Reading Diary: The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

Here is a synopsis from the author's website:

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 Shin—a mysterious young man with no soul—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…

Last summer, I read the first few volumes of the well-known Korean manhwa Bride of the Water God by Yun Mi-kyung. I had seen it on a few lists and the premise was intriguing. I stopped after volume one or two because I didn't like the pacing, the English translations were expensive, and the artwork wasn't to my taste. I appreciate that the art for the manhwa is pretty stylized, but in this series, the stylistic choices of the exaggerated physical features bordered on the uncanny for me, so even though I was intrigued by the story, the manhwa was just not for me. I'd had this novel on my radar for a while as well, and I brought it with me when I moved to Taiwan. And this week, the time was right to read it.

I really enjoyed this novel. The novel structure made the story better paced for me, and I got to know the characters better and make a deeper emotional connection to them. And even though there is a romance that runs through the story, Mina's primary motivation is her love for her family. Mina reminds me of Ning in A Magic Steeped in Poison, another novel I read this year and really loved. And like that book, I would love to see this one adapted into a drama so I could really get the visuals for the spirit world in which Mina finds herself after she jumps into the sea.