The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

DNF. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this, but I found it slow and boring. It could've also just been that I didn't like the audiobook narrator. The way she read was boring too. I only reached up to chapter 7 or so. Interesting idea, but it couldn't keep me engaged.

this book is beautifully written, but it isn't for me i'm sorry :(

I just had the loveliest time reading this book. I appreciated that it was a Korean myth so I am unfamiliar with the base story. 
Mina was EXTRAORDINARY! Her inner strength, and love of her family, her land, and its people made her admirable.  While fierce, she also had a vulnerable side that was unsure if the actions she took were right. Sometimes she would be impulsive in the most marvelous ways usually while trying to be helpful to the spirits. 
Fate plays a big part in this tale. Is she fated to be the Sea God's bride and help her people? While the fated aspect made the outcome expected it was still skillfully written and you wanted to go along on Mina's adventure. Her fated love with Shin was perfection. One example was when she went to the Goddess of Women and Children with a paper boat wish of a human, the Goddess demanded to be paid and then laughed in her face and tossed the wish in the fire. She tried to retrieve it but burnt her hand instead. Shin left the paper boat wish near where she was sleeping, it was burnt a little but still intact.
If you want a wonderful heartwarming fantasy story I HIGHLY recommend this one. You won't regret it.

Loved it, such a powerful tale of family, sacrifices and love. The writing is well paced and the characters well defined, you end up falling in love with them as the protagonist does.

The world feels alive and vivid. It is a short story well written, feels like a warm cup of tea in your favorite sofa. It isn’t a groundbreaking book and it won’t win literary awards but if you want to feel loved and happy I would recommend you read it.

DNF at 30%, not interested in putting more of my time on this book.
This is not aweful, but I don't need or want to know what happens next, the characters and the story are not holding my attention so I decided to DNF it.

I am so glad this is a stand-alone fantasy! As I got further into the book, I had to know how it wrapped up and what happens to everyone. And thankfully, I got to find out all about them! I think the twist and the way it worked out was so clever and different. The gods were sometimes petty and sometimes generous, sometimes power hungry and sometimes compassionate. I like it when the god realm is portrayed as complicated that way.
Mina is amazing! She is constantly fighting for what is best for everyone. I loved seeing her stick by her values and morals.

im not mad, im just disappointed

listen, this book had such a cool premise and i LOVED the ideas that the author had for it. the characters were also all very lovely and i wanted to see more of them

but thats where my praise stops, unfortunately. i think this was an issue of “great idea, bad execution”, the writing didnt manage to bring the whole concept across and the plot and pacing issues were blatant.

the romance was lacking severely as well, they are just suddenly in love? there wasnt proper development at all except for them going to place A and then place B and so on. why are they in loveeee i will never knowwww
i was more interested in whatever the two side charas had going on tbh, can we have a story about those two

as much as i hate to say this, i think this would have been better in the hands of a more experienced fantasy writer because the writing was just extremely amateurish and had me bored one too many times

2.5⭐

Just a typical YA story.

What a whimsical story. Very different and somewhat light (although there is plenty of love, friendship and sorrow). It felt atmospherical and completes nicely as a stand-alone.
Plotwise I had a theory in the beginning but the story seemed to not develop along those lines - only to then come back around and boom, my theory was right after all. IMO this “plot twist” was well executed.
I'm really starting to love Asian folklore retelling or settings. I'd say it makes for a cosy and fast read (never mind my reading took forever but that was thanks to life not because of the book or a reading slump).
To me the snake-like dragons will forever look like Fuchur of the Never-Ending Story. Just in different colours.

I loved the world the most in this book. Some parts were not really fleshed out and made the world, story and characters appear rather flat and superficial, but it was written so much like a fairytale and quite enjoyable that I didn't mind. I would've loved this more, if there were more details and if it the pace wasn't as fast and had more character-focused scenes, but it was still lovely to read.

I just finished it!! I loved it so much because the story gave me that feeling of nostalgia and I just didn't want the story to end. The book felt like a warm hug ❤️❤️ I'm so happy I was able to read it now because I don't think I would've done it on my own.


The story was a bit slow at the start but I think it started picking up after 70 pages (maybe??) but I felt the ending a bit rushed.

This book is like a old fairytale, it's fantastical and has an hopeful message that sometimes is so straightforward I felt like it was being written just for me, to help me with my problems, it was (really) like a warm hug

“[...] Ho capito che, se tu ottieni ciò che vuoi, io perdo l'unica cosa che abbia mai voluto.”


Allora allora allora... da dove comincio?
Da una parte ho avuto l'impressione che il libro fosse più un riassunto della storia e non un romanzo completo, questo mi ha impedito di essere davvero presa dalla storia, complice il fatto che i “plot twists” fossero ovvi e serviti su un piatto d'argento.

Ma dall'altra parte... forse la semplicità della narrazione ha un suo perché, se da un lato la cosa diventa snervante a lungo andare, dall'altro rende la lettura cento volte più scorrevole.
E l'ambientazione? Le vibes? Perfette, chef's kiss 🤌🏻
Quindi che dire? Non è stata una lettura all'altezza delle aspettative ma è stata comunque carina, ed ha un suo perché.q

I would sell my soul to read this book for the first time again.

What a magical book! I fell in love with the characters and the story. The writing is stunning and the mood is so emotional and heartfelt! Instant buy author.

“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.”

I'm going to start off by saying the cover for this book is absolutely gorgeous. There are so much detail and care put into the cover that I will treasure it for a long time. This book is a retelling of a Korean myth, one that I am not familiar with, but I loved it all the same. At first I thought it was all a bit dramatic but as the story progressed I fell in love with the characters which resulted in a pleasant read.

I'd like to put it out there that Shin is now one of my favourite characters ever. He is so complex and I loved to watch his progression as a character. Not to say that this didn't mean my heart was shattered multiple times.

Badai mematikan telah merusak tanah kelahiran Mina selama beberapa generasi . Banjir menyapu seluruh desa, sementara perang berdarah dikobarkan untuk memperebutkan sumber daya yang tersisa. Masyarakat di desa Mina memercayai bahwa Dewa Laut mengutuk mereka dengan kematian dan keputusasaan. Dalam upaya untuk menenangkan Dewa Laut, setiap tahun seorang gadis cantik dibuang ke laut untuk menjadi pengantin Dewa Laut, dengan harapan suatu hari “pengantin sejati” akan dipilih dan mengakhiri penderitaan mereka.
Shim Cheong adalah gadis tercantik di desa, sekaligus kekasih Joon. Banyak yang percaya dialah pengantin sejati Dewa Laut Tapi pada malam Cheong hendak dikorbankan, Joon mengikuti Cheong, meski tahu bahwa ikut campur akan dihadiahi hukuman mati. Untuk menyelamatkan kakaknya, Mina terjun ke air menggantikan Cheong.
Kecantikan Mina memang tidak sebanding dengan para pengantin terdahulu. Tapi dia sudah tersapu ke Alam Roh. Kini Mina tak punya banyak waktu untuk menemukan Dewa Laut sebelum dirinya sendiri berubah menjadi arwah. Berbekal kemampuan mendongeng dan bantuan para arwah, Mina harus berhasil menemukan Dewa Laut.
Aku tertarik pada buku ini karena covernya yg cantik, terlebih edisi terjemahan memakai cover aslinya, aku ikut pra pesannya. Ekspektasiku tinggi pada buku ini, namun sayang, aku kurang paham dengan world building & magic systemnya. Aku bahkan membaca lebih dari sekali di beberapa bagian penjelasan kedua hal tersebut.
Sepertinya aku harus menerima kalau buku ini tidak cocok denganku. Namun jika teman-teman suka fantasi dengan latar belakang mitologi dan naga, mungkin kalian akan cocok.

The world is beautiful and I'd love to see it come to life. I liked the messages of the book and the imagery and metaphors that went along with it. But it felt like the story skipped at some parts or transitions were too choppy. While the main characters were fully developed, the recurring side characters didn't have much dimension to them. This was a missed opportunity to add more depth.  

So, I wanted to love this book like everyone else. But there are a few things that just don???t feel right.

First of all, I was not emotionally infested at all. If it???s my current state of mind or if it???s the rushed romance, I don???t know. About the latter: I feel like the romance in the book was so terribly set up. At one point one of the character says something like ???he says something in a way that ALWAYS makes me tremble???. Always? Girl we are on one of the last pages and you never mentioned this. Whenever a character shares his love for another character I am literally surprised because there were never signs for a looming romance.

Also, we literally learn the main characters last name on page 276. Of the 321.

Also the super random way the emperor comes up to Mina in the end and says ???I dreamt of you - will you be my bride??? wtf?

This is the first book I annotated and I went WILD with the tabs. Pink, however, was for romance and smut. And I only put about 5. I expected more. And that applies to the entire book.

3 stars. I wasn't really blown away by the atmosphere or the romance. The plot was incredibly confusing with Mina forming and breaking a red string of fate several times throughout and it's not explained why until about 3 chapters before the ending. And even the explanation was clunky and left me with unanswered questions. At many points in the story I felt like we were kicking the narrative down the road instead of learning anything about what Mina is supposed to do to save her people. The romance was sweet and quiet but it's not given much time to breathe because we have so many other narrative elements and secrets to figure out. Also, Mina is 16 during the main events of the story and her love interest is immortal so it's a little gross and I feel bad for rooting for them. The book does have studio Ghibli vibes but I felt the execution of the plot was poor.

3.5 stars - I enjoyed the story but lacked a little for what I considered a great read (see my rating system below).

Here are some areas I felt could be better:
- Quantity of description: The author provided nice descriptive sentences in almost every sentence. However, there was too little about the environment or the characters' feelings. I felt like I breezed through them and was unable to form a deeper impression. Some key turning points in the characters' feelings and thoughts could be much more fleshed out.

- Variety in structure and tempo: there was little variety in the sentence structures. Sentences were mostly in the most basic structure “he did this”, “there was that”. Sentences in general were pretty short too. I would not want to attribute it to target audience because there are many examples in books targeting elementary readers that prove otherwise. Because of this, it honestly read a little monotonously to me. It could be an intentional stylistic choice but it wasn't for me.

What I enjoyed:
- The plot was interesting, and as an East Asian I really appreciated a book based on elements I was familiar with - dragons, kirins, architecture and Sea God lores
- looking forward to what the author puts out in future still!

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My Rating System:
5⭐️: Excellent book AND influenced a change in my views
4.5⭐️: Excellent read
4⭐️: Great read, will recommend
3.5⭐️: Enjoyable read but missing something that will make it great ⬅️⬅️⬅️
3⭐️: An okay read that I didn't regret spending time on it
2⭐️: Didn't enjoy
1⭐️: Wouldn't have read it

This was such a beautiful book.
Chinese mythology at its best with beautiful writing from Axie Oh.
All the feelings I felt while reading this beauty. I am certain this might be my Favorite book of 2022.

this was promising and i really liked the premise of the book, but some of the execution left much to be desired. really did not like the romance, and at some point fell asleep during the audiobook, and NOT because i was tired (for once)

3.5

I really loved this book. I thought the story was unique and interested. I felt an emotional connection with the characters, and I felt I understood them.

I really enjoyed this Korean myth re-telling from Axie Oh. It had quite similar parallels to the anime Spirited Away, but still manages to be it's own story and own unique fantasy world, but if you enjoyed Spirited Away, I think you'll find something to like here. The spirit world that Axie Oh paints with words was part of what I loved the most. I even drew a picture after reading it - something I haven't done in years, because I had such a clear vision of it and really loved the visual she built. Besides that I enjoyed that the story wasn't just a ‘love story', the added elements of the bond and importance of family and friends, even if it wasn't dived into deeply, made it a refreshing tale. It was a great story and world to get lost in and I enjoyed it a lot.