Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

This is a book I’ve had on my TBR for such a long time. Not only was the cover stunning but the story of an underwater fantasy world based on Korean folktales and the red string of fate? Absolutely yes. However, this one ended up as a disappointment for me. I think it was more of a let down because it had so much potential. There were so many incredible ideas to work with and nearly all of them fell flat or where completely under developed.

This book needed to be double the length so it actually had space to develop the world and the characters. The progression of the story is so jumpy; there is never any downtime, it just hops from plot point to plot point, and most of the time it is actually quite jarring. I wanted the story to stop and take moments to breathe and let the characters and world actually come to life — it needed the meaningful ‘filler’ moments that flesh out a story.

The world building was one of the most disappointing parts. At times you had gorgeous glimpses of a Spirited Away style, enchanting underwater spirit world, but those moments got swept away in unanswered questions about the workings of the world and many elements that really didn’t make sense at all.

My biggest issue has to be the characters. They are all so one-dimensional. The main character doesn’t feel like a real person, just a collection of tropes that are told to you, not even really shown or given proper backstory. And the side characters feel like they only exist to aid the main character and fill in plot points. A lot of the dialogue felt awkward or elicited eye rolls and the relationships between the characters and their feelings are not meaningfully developed but just told to you, so I really felt nothing for them at all.

I think I am slightly harsh on this one because it had so much potential. Some of the writing is really beautiful, the story is very compelling and unique, and the characters could have been very meaningful. But overall it ended up being underdeveloped, one dimensional, and a big disappointment.

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ernea_navish's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I have a love-hate relationship with this book. I absolutely adore this one. Picked it up blindly based on a beautiful cover and the Asian-inspired background, but ended up loving it to the max.

The writing is easy to follow, even tho for some the start might be a little bit chaotic. The plot jumps right into action, not wasting time with long introductions so some might feel lost. I personally loved it this way... You meet all the characters with the flow, learn about the world together with the characters. There aren't unnecessary filler chapters. It also felt like watching a K-Drama / C-Drama instead of reading a book.

The story-line follows a young girl, sacrificing herself out of love for her family and her people. She gets to a Spirit Realm, where she needs to help break a curse if she wants the disasters happening to her people to stop. And while doing so, she meets many more characters who either help her or try to harm her. The plot twists in there are really good. The action as well.

The romance is sweet and natural, not breaking the flow of the main plot but at the same time not being just a side story-line. The whole book just keeps you on your toes, expecting what might happen next.

Only disappointment is that the book could’ve been longer. Not in a bad way. However, some scenes would be much more magical, if they went into more details.

And the hate relationship; it really made me anxious of who Mina will end up with. And any decision she would make did make sense, which was very good. But it still made me anxious that my wished ending would not happen...

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jayisreading's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

A feminist retelling of the Korean folktale, “The Tale of Shim Cheong,” The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea has a lot of heart, and it’s clear that Oh poured a lot of love into her characters and the worldbuilding. Being familiar with the original folktale, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t about Shim Cheong specifically (though she appears as a side character), but, rather, a rather headstrong and earnest sixteen-year-old named Mina. Alongside Mina is a cast of relatively memorable characters, perhaps one of the more notable ones being Shin, who ends up being Mina’s love interest. (I should note that this is definitely a slow burn romance, which won’t be for everyone—) I did find Oh’s characters somewhat weak, especially compared to her worldbuilding, but they certainly weren’t one-dimensional either. I think it was just wanting a bit more character development and time to sit with the cast. I also found the novel’s pacing a bit uneven at the start, but it really came together as it continued.

All-in-all, I enjoyed this YA novel more than I thought I would. I think I was especially taken to the emphasis on storytelling, and I really appreciated how Oh seamlessly wove in other Korean folktales into the novel through Mina.

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