“Who are you to say what my fate is – if I am to fail, or if I am to succeed? My fate is not yours to decide. My fate belongs to me.”

This book is so good I accidentally read it twice. I loved reading it the first time, but I didn’t have time to review it immediately. Two weeks later, I knew I couldn’t do the story justice, so I decided to flip through it to refresh my memory – and accidentally reread the entire book instead.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is a gorgeous Korean fairy tale retelling. No story is perfect, but this one is close. The writing is immersive and immediate. The worldbuilding is exquisite, imbued with legend and hidden depths. Both the spirit world and the world of the living have rich cultures, and I loved spending time in each of them. The characters are excellent, too. Mina is the strongest female main character I’ve seen in a long time. She’s bold, courageous, and loving, without being arrogant or brash like many “strong” characters. She fought for what she believed in, made her own decisions, and accepted help, but she also had things to learn. The secondary characters are also outstanding, with varied personalities and motivations. However, my favorite aspect of this book is how it explores giving things up for the people you love. Characters made sacrifices to protect their loved ones, but their decisions always had consequences. This is a concept shown through several different characters and circumstances, and it gave this book the layer of depth that made it a 5-star read for me. I adored The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea and recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA fantasy.

Content Analysis

Profanity/Language: 2 derogatory names.

Violence/Gore: A girl is traditionally sacrificed to the sea god each year, no one knows if these girls survive or not; report of a baby dying at childbirth; three instances where a character threatens to kill another; a character steals another’s soul, not violent; report of a character drowning in an accident; fight resulting in deaths, little detail, about 1.5 pages; a character tells a story involving murder and death; a character grabs another, is cut with a knife in return; extended battle scene, about eight pages, not gory; report of many people dying in storms; a character is shot with a crossbow; report of a character killing another; a character is injured; a character witnesses a battle resulting in an injury.

Sex/Nudity: A character is undressed for a bath, not detailed/sexual; a few instances where characters touch or embrace; a secondary character is gay and flirts with another male character once; a character declares love for another; four instances where characters kiss; marriage proposal.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death (general); death of a family member; young women sacrificed to the sea (not resulting in death); war; power struggles.

Drugs/Alcohol Usage:

A character is drunk; a character offers another alcohol.