The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea

title: The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
author: Axie Oh
published: 2.22.2022
publisher: Feiwel & Friends
genre(s): fantasy, folklore, reimagining
pages: 322
source: library
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads

the blurb

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…

a few notes

POV: 1st person
setting: the spirit realm
keywords/phrases: Korean mythology, gods, goddesses, family
tropes: ancient secrets, high stakes, hero’s journey, magical creatures, enemies to lovers
spice: 0🔥
language: 0🤬

public reading: safe
cover notes: frame-worthy
mood reading: in the mood for reimagined mythology and otherworldly and beautifully created worlds.
bonus points: 

• The author is Korean-American and did justice to the traditional parts of the original myth.
• An interesting back-and-forth about the roles of the deities versus humans, with some of the deities taken to task for their lack of compassion.
• The themes of love and loyalty, of found family.

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my review

The world within The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea was equally as beautiful as the cover, with a story that drew me in from the first page. The book is a reimagining of The Tale of Shim Cheong, but with a bit of a feminist twist in Mina. The result is a story that is well balanced between the mythology elements and the reimagined. There was also a good amount of action to lend itself to the suspense of the conclusion, mixed well with love of all kinds… familial, romantic, and platonic alike.

Mina embodied all that it means to be a compassionate person, her love and loyalty for others without bounds. Her strength and agency for herself in a world hell-bent on defeating her purpose was inspiring to behold. As a human, she was out of her depth in a world of gods and goddesses, the power struggles among them and others in the spirit realm. But she stopped at nothing to protect those she cared about, even as many of those that surrounded her were not who they appeared to be at first sight.

It was a beautiful story, with a gorgeously written and lush setting for it to unfold within!

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2025 52 Books Reading Challenge
• 2025 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: Author Edition
• 2025 Beyond the Bookends Reading Challenge
• 2025 Fairytale Reading Challenge
• 2025 Linz the Bookworm & Logophile Reading Challenge