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A review by ranjanireviewsreads
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Admittedly, I went into this novel with high expectations. It's popular and many people whose opinions I trust also loved it. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
Let's start with the pacing. The god-awful, extremely fast series of events that left me reeling every single time there was a change of scenery. I constantly had to remind myself that this story supposedly took place over a month because the pacing made it feel like 2, maybe 3 days. Because everything happens so fast (too fast), nothing seems important enough, no event or dialogue has the intended impact.
The characters had absolutely no personality. Mina was supposed to be this strong, feminist girl who sacrificed her life for her family. Instead, she is this husk of a girl who has no personality, no flaws, no strengths, and definitely isn't likeable. Shin is somehow worse because I can see why he's likeable - he's the stereotypical male lead of a fantasy novel who's so much older than the female lead and is stoic but allows only her to see his true feelings. Except he also has no personality except his title - and even that isn't done well. Perhaps the only character I halfway liked was Namgi but that's because he's the generic comic relief with a sad backstory.
While the world building is half decent, it really suffers because of the writing and pacing. I was so disappointed by the characterisations and was trying to play catch-up with what was happening, being given no time by the narrative to wrap my head around something, that I couldn't appreciate the world the author has created. Not that we got to explore it much, or at all.
All is this is made worse by the writing. It's amateurish, which I'm not terribly put off by, except that it allows for all of these negative aspects to flourish. There is no craft, no love behind the writing. It simply tells a story, expects us to love it, and moves on. Given the short timeline of the story, writing in the present tense would have served the author well except for the fact that the author cannot write. This novel is the exact opposite of the phrase, "show, don't tell." It shows nothing. There's no point to the story. It felt like a waste of my time.
Let's start with the pacing. The god-awful, extremely fast series of events that left me reeling every single time there was a change of scenery. I constantly had to remind myself that this story supposedly took place over a month because the pacing made it feel like 2, maybe 3 days. Because everything happens so fast (too fast), nothing seems important enough, no event or dialogue has the intended impact.
The characters had absolutely no personality. Mina was supposed to be this strong, feminist girl who sacrificed her life for her family. Instead, she is this husk of a girl who has no personality, no flaws, no strengths, and definitely isn't likeable. Shin is somehow worse because I can see why he's likeable - he's the stereotypical male lead of a fantasy novel who's so much older than the female lead and is stoic but allows only her to see his true feelings. Except he also has no personality except his title - and even that isn't done well. Perhaps the only character I halfway liked was Namgi but that's because he's the generic comic relief with a sad backstory.
While the world building is half decent, it really suffers because of the writing and pacing. I was so disappointed by the characterisations and was trying to play catch-up with what was happening, being given no time by the narrative to wrap my head around something, that I couldn't appreciate the world the author has created. Not that we got to explore it much, or at all.
All is this is made worse by the writing. It's amateurish, which I'm not terribly put off by, except that it allows for all of these negative aspects to flourish. There is no craft, no love behind the writing. It simply tells a story, expects us to love it, and moves on. Given the short timeline of the story, writing in the present tense would have served the author well except for the fact that the author cannot write. This novel is the exact opposite of the phrase, "show, don't tell." It shows nothing. There's no point to the story. It felt like a waste of my time.