Will I love The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea?

I’ve always wanted to write a book about an underwater town. Sea Change is as close as I’ve come, though there are no actual residential structures beneath the waves in my story.

But in The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea there is a whole, vibrant, beautifully-detailed underwater city, where various kinds of beings carry on with the business of their lives—working; eating; socializing with friends; making love, and making war. Nobody has gills or underwater breathing gear, but you come to this place after jumping into the sea, and schools of brightly colored fish swim through the air, while… show more.

I read this when I was starting to burn out on some of the conventions of YA, which made it a delightful breath of fresh air that this book doesn’t follow them.

After using a Korean folktale to launch its plot into motion, it builds a great relationship not only between the protagonist and her love interest (a god who’s forgotten what he’s the god of) but between her and a lot of other characters, her family included.

I really appreciated the romance not dominating the story to the point of sidelining everything else, and Mina’s interactions with the others–including… show more.

Inspired by a Korean myth and Ghibli’s Spirited Away, a girl throws herself into the ocean as a sacrifice to the Sea God to save her brother’s beloved. As a human in the Spirit Realm, she’s determined to save her people before it’s too late.

I enjoyed the concept about people being pushed out of comfortable homes to make new lives in a totally different, strange world.

Every character has depth, with a compelling motive that justifies their action. The prose is elegant, capturing the dreamy side of Asian fairy tales. And the sheer beauty of it all–the wondrous… show more.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea charmed me with its beautiful style and atmospheric tone.

I adored the underwater spirit-world setting and the characters Mina meets there, and the romance was delightful. Especially the ending…which I won’t spoil, but made for a showstopper of a scene.

In fact, there were several cunning twists that I found both surprising and extremely satisfying. When Mina first throws herself into the sea to appease the Sea God, it seems there is no way she could substitute for his intended bride, but gradually we readers see why it had to be her and… show more.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is a lyrical, whimsical retelling of Korean folklore that is all about fate and family. Mina, the protagonist, kickstarts the story to protect her brother from the wrath of the seas and gets whisked into the Spirit Realm by an underwater dragon(!). Everything that follows comes from Mina’s love and duty, and at its core, this book is about the many types of relationships one can have. The world of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is visually rich and vibrant as a Ghibli tale, the aesthetics of which are… show more.