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heartbrekker 's review for:
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
by Axie Oh
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"Tears are fine every now and then, but it's never a good thing to waste water."
While reading this magical fairytale turned grim reality, I was completely enchanted by the prose of this author. I was in love with her ability to describe the waves of the ocean or the suffocating feeling in Mina's chest underneath the sea. I loved how engrossing this writing is, and I will without a doubt claim it is its strongest element. She's a poet with this sort of lyrical writing.
I think one of my first issues is that I did not fully comprehend how much this story wouldn't actually revolve around the Sea God (although with spoilers it does haha— the reader doesn't know it). What I mean by this is the reader spends hardly any time in the palace with hardly any answers until the last 30%. And even then it is not that much. I was expecting court life and politics of that, and honestly, I didn't expect the city or how central it would become in this realm under the sea, overflowing with spirits and previous brides. It was interesting at first, but I don't think we focused on the elements I was interested in. Moreover, I grew a bit agitated waiting for crumbs of information, so it took me some time to like Shin even because my mind was going "SEA GOD SEA GOD SEA GOD." Personally, this is my own issue with the text, so I think this critique should be taken lightly by others. It did affect my rating because this is my own experience, but I think upon reread my rating would increase.
"Humans tell myths to explain what they cannot understand."
The only other issue I found was that the pacing was very disruptive in a lot of scenes. It would move slow like molasses for an extended period of time, and then suddenly, everyone broke lose into chaos, which I'm usually a fan of. It just felt wrong (idk how to describe it) here. This issue was the biggest problem for me because I'd find myself anxiously waiting for that moment to sink back into the pages, and it wouldn't hardly come after the third time because it kept happening.
Overall, this is definitely a book that I want to read again in a year or so because I'm also going through a lot in my personal life. I loved the fairytale warm hug at the beginning (which is funny because the beginning is so scary) with the writing, and I truly cannot wait to read more from Axie Oh.
While reading this magical fairytale turned grim reality, I was completely enchanted by the prose of this author. I was in love with her ability to describe the waves of the ocean or the suffocating feeling in Mina's chest underneath the sea. I loved how engrossing this writing is, and I will without a doubt claim it is its strongest element. She's a poet with this sort of lyrical writing.
I think one of my first issues is that I did not fully comprehend how much this story wouldn't actually revolve around the Sea God (although with spoilers it does haha— the reader doesn't know it). What I mean by this is the reader spends hardly any time in the palace with hardly any answers until the last 30%. And even then it is not that much. I was expecting court life and politics of that, and honestly, I didn't expect the city or how central it would become in this realm under the sea, overflowing with spirits and previous brides. It was interesting at first, but I don't think we focused on the elements I was interested in. Moreover, I grew a bit agitated waiting for crumbs of information, so it took me some time to like Shin even because my mind was going "SEA GOD SEA GOD SEA GOD." Personally, this is my own issue with the text, so I think this critique should be taken lightly by others. It did affect my rating because this is my own experience, but I think upon reread my rating would increase.
"Humans tell myths to explain what they cannot understand."
The only other issue I found was that the pacing was very disruptive in a lot of scenes. It would move slow like molasses for an extended period of time, and then suddenly, everyone broke lose into chaos, which I'm usually a fan of. It just felt wrong (idk how to describe it) here. This issue was the biggest problem for me because I'd find myself anxiously waiting for that moment to sink back into the pages, and it wouldn't hardly come after the third time because it kept happening.
Overall, this is definitely a book that I want to read again in a year or so because I'm also going through a lot in my personal life. I loved the fairytale warm hug at the beginning (which is funny because the beginning is so scary) with the writing, and I truly cannot wait to read more from Axie Oh.