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A review by willrefuge
Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho
3.0
7 / 10 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2024/04/23/oceans-godori-by-elaine-u-cho-review/
Ocean Yoon has never felt much at home anywhere, at least not since she left Jeju, and what she’d imagined to be her destiny as a haenyeo—one of the legendary pearl divers, which the women in her family had belonged to for generations. Generations broken when Ocean’s mother refused her entry into their ranks.
In the years since, the stars have opened up before her, but nothing has ever stuck. The Alliance, Officer’s school, a Captain’s eye candy, and now the XO on a small, nominally affiliated vessel. But while Ocean can’t seem to find her place, her best friend Teo knows his.
Second son of the Anand Tech empire, he isn’t the face of the company like his father and brother. Instead, his business all takes place in the shadows. Someone to schmooze, someone to fuck, someone frame, someone to kill… well, can’t have that tied to the family business. That’s where Teo comes in: part backup plan and expendable. But when his family is murdered, Teo is thrust into the spotlight. Especially when someone wearing his brother’s face declares him the executioner.
And it’s up to Ocean and her crew to save him.
—
Sigh… I knew as soon as I finished this one that the review was going to be a pain to write.
Let me start with what I liked.
I loved the characters, the setting, the story—even though the whole “ragtag band trying to clear an innocent ‘man framed for murder” is a bit cliché. I loved how the characters interacted within the scope of the universe, their backstories and how these determined the direction they’d take in the confines of the plot. The only hiccup to this was Dae, whose character was inconsistent at best (as if the author decided at some point that they needed someone on the crew to play antihero).
I’m not going to dwell on the romance, which sometimes felt forced and others flowed naturally—about how most romances seem to go.
I don’t read a whole lot of independently published novels, because they’re so hit-or-miss. At the 90% mark, I was already reexamining my choices, as I wound down on one of favorite books of the year.
And then it ended.
In reading other reviews leading up to writing this, I noted how much some other people loved the “cliffhanger” at book’s end. Which I just… don’t understand. Because Ocean’s Godori doesn’t so much tease the next entry in the series as it does… well, fail to tell a complete story.
There is no, absolutely NO resolution to ANY part of the plot. Everyone is left in the wind. Everything up in the air. When I was young, I remember learning that a story needs a beginning, middle, and end. Ocean’s Godori doesn’t even bother trying with an ending. In fact, it seemed we skipped the conclusion entirely.
When a serial pulls a cliffhanger, they do so on the finale—or midseason finale, at least—when the show has been established, and the audience has experienced at least some level of resolution. They DO NOT put a cliffhanger in the pilot, before any part of the already fledgling story has been resolved. Not unless they’re begging to get canceled, at least.
TL;DR
I… I don’t know what to say about this one. How do you rate something like that? The story was amazing, up til it… didn’t resolve anything, ended so abruptly that I genuinely missed it the first time around and read into the afterword before becoming so confused that I skipped back and reread the entire chapter. And yes, I know that was a run-on sentence. The point is, I’m annoyed to the point of feeling betrayed, and I don’t see how anything in the second book can make everything better. For all I know it’s going to just pick up where Book #1 left off before going and pulling the same shit and making you pick up the next entry to (MAYBE) find out what happens at the end.
So, would I recommend this one? Ye gods… no. No, I can’t. The ebook is $12 and doesn’t even tell a story. Despite 90% of it being an amazing read, that end bit soured everything for me. Or maybe you’ll be one of those people that seemed to love the “cliffhanger” and overlook the whole zero resolution thing. I’m annoyed that this crashed so abruptly. I’m annoyed that I STILL want to know what happens and kinda want to read the next one. I’m annoyed that I feel like I have to justify this.
As I said, I knew this was going to suck to write.
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2024/04/23/oceans-godori-by-elaine-u-cho-review/
Ocean Yoon has never felt much at home anywhere, at least not since she left Jeju, and what she’d imagined to be her destiny as a haenyeo—one of the legendary pearl divers, which the women in her family had belonged to for generations. Generations broken when Ocean’s mother refused her entry into their ranks.
In the years since, the stars have opened up before her, but nothing has ever stuck. The Alliance, Officer’s school, a Captain’s eye candy, and now the XO on a small, nominally affiliated vessel. But while Ocean can’t seem to find her place, her best friend Teo knows his.
Second son of the Anand Tech empire, he isn’t the face of the company like his father and brother. Instead, his business all takes place in the shadows. Someone to schmooze, someone to fuck, someone frame, someone to kill… well, can’t have that tied to the family business. That’s where Teo comes in: part backup plan and expendable. But when his family is murdered, Teo is thrust into the spotlight. Especially when someone wearing his brother’s face declares him the executioner.
And it’s up to Ocean and her crew to save him.
—
Sigh… I knew as soon as I finished this one that the review was going to be a pain to write.
Let me start with what I liked.
I loved the characters, the setting, the story—even though the whole “ragtag band trying to clear an innocent ‘man framed for murder” is a bit cliché. I loved how the characters interacted within the scope of the universe, their backstories and how these determined the direction they’d take in the confines of the plot. The only hiccup to this was Dae, whose character was inconsistent at best (as if the author decided at some point that they needed someone on the crew to play antihero).
I’m not going to dwell on the romance, which sometimes felt forced and others flowed naturally—about how most romances seem to go.
I don’t read a whole lot of independently published novels, because they’re so hit-or-miss. At the 90% mark, I was already reexamining my choices, as I wound down on one of favorite books of the year.
And then it ended.
In reading other reviews leading up to writing this, I noted how much some other people loved the “cliffhanger” at book’s end. Which I just… don’t understand. Because Ocean’s Godori doesn’t so much tease the next entry in the series as it does… well, fail to tell a complete story.
There is no, absolutely NO resolution to ANY part of the plot. Everyone is left in the wind. Everything up in the air. When I was young, I remember learning that a story needs a beginning, middle, and end. Ocean’s Godori doesn’t even bother trying with an ending. In fact, it seemed we skipped the conclusion entirely.
When a serial pulls a cliffhanger, they do so on the finale—or midseason finale, at least—when the show has been established, and the audience has experienced at least some level of resolution. They DO NOT put a cliffhanger in the pilot, before any part of the already fledgling story has been resolved. Not unless they’re begging to get canceled, at least.
TL;DR
I… I don’t know what to say about this one. How do you rate something like that? The story was amazing, up til it… didn’t resolve anything, ended so abruptly that I genuinely missed it the first time around and read into the afterword before becoming so confused that I skipped back and reread the entire chapter. And yes, I know that was a run-on sentence. The point is, I’m annoyed to the point of feeling betrayed, and I don’t see how anything in the second book can make everything better. For all I know it’s going to just pick up where Book #1 left off before going and pulling the same shit and making you pick up the next entry to (MAYBE) find out what happens at the end.
So, would I recommend this one? Ye gods… no. No, I can’t. The ebook is $12 and doesn’t even tell a story. Despite 90% of it being an amazing read, that end bit soured everything for me. Or maybe you’ll be one of those people that seemed to love the “cliffhanger” and overlook the whole zero resolution thing. I’m annoyed that this crashed so abruptly. I’m annoyed that I STILL want to know what happens and kinda want to read the next one. I’m annoyed that I feel like I have to justify this.
As I said, I knew this was going to suck to write.