The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea Book Review

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
Published by Feiwel & Friends on February 22, 2022
Pages: 336
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.
Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.
But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…

I was so thrilled to not only receive The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea as an eARC from NetGalley but I also received the special edition FairyLoot. I will say I was suckered in by the cover and had no idea what this story was about in the slightest which did feel a little jarring when I started to read. It took me a little while to get my thoughts in order about what worked and what unfortunately didn’t.

Characters in The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

Mina is the main character in The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea and we follow her through her journey into the Spirit World and how that impacts the people she left behind. I think Mina as a character could have been one of my all-time favourites but I actually found some of her emotional responses to be jarring and stereotypical. The overbearing thought I have about The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is that everything feels overly predictable and trope like. I am not a massive fan of the ordinary girl who becomes magical and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say this is but that is the main premise of Mina’s character. I was so disappointed by Mina as a whole, I thought there was a lot of potential that just wasn’t explored and a lot of the things that happen to her are just mundane which was a shame.

There are two love interests in The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, the Sea God and Shin, and I would have loved more character development so that when the relationships started to form I cared a little more. I think a lot was taken for granted in terms of knowing what the other person was thinking. I loved Shin as a character especially with the dynamic with his sidekicks, I think the way his story was told was actually better than Mina’s. Just bear that in mind if you’re in this one for the romance.

The Good and the Bad!

I’m going to start with the good, this book is extremely atmospheric. I adored the setting and how everything meshed together, when people say it’s like Spirited Away they aren’t far off. It was impressive how much detail Axie Oh managed to fit into such a short book. The mythology for me was definitely my favourite part of the book, I think the different Houses were brilliantly written about, but I would have loved for there to have been more time spent on each of them. To be honest I could have done with this book being like 1000 words long to expand on all the things I wanted expanding.

The things I struggled with was the lack of development, there was definitely moments where the story jumped all over the place and things seemed to happen out of nowhere. Especially when it came to the relationships all the way through the book. I wish there had been more focus on how everything came together and how it all worked out. It ended to quickly and was resolved too quickly for me. It was a little bittersweet when it ended and the issues I had were easily rectified if the book had just been a longer.

Recommendation

I would recommend The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, although it didn’t work for me I can appreciate there is an audience who would love it! It has a really strong base in the mythology and there is some brilliant moments all the way through. If you are a big fan of Spirited Away you should definitely check this one out!

We actually have the Fairyloot Exclusive Edition of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea up for sale on my husband’s shop if you’re interested.

Let me know if you’ve read this one or if it’s on your radar! I would love to know what you thought about the story?