I had this book on my TBR list for quite a while, so after I talked about it in my post on 7 Fantasy books based on 7 Different Mythologies and when I was at the library, I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and read it! (I have a terrible habit of procrastinating on TBR books because there are too many of them)
The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea is a fantasy story inspired by Korean myths. Due to generations of storms and civil war, Mina’s country has taken to sacrificing one young girl every year to the Sea God. They hope to find the Sea God’s true bride and put an end to all the storms. However, when the chosen bride turns out to be the beloved of Mina’s brother, Mina takes action to save her and falls into the Spirit Realm. Once in the spirit realm, Mina has one month to wake the Sea God and bring peace to her world.
I can’t lie, the cover of this book is TOO BEAUTIFUL and really the reason why it caught my attention. But I absolutely loved it – Oh has written a world infused with myths. It’s not just in the characters, but also in the stories that Mina tells. I really loved the worldbuilding here, it’s fascinating and it made me more curious about Korean mythology.
The story was also enjoyable! At first, I was a bit confused about how Mina was going to wake the Sea God, and I was worried that the bit about powerful spirits/gods wanting to keep the status quo would overtake the main plot, but Oh tied it together at the end. While I found the start a bit slow (I was worried the book was going to be more worldbuilding than plot even though I enjoyed it), it picked up the pace and I was hooked towards the end. The ending also made sense to me and I found the story to be very satisfying.
Overall, I really enjoyed this! I checked out Goodreads and many people mentioned “Spirited Away” in this review – I didn’t see it while reading but now that I think about it, I can see the inspiration. It’s definitely not a retelling, though, The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea stands alone as it is. I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it to fans of fantasy inspired by myths.
Glad you enjoyed this one! I agree the cover is beautiful. For me, though, the storytelling just didn’t do it for me and I was so sad about it. But, again, I’m happy it was a good read for you! 🙂
Awww it’s a pity this wasn’t a good read for you! Did you manage to find a similar one with storytelling you liked more?
Oh yes, I really enjoyed Sue Lynn Tan’s duology: Daughter of the Moon Goddess & Heart of the Sun Warrior.
Oooh, those are on my TBR! I’ll have to check them out soon!
This has been on my TBR list for a while, too!
I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
I’ll admit I DNF’ed this one. I don’t remember the details, but I think the writing style didn’t resonate with me. But you have me wondering if I should give it another chance!
It is pretty YA now that I think about it. But I do love the worldbuilding (also the cover helped with the imagination) so I didn’t even notice the writing style haha. I’d say to give it a go if you’re craving some YA fantasy!
I do absolutely love the cover! That’s partly why I picked it up!
[…] All in all, this was a delightful collection of tales that made me curious to find out more about Korean folktales as well as East Asian folktales more generally. And if you’re interested in fantasy based on Korean mythology, I really enjoyed The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (my review)! […]