Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

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The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

25 reviews

saoreads's review

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

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Mystical, all-consuming, and a marvel to read. The plot and character development were beautifully geared toward a lesson on how it takes a brave heart to change things. You either let fate decide for you or let fate chase after you. The world-building was easy to comprehend and imagine with the straightforward details it let on. I just loved it, especially that it didn't have unnecessary content and was very straight to the point considering it is a standalone novel. And you just can't help falling in love with the characters brimming with emotions. The tales being told felt nostalgic and brought back childhood memories. I've added it to my list of books to reread.

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spookily's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-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

2.5

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clairemadness's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

A fast paced fantasy that intertwines love, fate, and what it means to choose your own destiny. Though based off of a Korean folktale, you don't need to be familiar with the source to feel the fairytale inspiration.
If you like Spirited Away or that one arc in Kamisama Kiss where Nanami goes to the bottom of the ocean, you'll enjoy this book. However, I believe the author had many great ideas but in inexperience didn't know or understand how to execute them (or perhaps quite a bit was cut by an editor)- and in my opinion, both the story and characters suffer for it.

Congrats to the author for making me write the longest book review (breakdown?) I've ever written to date. Spoilers/Critique under the cut

From the first chapter, I could tell I would not enjoy how this book is written, and it wasn't until later did I understand why- there are a few reasons. Let me start off by saying I loved the characters, but have mixed feelings about this book, because I feel like it could have been leaps and bounds better if the author was more polished in their storytelling. I might seem critical- but it's because I liked the characters so much that I'm disappointed it felt like a second draft of a really good book.

1. Jumping into a scene of dire importance with no explanation of what is going on isn't an uncommon story opener, but it somewhat bothered me that right off the bat, we are expected to care about the main character, Mina, or the fact that she's doggy paddling to a boat after her brother and his... girlfriend? And then she jumps into the water, sacrificing herself with hate (I'm exaggerating) in her heart because she's pissed off her brother chose his gf over her. Sure, an opener with a good hook because you are left with the questions why? and for what reason?, however there was no breathing room to at least get acquainted with these characters, to get to like them first, before being afraid for their (mainly Mina's) safety, or feel the heartache of knowing her brother doesn't want to lose his girlfriend but would also be hurt by Mina's choice. To put in perspective, it would be like if The Hunger Games opened on the exact moment Katniss volunteered as tribute in Prim's place, without all that exposition beforehand letting us understand the world and the weight that volunteering had. Katniss loved her sister, didn't want her to die, and in the process would ensure provisions for her family after she died.. but she would die. That's the kind of opening I wanted, one where we lived a little with Mina and Joon and saw how much he loved Shim Cheong and how much Mina loved Joon.
Too rushed to feel any emotion from it at all. But the story goes on.

2. The author does a lot of telling instead of showing. This goes along a little with what I said before, but the consequence of jumping right to the action is that the author has to backtrack so much. It would have been a lot stronger of a story to see the reason Mina made the decision to essentially drown herself in place of her brother's beloved, but instead we are simply told how much she likes Joon, through flashbacks and memories. So many memories. Normally that would fall under showing, but the pattern goes as such: Mina says or thinks a thought such as "I've always loved Joon most", and a flashback recalling why she loves Joon follows. And it goes further than just the beginning of the story, nuances from her being scared of forests to when she starts catching feelings for Shin are told from Mina's mouth (or mind) instead of letting actions speak for her and leaving the reader to pick up on it. We are explicitly told a thing and then shown a memory for it.

3. Plot convenience? I lost count of how many times Mina conveniently recalled something of her childhood at the exact moment it related to whatever problem she faces. This is the weakness of the author's writing more than anything, but memory ex machina where grandma prepared her for this exact moment, especially when we're given a page or more of a flashback of said memory interrupting every plot point, got old. It comes off less like the main character's resourcefulness or cleverness and more like plot armor. Mina feels like a proactive character at times but is weighed down by passiveness when so many things are thrown at her and all she can do is.. remember stuff good.

4. Misused plot threads (and running themes?) This is one of the biggest detractors for me, being that there was some tidying up of the story that was needed, and yet room for so much more that was mentioned in passing and seemingly dropped/cut- particularly when it came to Mina's storyteller theme and Namgi+Kirin's backstories. The storytelling aspect of it COULD have been perfect, if it was introduced a little sooner than it was. Once again, we're told right off the bat Mina is a storyteller, and yet there is nothing but recalling her grandmother's stories until 3/4 the way in. Once that plot thread is used, it continues strongly until the end of the book, but there needed to be SOMETHING to connect those points until then. Perhaps in a meta way, all those flashbacks were supposed to be considered storytelling up until she literally tells stories to the Sea God? But there is no indication that she is purposely breaking the fourth wall if that was the author's intention (which I highly doubt, just throwing that idea out there). There isn't even thoughts woven in from the beginning of the book, that Mina WANTS to tell stories, she just repeats some abbreviated myths to tell Shin to go kick rocks.
AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON NAMGI AND KIRIN! Please. There was so much potential to dive a little deeper into the lore of these two characters, how they met, what Namgi's brother meant by the Imugi killing off Kirin's kind, none of this is explained. We never get a deeper connection with Kirin specifically, or are given an explanation to why he's particularly distrusting of Namgi despite them working together and Namgi having full faith in Kirin. Yet they're buddy buddy in the last pages of the book? What changed, from the first time Namgi fought his brothers to the second? The way Kirin talked about him made me almost believe he was the big bad at the end of the book, but no, Kirin just has trust issues I guess.

Don't get me wrong, I did not hate this book. Quite the opposite really, it was refreshing to not hate the personality of a YA female main character for once. The romance was PRECIOUS. Clumsily written at times, for sure, but had all the tropes of ooey gooey goodness: slowburn, enemies to lovers, fated love/soulmates. Though extremely fast paced, I was never bored, and it was easy to read. This is specific to my taste in descriptive language only, but there was some very pretty visuals that I was able to conjure up in my mind's eye at times (I'd give a 3 out of 5 on the "being inside the book" scale).
All that critique is to say that this book could have been so good. One of my absolute favorites even. But the story was not polished to it's absolute best self, which disappointed me greatly. I look forward to the growth in this author, their improvement in writing, and meeting more characters for me to love.

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a2_rache11's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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elmewhy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

~~4.5 Stars~~ 14th February 2022
*rounded to 5 stars

Beautiful, a poetic tale filled with myths coming alive, true love, loyalty, and sacrifice.
I got so invested in this world and the characters that I read it in one sitting, the story flowed easily, and the pacing felt just right. Plus, Axie Oh did a wonderful job in describing the settings/location, the Spirit Realm felt mystical and real, I really fell into this world as much as Mina did.
Mina is a wonderful heroine, she's written as not the most beautiful, strong, or wisest but she is by far the most loveable and relatable - her loyalty and love to her family shines through and fuels her bravery and strength. The other characters are wonderful compliments to Mina and help her with the journey but I felt we could have been given more depth into their lives and motivations.

I enjoyed how this book managed to avoid a lot of cliches, mainly with Mina, and how although she wasn't the "chosen one" she chose herself for the sake of her family. I didn't mind the ending it felt peaceful and well rounded. Purely selfishly I felt there were times within the book things could have been explored more (romance building with love interests, depth into side characters, more explanation into the gods/myths) but I can't fault how easily this book sucked me into this tale. A really wonderful read that deserves all the hype for its publication.

Plus the cover is stunning, I'll definitely be trying to get a physical copy upon publication.

Details
-Plot: fast-paced
-Romance: PG, Slow-burn, M/F main love interests
-TW: Child loss, small mentions of blood and violence (nothing too gore, very tame)
-Ending Happy/Sad/Unfinished:

Happy. Mina leaves her family unknown if they will meet again in the future but she joins her soulmate and newfound family/friends in the Spirit Realm married to the Sea God.

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-ARC copy in exchange for an honest review

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