⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is a fantasy story that retells the story of the Korean folktale The Tale of Shim Cheong. Mina lives in a town where a girl is sacrificed every year as a bride to the sea god in hopes of breaking the curse and stopping the storms that plague the land.

Ever since I discovered Korean music, krama’s and folklore I have loved stories inspired by them and when I discovered this gem, it immediately rose on my anticipated releases list for 2022! Getting approved for an eARC ahead of its release made me that much more excited to start reading this book. Also knowing another anticipated release was coming this week I wanted to finish reading Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea before haha.

Starting the story, you immediately dive into the world and I really enjoy this sort of start in stories. It doesn’t start of slow or that you need time to connect to the story. I found myself immediately connecting to Mina, since we both seemed to be in the same situation where we were thrown (literally) into the deep.

The story is written very easily with an easy-to-follow plotline and a writing style which seems to flow around the pages. The world-building as well was written in a way that was really understandable and I could picture the world Axie Oh was trying to build. I did miss a bit of details here and there. If a bit more attention to detail was given to the world, clothing and surroundings, I think the story would’ve stood out to me a bit more and the world would seem more beautiful than it already came across as. I feel like the world could’ve been much bigger than it was now. The same with the different spirits, houses and gods which could’ve been mentioned.

Mina is a rather young girl, but she came across as quite mature, which I liked. As I am getting older myself, I find myself enjoying “older” characters a bit more, but in a fantasy setting being “younger” often isn’t really noticeable. As Mina is sixteen, those traits teenagers have could be added, but the level of maturity she shows in the events that happen really show what a strong and confident character she is, one I was rooting for from the very first page.

I also really liked the stories Mina told in this book, the little folklore she tells and the message behind them really were a nicely added touch to the plot and story. The plot itself was a bit predictable, but still I really liked how the story played out. Some parts still took me by surprise, but some things I thought would happen did.

I also believe some parts of the story could’ve been paced a little bit better. right from the get go, you are thrown into the deep and the pacing is quite fast, but I think it would’ve suited the story better if some parts were slowed down a bit. Some parts I had to reread to really grasp and understand what was happening, which may be due to the pacing being so fast.

One thing I was pleasantly surprised by was how much of the aftermath was shown. Most of the times an epilogue is written of a few pages and the most burning questions get answered. I liked how that wasn’t the case in this story, how that part was shown more of.

Overall, I really liked this retelling. The story really flows and is very easy to follow, with a magical world build and an amazing main character.