Hey all, happy Wednesday! It’s been a couple of weeks since I last participated in this post. But I’m here again with another new release that I’m interested in.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.
This week’s book is:
The Floating World by Axie Oh!! 🗡️✨
I really liked The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea when I first read it – when it came out, in early 2023. This novel is by the same author and it also looks interesting, so I’m intrigued. It also looks like it’s the start of a series as well!
From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.
Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.
Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.
Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn’t realize she’s the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined…
Are you looking forward to the release of The Floating World? What other books are coming out in the next few weeks that you’re looking forward to?
As always, thank you all so much for reading and have a fantastic day/night!
Axie Oh’s The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is an enthralling feminist retelling of the classic Korean folktale “The Tale of Shim Cheong,” perfect for fans of Wintersong, Uprooted, and Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, 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 seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer 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…
Sooo, I really enjoyed this book. Out of all the fantasy books I tend to read, most of them just end up being western fantasy. That doesn’t mean I don’t like eastern fantasy as much – I absolutely love eastern fantasy! It just doesn’t come up on my radar as much for whatever reason.
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh is a standalone YA fantasy novel published by Feiwel & Friends on February 22, 2023. It’s also a retelling of a Korean folktale.
Unlike the books that I’ve read and reviewed lately, I didn’t really have a ton of stuff that I liked vs. a bunch of stuff that I didn’t like. It was more that I liked a lot of stuff about the book a lot, but not as much as I could have. Hence why I only gave it 4 stars.
Anyway, let’s get into my review proper.
The Stuff I Liked and Why I didn’t Like It as Much as I Could’ve
Every year the storms begin, and every year a girl is brought to the sea.
First off, I liked the story a great deal. It was fast-paced and it flowed very nicely. I really liked the way that Oh wrote as well.
Sometimes, I did wish the plot had slowed down a couple of times though. I know, I know – I’m usually a lover of completely fast-paced books. But sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I like it when the plot slows down so that I can see and understand how the characters interact with each other and therefore see and understand why they care about one another. And this book didn’t really have those moments.
Continuing with this line of thought, I quite enjoyed the characters. Song Mina was a great lead, as well as a breath of fresh air after Miss Delilah Bard. She was stubborn and brave, but she was also fiercely protective of her loved ones, and I loved reading about how much she loved her family.
I’ve followed so many protagonists just forget about their family and friends – aka: what their initial motivation is – upon meeting the love interest. That is not so here, and I greatly appreciate this novel for not doing that. Mina misses and thinks about her family many times throughout, and it made me tear up a couple of times.
My eldest brother, Sung, says trust is earned, that to give someone your trust is to give them the knife to wound you. But Joon would counter that trust is faith, that to trust someone is to believe in the goodness of people and in the world that shapes them.
Shin was an acceptable love interest and dueteragonist. It was harder for me to get a grasp on his personality though, and I wish that there’d been more pages devoted to building his relationship with Mina. Their romance just felt a bit underdeveloped to me, though I certainly didn’t not like it. I just didn’t really get why they were so ride-or-die for each other as quickly as they ended up being.
Honestly, I felt that Mina had more chemistry with Namgi, an imugi and one of Shin’s – and later Mina’s – loyal friends. Even so, I also would’ve liked to see more pages devoted to their character interactions, as even their (platonic) relationship seemed kinda underdeveloped to me until closer to the end of the novel.
As for the other characters: I didn’t really care for Kirin (because he didn’t get enough page time for me to care about him), I really liked Shim Cheong and Mina’s brother Joon (both as a couple as well as their own characters), the ghost trio was great (of you know, you know), and I really liked Mina’s grandma (the flashbacks with her were very sweet).
My absolute favorite thing about the book, however, is how it handles fate and destiny. The narrative treats it as something that you choose. A sort of No Fate But What We Make type of thing, if you will. I am tired of prophesies and people and things that are destined to be just because it’s been ordained by the universe or whatever. So yeah, I really liked what Oh did here.
Other than all of that, I quite liked the climax and ending. Also, I didn’t notice any loose ends in the plot threads, which is always nice.
Final Thoughts
I found The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Seato be an engaging, fairytale-like fantasy that never overstays its welcome or gets too wordy. Oh has a wonderful way with words, and writing style in general.
I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy-romance as well as those that like retellings. This one is new and wonderful in the sea of Cinderella retellings.
Thank you for reading and have an amazing day/night!
It’s been a couple of weeks, but I was feeling really under the weather most of the past couple of weeks, and didn’t feel like reading all that much (that’s how you know I’m feeling ill!).
But now I’m back to feeling 100% again, so I’ve gotten some reading done over the past few days! So I can participate in WWW Wednesday this week!
(Also, I’m gonna start titling my WWW Wednesday posts with the date instead of a number. Just cuz.)
WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!
From bestselling and award-winning author Traci Chee comes a Japanese-inspired fantasy perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli. When a girl who’s never longed for adventure is hit with a curse that begins to transform her into a demon, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life, but along the way is forced to confront her true power within.
In the realm of Awara, where gods, monsters, and humans exist side by side, Miuko is an ordinary girl resigned to a safe, if uneventful, existence as an innkeeper’s daughter.
But when Miuko is cursed and begins to transform into a demon with a deadly touch, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life. Aided by a thieving magpie spirit and continuously thwarted by a demon prince, Miuko must outfox tricksters, escape demon hunters, and negotiate with feral gods if she wants to make it home again.
With her transformation comes power and freedom she never even dreamed of, and she’ll have to decide if saving her soul is worth trying to cram herself back into an ordinary life that no longer fits her… and perhaps never did.
Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, 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 seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer 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…
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.
Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.
Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.
Of course, some things are better left dead.
Sooo yeah, Gideon is still in TBR Hell, but I can’t help it – interesting standalones keep showing up on my radar! But I definitely still want to read it, so hopefully I’ll get to it next!
What stuff have you been reading lately? Have we read any of the same books lately? Have you been enjoying it?
