The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, by Axie Oh, follows Mina, a girl who takes the place of the girl her brother is in love with by sacrificing herself to be the bride of the Sea God in hopes of ending the storms that plague her country each summer. She arrives in the Spirit Realm, and there attempts to learn how to break the curse in the process.

There were a lot of things that I enjoyed about the book. Mina’s a compelling protagonist; she’s determined and strong and optimistic even when it seems hopeless. She’s confident and sees the best in others. However, most of the other characters felt a little flat and two-dimensional; nobody really gets any backstory or character development, and, while this makes sense in two cases for reasons that are revealed later in the book, in most of the characters it just feels like a missed opportunity. The story would be much more interesting if the characters in it had their own wishes and desires, something which doesn’t really happen in this book.

The prose was truly lovely, and the narration felt like a fairytale, something which I always love in fantasy books. It felt especially poignant in this one, since much of the story and Mina’s perception of the Spirit Realm come from the stories that her grandmother has always passed down to her. The writing style is definitely the most successful aspect of the novel, making it a compelling read even when the plot feels too slow.

One thing that I did really enjoy about the book is that the focus was much more on relationships and magic and connection, rather than on the sweeping battles and political drama that are often featured in fantasy books. The stakes are still high in this, but the bulk of the problems have to do with dealing with trauma and with finding meaningful connections with others, rather than simply killing people who get in your way. While I love both types of fantasy books, I have to appreciate this one more simply for its relative rarity within the genre.

I wish that there had been more worldbuilding. Just as the characters didn’t feel like they had any depth, aspects of the world would often be introduced to the plot with very little background; it’s hard to feel compelled by the appearance of particular gods or goddesses who are supposedly large parts of Mina’s worldview when they haven’t been mentioned before, even offhandedly. We should have some context for how she feels about them before reading about her reactions. This is definitely an unusual case where the book seemed to lack enough exposition.

The plot as a whole was compelling; it just felt slow-paced and a tad underdeveloped. There wasn’t much complexity to it, but I did still want to follow Mina’s journey and find out what happened. 

Overall, I did really enjoy the book; there were just enough aspects of it that I found lacking that I cannot in good conscience give it more than four stars. Although the world and characters were underdeveloped, the prose was absolutely lovely, and Mina’s character is interesting and compelling enough that one almost doesn’t care about the fact that very little is revealed about the other characters. I’d definitely recommend it to anybody who loves fairytales, mythology, or books that feel like those, as well as just anybody who loves fantasy worlds that are more focused on magic and human connections than on battles and politics.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.