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

“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”

— Axie Oh

Growing up, I was obsessed with fanfictions that riffed on the themes of a girl being the bride of a god, which I now know, as an adult who studies East Asia in graduate school, that there are several myths these stories are actually stemming from.

I am not a fan of the traditional expectation of what a young adult novel consists of, but when I read When I Call Your Name in the past month and became obsessed with the writing style, it kind of opened up this idea to me that young adult doesn’t have to be what I expect it to be.

I turned my nose up at it often, and when I found out another adaptation of the beloved myth I’d read so many stories was out, I knew I had to read it immediately.

The first thing that drew me in was the cover for The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea. I’ve put it to the right, like I do for all of my book reviews, and I’m so obsessed with this image.

It’s absolutely gorgeous! And that’s what I thought about this story—it brought back the joy I felt when reading these kinds of stories, while also immersing the reader into the world that Oh created. I read the entire book in less than two hours, even staying up until 2 AM just so I could finish this in one sitting. Let’s dive into my review.

Mina takes the place of her village’s sacrifice, sending her to the realm of gods and towards love.

In the original Korean myth of Shim Cheong, which is often performed as a traditional Korean pansori, the filial daughter Shim Cheong throws herself into the ocean due to her love for her father. That shows up at the end of this novel, because when the storms worsen, the villagers throw her into the ocean and sacrifice her despite a year not passing yet.

In this universe, the Sea God is believed to have been upset with the humans, so every year they send a sacrifice down into the ocean. This year, Shim Cheong is due to be sacrificed, and Mina, the younger sister of Shim Cheong’s lover, ends up sacrificing herself and throws her body into the ocean before Shim Cheong can make it.

Mina is our protagonist, and she ends up immediately finding the Red String of Fate that connects her to the Sea God. The Sea God is unresponsive on his throne, and then three men, Kirin, Namgi, and Shin find her there. Shin, who is the Lord of the highest house and the protector of the Sea God, snips the Red String of Fate, taking Mina’s soul with him.

Her soul is a magpie, which means she ends up losing her voice in the process. Mina doesn’t take this too lightly, and meets three individuals in the town who help her throughout the story. Here, they take her through the town, which appears like a normal human town, and towards the House of Lotus so she can get her voice and soul back.

Along the way, she spots some of the former Brides of the Water God—aka, the girls who were sacrificed. Hyeri, who was sacrificed years before, ends up marrying the God of Death. There’s also Nari, who helps Mina sneak into the house.

Along the way, Mina spots some robbers and confronts Shin before the robbers attack. Naturally, things don’t go as planned, Mina gets her soul back, but the Red String of Fate now ties her to Shin, not the Sea God.

She has to become Shin’s bride, and if she dies, Shin dies as well because they’re soulmates.

At the same time, there’s a power struggle going on in the Spirit Realm. The romance in this one is a slow burn—it kind of reminds me of June Hur’s The Red Palace when it comes to romance—and develops as the plot thickens.

The other gods and scholars are coming after Mina now due to her connection to the Sea God and Shin, and they see that if they eliminate her, then they’ll be able to get a leg up when it comes to the power dynamics in the realm.

She tries to achieve her goal of helping the Sea God at the same time because she clings to her mission of helping her family and friends back home, but Shin sees human as the actual problem.

The plot of this one becomes extremely obvious to me about halfway through the book.

Shin makes several comments that he was once a god who cannot remember anything about the past, and then there’s the emperor who went missing a hundred years before. It becomes increasingly down to the odds that Shin is the Sea God or the emperor, and I guessed correctly when Mina realizes that he is actually the Sea God.

Why else would everyone be so directly coming after Shin? Lots of protective vibes from both sides of this couple, although Mina is weaker, and when she is finally shot down by an assassin Shin goes on a rampage after the assassin.

Mina does eventually make a wish with the pearl that was lost, choosing to have Shin forget about her in order for everything to be corrected and for the storms to stop. He does forget about her, and the one we thought was the Sea God originally turns out to be the missing emperor.

Shim Cheong and she return to the surface, but because Shin’s memory is gone, he does not return for her. As it turns, the Goddess of Memory, who befriended Mina after a series of tense standoffs, gives him back his memory, allowing her to depart the realm of humans in order to live a life with her soulmate.

There’s a lot more that happens in between the blanks. Some interesting action scenes, as well as ones that flesh out the world and gods living within the Spirit Realm. The plot in this one is predictable even if you’re not familiar with the original myth, but I found there was a lot to enjoy despite that.

Romance in The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea could have benefitted from another hundred or two pages of development, as there’s a lot of questions and things I wanted more from this.

The protagonist does take matters into her own hands, but I don’t really see this as a feminist novel. It falls within the conventions of typical romances and whatnot, although it does subvert expectations at times.

Overall Thoughts

I genuinely enjoyed this one despite my critiques. I think my critiques come from feeling this like this novel was a bit rushed, and could have benefitted from allowing the reader to spend more time with the characters and world it creates.

Despite this, I think it’s a solid book and kept me really entertained and gripping it despite it being late at night. If it sounds interesting to you, definitely go check it out in your free time.

I’ll be purchasing a copy for my personal library, which is an honor considering how picky I am with what I bring into my personal collection.

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