Book Review: The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

Book title: The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (* Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Axie Oh
Genre: Young adult fantasy
Published: February 22, 2022
321 pages
My rating: 4/5

“The myths of my people say only a true bride of the Sea God can bring an end to his insatiable wrath. When the otherworldly storms rise from the East Sea, lightning breaking the sky and water ripping up the shore, a bride is chosen and given to the Sea God. Or sacrificed, depending on the measure of your faith.”

Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for a century. People believe that they are cursed by the Sea God, their former protector, and to appease his wrath, they sacrifice a young maiden to him every year. To save her brother’s beloved Shim Cheong from being sacrificed, Mina throws herself in the sea and ends up in the spirit realm. She meets the Sea God, who is sleeping an enchanted sleep, and a mysterious young man Shin, who promises to help her break the curse. But her time is running out, as a human cannot live long in the land of the spirits.

Preptober Goals

I'm almost done with Project Prehistory! Last week, I edited the final chapters of the book, and next I only need to read it one more time to make sure there aren't any mistakes. That's my goal for October, but I have another big writing goal for the rest of the year as well, and that is a completely new novel!

I've been toying with an idea of a Pride and Prejudice retelling ever since I read Amanda Darcy's Of Love & Beer earlier this year, and it's finally time to put that idea into practice! I'll be outlining and planning the project in October (also known as Preptober within the writing community), and writing it in November. Because of all the negative things surrounding the NaNoWriMo organization, I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo this time, but that doesn't mean I don't want to try to write a first draft of around fifty thousand words.

You can find out more about my plans and where I am with my writing projects in my latest vlog:

It Runs in the Family: Character Building and Transgenerational Therapy

The Ancestor Syndrome by
Anne Ancelin Schützenberger

I recently read Anne Ancelin Schützenberger’s book The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links in the Family Tree (*Amazon affiliate link in case this post makes you want to read the book yourself). Not my usual type of reading material! This book was mentioned in passing in another book I read for a university course years ago. The concepts discussed in the book sounded fascinating, and I’ve been meaning to read it for years.

As a non-fiction book intended for psychotherapists, it’s not the easiest read to a lay person, but I did gather from it some interesting insights that I found helpful as an author. This book inspired me to dig deeper into how family dynamics and transgenerational traumas affect the characters I’m developing and writing. In this blog post, I’m sharing some of the insights I learned from the book.

Note: I am not a doctor or a therapist or in any way an expert in transgenerational therapy. This blog post is simply intended as a tool to help writers create fictional characters. Please do not use it for diagnostic purposes. Also, this is a very brief introduction to this topic. If you want to use these ideas when building your characters, please do your own research.

Book Review: Oh Dear, Maria! by Abigail Ted

Oh Dear, Maria! by Abigail Ted

Book title: Oh Dear, Maria! (* Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Abigail Ted
Genre: Historical fiction
Published: November 1, 2022
288 pages
My rating: 4/5

“For Maria Harrington, there was no greater satisfaction than that which could be found in her own misery. It had always been the way, and there was no explaining it, at least not by the lady herself; misery was her oldest, most-beloved friend, and she was forever in search of this companion.”

Maria Harrington is a stubborn, self-centered, and melodramatic daughter of a power-hungry merchant father and a mentally ill and absent mother. Her father forces her into a marriage with a debt-ridden Member of Parliament, Honourable Mr. Jackson—a man she used to love but now despises. At first, she is sure to make everyone know how miserable she is, and it doesn’t take long for her new husband to realize Maria is more than just a ticket to financial independence. She is also an emotional time bomb whose explosions range from comical to terrifying.

Oh Dear, Maria! is a debut novel by indie author Abigail Ted. The book is a humorous Regency pastiche, following the footsteps of classic satire such as William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. That alone made me eager to read this book, as Vanity Fair is one of my favorite classics. I must admit I was slightly disappointed, but that’s probably because I was setting my expectations too high. This book does what it promises, although it does not quite reach the level of the masters it takes inspiration from.

Productive Writing Vlog

I'm getting closer to being done with the edits on my current work in progress Project Prehistory, a coming-of-age story set in a prehistoric society. I have fewer than ten chapters left, and although I needed to make a lot of changes to chapters 31 and 32, I got them edited last week.

Want to see more of what I did last week? Watch my productive writing vlog below! Featuring apple pies and a small library book haul.

August Wrap-Up and September Goals

August reads

August Wrap-Up

• Finished: 4
• Started but not finished: 2
• Total pages read: 1,977
• Average rating: 4
• Book bought: 8

It almost felt like I didn’t read anything at all last month! I think that was because I finished ten books in June and had quite a hefty schedule with Jane Austen July that finishing only two contemporary novels and two nonfiction books felt like nothing. But I did read almost two thousand pages, and two of the books I started last month are quite long (I won’t be able to finish them until early October). I also took a week of vacation when I read a lot less than normally (you can find a vlog of my combined writing retreat/summer vacation here).

Book Review: A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass

A Thousand Heartbeats by Kiera Cass

Book Title: A Thousand Heartbeats (*Amazon affiliate link)
Author: Kiera Cass
Genre: YA fantasy, fantasy romance
Published: November 29, 2022 by HarperTeen
565 pages
My rating: 3/5

“Love has a sound. It sounds like a thousand heartbeats happening at the same time.”

Princess Annika lives a life of luxury in the prosperous kingdom of Kadier, but her life isn’t hers to control. Her father is forcing her to form a marriage alliance to duke Nickolas for political gain. Meanwhile, in the decaying Vosino Castle, Lennox prepares for a war to take back the throne from Annika’s father. When these two enemies meet, the call of a thousand heartbeats binds their fates together.

A Thousand Heartbeats is a Young Adult standalone fantasy romance. I expected the book to have more fantasy elements, especially as the cover seems to imply that the characters live in a world with a lot of water. But no. There’s no magic or magical creatures. Basically the only thing that makes the novel a fantasy is that it takes place in a fictional world. The setting is medieval-esque with its castles and princesses and warring kingdoms, so this book could be classified as a Young Adult fairytale.