#24’s Result – The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is a young adult fantasy – AND it’s told in first person. You probably know how I feel about YA fantasy and first person, so. Yup. I allowed that stunning cover to lure me in. But! I can see why this one might stand out a bit. There were a few different elements that kept it feeling a little fresh. I liked the supporting characters of Namgi, Mask, Dai, and Miki, as well as the past Sea God’s brides (and I especially liked how Cheong and Mina aren’t pitted against each other). I didn’t see the primary plot twist coming (but I’m sort of ashamed of that; I feel like I should have known, lol.) And, it’s a standalone (thank goodness for that). Overall, though, the plot and characters felt average to me. (Shin was too cookie cutter moody love interest for me.) There wasn’t anything that explained to me why this book became so popular. (Actually, I’m not even sure if it was that popular? For a YA fantasy? But 58,000 ratings on Goodreads is surely a lot…) Anyway, if you like YA fantasy, you’ll probably like this.
#25’s Selection
The theme for the next edition of “I Can’t Believe” is highly rated middle grade fiction. To choose titles, I sorted my to-read-middle-grade shelf by average rating, descending, and selected the first four titles that jumped out to me.
- Obie Is Man Enough by Schuyler Bailar (transgender boy in competitive swimming)
- A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus (WWII evacuees)
- Of Salt and Shore by Annette Schaap (mermaid fairytale)
- Roll for Initiative by Jaime Formato (Dungeons & Dragons club for girls)
So, which book should I read next?
Leave a comment on this post to cast your vote.
Voting closes on 28 January.
I’m not familiar with any of these but based on the cover and story, I’m going with Roll for Initiative😁
Doesn’t that one look fun? Thanks for voting!
I was not a fan of THE GIRL WHO FELL BENEATH THE SEA. I saw everyone love it and when I finally got around to reading my ARC I was not impressed. I think part of the reason is it seemed marketed as upper YA, which makes sense because I think the characters are older teens? But it just felt kind of juvenile to me and I thought the plot and characters were kind of flat. I’m in the minority with that opinion, but that’s how I felt!
I can understand that! I missed most of the hype (apart from the cover reveal) so I didn’t have any notion of what the book might be like. I still don’t understand why it was so popular on Goodreads…
I couldn’t even finish The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea; I gave up maybe 20 pages in because of the prose, which I found I couldn’t stand. I really loved Of Salt & Shore, though!
Ahh you’re right I forgot about that prose at the beginning! I do remember being like “Is this… going to be the whole book?” but it petered out into standard YA prose not too far in. Thanks for voting!
It’s interesting how, for highly-rated MG stories, none of them has ever crossed my path before. I’d go purely off of the cover and pick Of Salt and Shore heheh 😀
I am all for judging a book by its cover! I think these are all relatively new titles, published since 2021.
Ooh I haven’t read these but Of Salt and Shore looks like the kind of thing I’d really like!
Thanks for stopping by and casting a vote! 😄
A place to hang a moon.
Thanks for voting 😁
I’m not familiar with any of these books. I’d start with A Place to Hang the Moon.
Thanks for voting, Linda ☺