XOXO by Axie Oh
I picked this up for the 2024 Popsugar Reading Challenge, which has a prompt for a book about K-pop. Other than knowing that BTS is a huge band, I have no real grasp of the global phenomenon that is K-pop, and so had no idea where to start. Well, XOXO was the perfect entry for me, and it was so damn sweet I’m gonna need to call my dentist. Jenny is a cello prodigy, who is working hard toward her goal of admission into a […]
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
I discovered The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea last year, when I was searching for a read that would evoke similar feelings to a Studio Ghibli movie – and this book did not disappoint! Axie Oh’s retelling of the Korean folk tale “The Tale of Shim Ch’ŏng” delivered on its description as a feminist retelling. The heroine was strong, determined, and spoke for herself, without being overshadowed by the powerful male characters who accompanied her journey through the Spirit Realm. Mina is a young […]
The Girl who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
The Girl who Fell Beneath the Sea is a book that immediately intrigued me because of the gorgeous cover, and then the synopsis truly dragged me in. Mina lives in a small village by the sea where every year, for the last one hundred years, they’ve sacrificed a bride to the Sea God in the hopes of quelling the storms that have plagued the country since the death of the Emperor. This year the sacrifice is supposed to be Shim Cheong, the beloved of Mina’s […]
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
Alright, so Iron Widow was not my jam (to my disappointment). I was really hoping that the next of my library audiobook holds would turn things around, and Axie Oh’s The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea came to me next. And oh, this one is my jam. Or at any rate, it hits a lot of sweet spots for me and I enjoyed it tremendously. (Not burying the lede this time, either, obviously.) The novel is not exactly a retelling of the Korean folktale “Shim Cheong” (apparently […]
