seamlessly, and the primary goal is simply peace, and kindness.

In Mina, we find a girl whose greatest identifier at the start of her story is that she loves her older brother. Besides that, there really is nothing remarkable about her - until the moment she throws herself overboard.

Her adventure begins to shape her - and she shapes her adventure, as well as the seemingly immutable world she inhabits.

This is a story of families; of gods and spirits and monsters; of a place where the human and spirit worlds are split by a barely-there veneer. This is a story of people in the grip of fate. It is a meditation on the role of beliefs, spiritualism, and agency. It is a story of family, friendship, sacrifice, and - yes - of love.

Some technical points: I loved the world-building. Sometimes it feels like there is very little “new” that authors can write, and one world feels almost interchangeable with the next. But while reminiscent somewhat of Spirited Away, this new world is one I have never read before.

The spiritualism and beliefs felt somewhat undefined to me - almost wild, like there is nothing that governs the boundaries of its magic, nothing that makes any sense to the reader. But then, I suppose that is exactly why Mina’s world is in trouble.

The concepts of memories, and their destruction and rediscovery, also requires a fair amount of suspension of disbelief for the reader.

The final chapters were the only letdown. Mina’s life suddenly loses its texture as changes are described in rapid fire. (view spoiler)

This is a book I will recommend again, and again. As much as it is “Young Adult”, the kind of surrealism and thought experiments will appeal to anyone who can appreciate fantasy worlds.

Is it possible for a book to feel rushed yet slow? I think the ghibli type stories (I'm seeing a lot of comparisons in terms of vibes) might not be for me.

I started out having a great time, I was intrigued by the possible dynamics between the characters, the setting and atmosphere are beautifully described, the mythology was really interesting and the general premise really sucked me in. That being said several scenes felt really rushed, and the emotional scenes lacked any tension or depth because the characters immediately moved again. Little time is spent letting the readers understand their feelings and emotions, we just see quick reactions and time to go, time to move on to the next scene. Yet the characters feel so empty. There was no real motivation and reason for them to keep going; the quickness of so many scenes made it hard for me to connect or get invested in Mina's character. I'll be honest, I just lost interest halfway through and I really struggled to continue to the end. Shin's character was really interesting though, and his dynamic with the Sea God was a highlight since it's part of the mystery. I feel like the characters were just interesting when you list out their backstories in point form but as protagonists to follow on an adventure? it just wasn't for me.

[netgalley arc - super overdue]

An enjoyable fantasy read that tells readers to pave the way for their own destiny no matter how difficult or hopeless a task it can seem.

trigger warning
<spoiler> mention of miscarriage, memory loss, forced marriage, grief, human sacrifice </spoiler>

Every year, a girl gets thrown into the sea to appease the Storm God, to stop storms and flooding, because life in a war-torn country is already bad enough without these.
Due to her brother's shenanigans, Mina is this year's bride-to-be.

If you've read somewhere that this story is being compared to Spirited Away and you're apprehensive because most often these comparisons are just a pr gag, fear no more.
Instead of simply dying, Mina arrives in the spiritworld, a living person among ghosts, gods and creatures. And she has a mission, she can't simply find the next exit and leave. Because now she's here, and supposed to be the god's bride, she figures she'll be the best effing bride there ever was and solve the problem, so at least nobody else has to be sacrificed. And she does this out of duty, while I would have done it out of spite. ("let's destroy their stupid customs")

The pacing is supberb while also showing the passage of time, a juggle not many authors can do without it ending up feeling weird.

I saw part of the ending coming, but did not care because the journey was fun to be on.
Also, the ending was beautiful and I feel the urge to hug a dragon.

Now I guess I have to go and look at what else the author wrote, because this was amazing and not only do I recommend it, I want more of that.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

I love Axie Oh's writing as it is, but I think this might actually be my favourite.

This story was beyond gorgeous. The whole world building, the mythology, the writing, the impressions and descriptions and connections between characters are just beyond beautiful. I am in absolute awe of Axie's writing and I read this book so, so slowly because I simply didn't want it to end.

The characters are absolutely incredible and I loved, loved, loved all the relationships Mina built. I am a huge huge fan of the found family trope and this book sure didn't disappoint.

I loved the world Axie built here and was absolutely enraptured by the supernatural and the mystery within this story. And besides, the cover is just as equally as gorgeous as the whole story.