Scan barcode
A review by hania_haru
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
4.0
My first attempt at a review ever:
Copy the link to see the whole review I made! https://carbonated-amethyst-e15.notion.site/The-Girl-who-fell-Beneath-the-Sea-Review-bd8e8ef7eacc422b9982f1ec3f9d8562?pvs=4
I literally needed a few minutes when I finished reading the last page because wow, this book made me feel a lot. I gave “The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea” 3,5 stars but liked it enough to round it up to 4 stars!
At first I intended to give it 3 stars but at the last quarter of the book I realised that I’m way too emotional and this story gave me way more joy than I expected it to give me. This book has lots of potential and I was super intrigued by the cover and synopsis, especially the whole Korean mythology genre behind it, but sadly it had a few bad sides to it…
Specific rating
The cover: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
World building: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Characters development: ⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Romance: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Average: 3,6
Positives:
- Absolutely stunning cover
- Interesting plot
- Adorable characters Namgi
- Easy to read
- Spirited Away vibes
- Family trope
- A happy ending (:
Negatives:
- Relationships and reasons behind certain actions are underdeveloped
- Too rushed
- Very simplified writing style
- Plot holes
Mina, the protagonist
The sixteen year-old heroine Mina jumps into the sea and sacrifices herself to be the Sea God’s bride and save her village from the storms.
She’s extremely loyal, stubborn but also very determined in what she wants. I really liked that the author tried to portray her in this specific way but in certain situations she behaved way younger than she actually is. This threw me off a little and made me find her a little.. childish maybe? She cried and complained too much and thought things would end if she said so. This made no sense to me. Besides that Mina would go back to the past so much and live in flashbacks that it made her seem delusional. With all of this to me she just seemed too young for the whole sacrificing task.
Writing style
As lots of reviews say the writing style is so simplified that it seems amateur. I would say that this book is very YA. It can be enjoyable, like it was, but it was too middle-grade to me and made me force to push through the story. I also didn’t like how lots of words were repeated so much like “The Red String of Fate” and “my great-great-grandmothers knife”, like the author could have thought of different names in stead of mentioning them in the exact same way everytime when needed. A lot of conversations happened without making sense to the previous ones and without a logical reason.
The biggest issue I had was that it was so fast-paced that I couldn’t always imagine the book in my head while I’m a very visual person. It took me a whole 90-100 pages to finally get into the book because the start was so vague and the events had no explanation whatsoever. I think this was a big issue for lots of readers.
Characters
I absolutely adored the side characters! Namgi They were very funny, kindhearted and supportive to Mina but, yes there’s a but, there was too little character development. A few character backstories were mentioned but they didn’t make 100% sense to me and it seemed flat and rushed. You read what they are doing but you don’t get to know them as a person while they could have been so amazing… again Namgi cough
A few characters like Shim Cheong and Nagi got very little screen time while the book literally based on Shim Cheong’s tale. Ofcourse I can understand that she wanted to create a twist to the retelling but that doesn’t mean Shim Cheong should be left outside of the picture. It was too focused on what Mina was doing.
Plot and world building
There’s a lot things to say about this part… First, I loved the Spirit Realm idea in the book but it wasn’t excuted properly.
The spirits almost seemed too human to differentiate them from being... spirits. Nor were the fantasy elements in that place anything special. The author could have made it way more fantasy-like so we readers could live in that world as well. I really missed this. :(
There was little logic behind events (while it’s inspired by a Korean fairytale retelling), characters hop from one place to the other, and all of it seemed too convenient and coincidental. There were obstacles but they weren’t strong in the sense of actually being a conflict in the story. It lasted for a few pages and after that everything seemed normal again in the Spirit Realm. This was so confusing to me.. There were moments in the beginning of the book that I wanted to DNF but I just wanted to give this book a proper chance.
There was also this moment where Mina said that the Goddess of Moon and Memory could be the Goddess of Motherhood and Children just because Mina said she was super kind. What happened to the former goddess then?
Thankfully there were a few plot twists where my mouth was left hanging open because they weren’t as obvious to me as they were for others so that’s a good thing!
Romance
There was a major romance presence but it was insta-lovey and rushed as many things in this book. Mina and the person she ends up loving didn’t have many interactions and it wasn’t clarified at all why she loved the guy. There was no build-up to their relationship and at first they literally disliked eachother but at some point they also wanted to be eachother forever? Were they actually in love or did they think so because they were soulmates by The Red String of Fate? I was too confused.
About the age gap.. that was a bit weird. Mina is 16 while he’s 100+ in a body of an 18 year old? I can kind of understand that and we have lots of those cases in fantasy books but it was still a bit eh and especially when Mina acted younger than she actually is.
Conclusion
Maybe I mentioned too many bad sides to it but it was really enjoyable when I finally got hooked. I couldn’t help but root for and Mina even when they had so little interactions. I would recommend this book if you don’t mind the things I mentioned above as much but it’s absolutely not for the adult age group. I’m thankful to Axie Oh for writing this book because it was very enjoyable and gave me lots of happy feelings. The secondary characters were so lovable , but I just wish things were executed properly because this book has so so much potential. Maybe that the author is willing to rewrite it with all of the feedback people have given.. Who knows?
If you love Asian folklore and a cute romance then absolutely go for this book!
I hope this review helped you giving a proper idea of the book while I suck at putting my thoughts in words haha, but I think I did decently well for the first time!
Copy the link to see the whole review I made! https://carbonated-amethyst-e15.notion.site/The-Girl-who-fell-Beneath-the-Sea-Review-bd8e8ef7eacc422b9982f1ec3f9d8562?pvs=4
I literally needed a few minutes when I finished reading the last page because wow, this book made me feel a lot. I gave “The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea” 3,5 stars but liked it enough to round it up to 4 stars!
At first I intended to give it 3 stars but at the last quarter of the book I realised that I’m way too emotional and this story gave me way more joy than I expected it to give me. This book has lots of potential and I was super intrigued by the cover and synopsis, especially the whole Korean mythology genre behind it, but sadly it had a few bad sides to it…
Specific rating
The cover: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
World building: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Characters development: ⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Romance: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Average: 3,6
Positives:
- Absolutely stunning cover
- Interesting plot
- Adorable characters Namgi
- Easy to read
- Spirited Away vibes
- Family trope
- A happy ending (:
Negatives:
- Relationships and reasons behind certain actions are underdeveloped
- Too rushed
- Very simplified writing style
- Plot holes
“Don't chase fate, Mina. Let fate chase you.”
Mina, the protagonist
The sixteen year-old heroine Mina jumps into the sea and sacrifices herself to be the Sea God’s bride and save her village from the storms.
She’s extremely loyal, stubborn but also very determined in what she wants. I really liked that the author tried to portray her in this specific way but in certain situations she behaved way younger than she actually is. This threw me off a little and made me find her a little.. childish maybe? She cried and complained too much and thought things would end if she said so. This made no sense to me. Besides that Mina would go back to the past so much and live in flashbacks that it made her seem delusional. With all of this to me she just seemed too young for the whole sacrificing task.
Writing style
As lots of reviews say the writing style is so simplified that it seems amateur. I would say that this book is very YA. It can be enjoyable, like it was, but it was too middle-grade to me and made me force to push through the story. I also didn’t like how lots of words were repeated so much like “The Red String of Fate” and “my great-great-grandmothers knife”, like the author could have thought of different names in stead of mentioning them in the exact same way everytime when needed. A lot of conversations happened without making sense to the previous ones and without a logical reason.
The biggest issue I had was that it was so fast-paced that I couldn’t always imagine the book in my head while I’m a very visual person. It took me a whole 90-100 pages to finally get into the book because the start was so vague and the events had no explanation whatsoever. I think this was a big issue for lots of readers.
Characters
I absolutely adored the side characters! Namgi They were very funny, kindhearted and supportive to Mina but, yes there’s a but, there was too little character development. A few character backstories were mentioned but they didn’t make 100% sense to me and it seemed flat and rushed. You read what they are doing but you don’t get to know them as a person while they could have been so amazing… again Namgi cough
A few characters like Shim Cheong and Nagi got very little screen time while the book literally based on Shim Cheong’s tale. Ofcourse I can understand that she wanted to create a twist to the retelling but that doesn’t mean Shim Cheong should be left outside of the picture. It was too focused on what Mina was doing.
Plot and world building
There’s a lot things to say about this part… First, I loved the Spirit Realm idea in the book but it wasn’t excuted properly.
The spirits almost seemed too human to differentiate them from being... spirits. Nor were the fantasy elements in that place anything special. The author could have made it way more fantasy-like so we readers could live in that world as well. I really missed this. :(
There was little logic behind events (while it’s inspired by a Korean fairytale retelling), characters hop from one place to the other, and all of it seemed too convenient and coincidental. There were obstacles but they weren’t strong in the sense of actually being a conflict in the story. It lasted for a few pages and after that everything seemed normal again in the Spirit Realm. This was so confusing to me.. There were moments in the beginning of the book that I wanted to DNF but I just wanted to give this book a proper chance.
There was also this moment where Mina said that the Goddess of Moon and Memory could be the Goddess of Motherhood and Children just because Mina said she was super kind. What happened to the former goddess then?
Thankfully there were a few plot twists where my mouth was left hanging open because they weren’t as obvious to me as they were for others so that’s a good thing!
“I was angry at the fate I'd been given. Because I realised that in order for you to have what you want, I'd have to lose the only thing I've ever wanted.”This was so romantic oh my god I cried
Romance
There was a major romance presence but it was insta-lovey and rushed as many things in this book. Mina and the person she ends up loving didn’t have many interactions and it wasn’t clarified at all why she loved the guy. There was no build-up to their relationship and at first they literally disliked eachother but at some point they also wanted to be eachother forever? Were they actually in love or did they think so because they were soulmates by The Red String of Fate? I was too confused.
About the age gap.. that was a bit weird. Mina is 16 while he’s 100+ in a body of an 18 year old? I can kind of understand that and we have lots of those cases in fantasy books but it was still a bit eh and especially when Mina acted younger than she actually is.
Conclusion
Maybe I mentioned too many bad sides to it but it was really enjoyable when I finally got hooked. I couldn’t help but root for
Spoiler
ShinSpoiler
(I cried my ass off when Namgi pretty much died)If you love Asian folklore and a cute romance then absolutely go for this book!
I hope this review helped you giving a proper idea of the book while I suck at putting my thoughts in words haha, but I think I did decently well for the first time!