The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea: the New York Times bestselling magical fantasy
£4.70
A New York Times Bestseller!
Don’t chase fate. Let fate chase you.
‘Clever, creative, and exquisitely written’ Stephanie Garber
For generations, deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curse them with death and despair. To appease him, each year a maiden is thrown into the sea, in the hopes that one day the ‘true bride’ will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe Shim Cheong – Mina’s brother’s beloved – to be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is sacrificed, Mina’s brother follows her, 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 finds the Sea God, trapped in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man and a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits, Mina sets out to wake him and bring an end to the 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 . . .
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is a magical feminist retelling of a classic Korean legend, perfect for fans of Uprooted and Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
‘A beautiful, mesmerizing retelling’ Elizabeth Lim, New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes
‘A true jewel of a story’ Janella Angeles, bestselling author of Where Dreams Descend
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Additional information
| Publisher | Hodderscape (22 Feb. 2022) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 3075 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Not Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 337 pages |
by Ravenbooklover
I rather enjoyed this book – it’s based on a Korean folktale and I do love folktale retellings, especially the more unusual ones.
I liked the main character, Mina, who throws herself into the sea in a bid to save her brother’s beloved from being the annual sacrifice to the sea god. The legend goes that when he meets his true bride, the sea god will end the deadly storms that ravage the land. Finding herself in a magical spirit realm beneath the waves, Mina has one month to wake the sea god and save her people, before she becomes a spirit herself, but there are many under the sea that do not want the sea god to awaken…
This was a very interesting and unusual story with some good characters and strong family bonds, both between actual family and found family, and Mina’s strength and selflessness shine throughout.
It’s definitely worth reading – 4 stars.
by Courtney
*possible spoilers*
I’m so torn in how I feel with this book. I loved reading it and being in this world and even though it’s a single POV, there are so many emotions conveyed & I had an attachment to many characters. However, there are some things that don’t quite sit right with me. My mixed feelings are:
– I loved Namgi with my whole heart. My fave!
– Speaking of Namgi, there is heavy insinuation of a male love interest and I would 1000000% want that story. So much pining. Doubt that’s happening. However it is not outright stated and it bothers me, it felt like it was being implied but avoiding confirming it. It annoyed me so much.
-Shin, I loved him. I loved how we got to know him. How at times he attempted a cold-hearted front but you could see how caring he was.
– However, the love is way too insta. It’s a whole 4 weeks. Also yes, this is fantasy but Shin is hundreds if not thousands years old, Mina is 16 when she enters the spirit realm. When the book ends she’s 18 and even that felt like some weird attempt to ok the age gap. Although nothing other than a kiss happens in the book stillllll. I can’t help but feel weird about it.
– Mina’s decision. To give everything up?! Nah.
– The writing I loved, I love when the writing in a book is so easy to sink into and allow you to get into the story so effortlessly.
– You know that TikTok sound? “F— them kids” That. Except “F— them Gods/Godesses.” Lol.
– I really enjoyed the exploration of Fate, the red thread of Fate and how choice comes into it. Also love and friendship is explored here too in ways that I really enjoyed.
– Power is explored here especially where the Gods and Godesses are concerned and their lack of empathy. Although there could have been more exploration/challenging in that theme, for me.
I had my issues with this book but I genuinely really enjoyed it, the mythology and the different themes in the book, the different characters and relationship dynamics that appeared. My stupid heart also enjoyed the romantic quotes in here even if I’m a bit iffy on the relationship when I take a step back to look at it. But I really enjoyed the authors style of writing and how quickly I got lost in this story. And the cover is so beautiful.
by Jade
This is simply a masterpiece of storytelling, I laughed, cried and was enchanted as I raced through the story. I will now read everything the author writes.
by Ravenbooklover
Really really good book, great story, would be 5⭐️ if Mina wasn’t so young!
Dragons are just so neat aren’t they
by E Campbell
Inspired by Spirited Away Mina sacrifices herself to save the woman her brother loves, him and her town from the storms of the sea god. There she finds herself in a spirit realm under the sea and must navigate with the many dangers and characters which lurk beneath.
I just adore the fairy tale, folklore vibes this story brings and despite predicting some of the twists that doesn’t ruin it in the slightest only it serves to everyone’s enjoyment.
I love seeing how Mina interacts with the others and how she grapples to take destiny in her own hands. She wasn’t chosen, she chose herself and the way the novel delivers on some of those payoffs is superb. I just adore this story and Axie Oh other book XOXO. All around fun read and even though I took a little longer to read it I loved it all the same compared to other novels where I had the same problem.
by Ms Jordan
This book had the premise to be an absolute masterpiece in Ghibli key: when reading the excerpt I was completely hooked and the UK edition in hardback had the prettiest cover ever, however the book itself didn’t manage to impress me too much.
Once a year, a beautiful young girl is thrown into the sea to be offered in sacrifice to the Sea God, with the hope that this will stop floods and storms. One day, Shim Cheong is chosen to be the true Sea God bride, but her sister in law, Mina, won’t accept the sacrifice , which would bring a lot of pain to her family and so jump into sea following the bride, there she’s transported in the underwater world of the spirits and gods.
To my taste there isn’t enough description or depth of the characters and their relations , i’d constantly forget that we were underwater and I kept on re reading bits because i found the dynamics too confusional.
The retelling of the tale was easy to read and simple, targeted to an audience that is starting to approach the fantasy genre.