Review: The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on May 2, 2022 | 3 Comments


Review: The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie OhThe Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
Published by Feiwel and Friends (2.22.2022)
Genres: High Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Source: Library


5 Stars

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…

My thoughts

This story was BEAUTIFUL!! This is probably one of the most unique books I’ve read in some time. I absolutely loved the world – I wanted to crawl into the pages and live there, it’s so magical! The cover is stunning and the story inside absolutely matches the cover.

The fast pacing makes this book a quick and easy read, and the enchanting quality of the story keeps you turning pages. I gobbled this story up! You don’t know very much about the Sea God when Mina first arrives beneath the sea, so the air of mystery surrounding him keeps you going too. I was intrigued from the start and wanted to know more about the Sea God and the curse.

This book was full of such heart from start to finish! Mina does what she does to protect her brother (who was in love with the girl who was supposed to be the Sea God’s bride), and that sense of family is a driving point in this book. I loved the characters (especially Kirin, he was my fave!) and each of them had a distinct persona. They felt real, which made it easy to connect to them. The romance was sweet, too, and has that nice slow burn that I adore. I loved Shin and found myself rooting for him and Mina to be together!

There were also some great twists in this book! View Spoiler »

When I finished this book I closed my eyes and hugged it to my chest, because it was just SO. BEAUTIFUL. It gave me all the feels and made my heart ache! If you haven’t read this yet, you should do so asap!

Overall Assessment

Plot: 5/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 4.5/5
Originality: 5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
World-building: 4.5/5
Pace: 5/5
Feels: 4.5/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 5/5

Jessi (Geo)

Posted in: Book Reviews | Tags: , , , ,

Subscribe to Novel Heartbeat to get more posts like this!

3 responses to “Review: The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

  1. OOh nice! I got this one in the FL box not too long ago! It sounded interesting enough that I put it in my “maybe one day” pile. Might need to move it into the official TBR pile soon! Lol. Glad to see it was such a winner! Great review!

    • Sorry for the double comment! When I first posted I got a message that said there was a critical error! So I tried posting without my @ and got the same result. That’s when I opened a new page and saw the comment went twice! Weird!

  2. OOh nice! I got this one in the FL box not too long ago! It sounded interesting enough that I put it in my “maybe one day” pile. Might need to move it into the official TBR pile soon! Lol. Glad to see it was such a winner! Great review!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.