Okay, so I'm feeling a bit silly about how long it took me to get on the Brandon Sanderson train, but at least I'm on board now! Because if the rest of his books are anything like this delightful novel, then I can be considered a fan for sure. The more fantasy novels I read, the more I realize how nuanced the genre is. High fantasy with a heavier focus on complex worldbuilding and action isn't the cup of tea I'm going to choose when a story that prefers to flesh out genuine characters in an easier-to-grasp world is sitting right in front of me. I think this novel seems to have found a perfect little pocket between these two descriptions. The idea of a planet where oceans are made not of water, but dangerous spore materials poured out from different moons seems ungraspable at first, but Sanderson's effortless writing style triumphs over descriptions of such a world that other authors might stumble around and never quite get right. Really, though, his writing style presents as not only effortless, but engaging to a level of actual laughing out loud on every page. This man's ability to come up with and make a piece of figurative language perfectly describe whatever it is he's set out to describe is suspiciously good.  His sense of how to make language work like a well-practiced song is clear from the very first page. I loved Tress from her first description, and only continued to love her as she developed into the kind of main female character I live to read. The amount of times she's underestimated by herself as well as others was refreshing to read after the amount of badass female heroines I've encountered in wildly popular BookTok titles. Nothing's wrong with those types of heroines. There's just a lot of them out there, floating around to fit the needs of current tropes and trends. Tress, with her people-pleasing, timid, inadvertently genius intelligence and quiet charm, was just a breath of new air. And knowing that she's meant to be a Princess Buttercup who believed her Wesley was still alive and went to look for him herself makes her even better. To keep this a spoiler free review, I will also just say that I love Huck the rat, and how much he ends up being a larger part of the story from a bird's eye view than I was expecting. The  novel's range of side characters was fantastic, too. Seeing Deaf representation and how Sanderson utilized the freedom of writing inside a fantasy world to make Fort's super cool writing board made me very happy (and also taking some notes for my own book's Deaf character). I admired the individual aspirations and goals each of these side characters had, since their stories are meant to exist on the sidelines of Tress' main journey. But any lovable character, whether main or side, needs hopes and dreams, and Ann, Salay, Fort, Dr. Ulaam, and even charmingly-confusing narrator Hoid, aren't lacking such things. There's a quality of distinguished storytelling in this novel that holds space for whimsicality and serious reflection on very human things, like loss, self-confidence, irony, and love. The quotes I've included below really speak for themselves, I think. Considering this novel as my fourth 5-star read of the year, I highly recommend it!


Some of my favorite quotes from Tress of The Emerald Sea:

"That said, you must understand that this is a tale about people who are both what they seem and not what they seem. Simultaneously. A story of contradictions. In other words, it is a story about human beings."

"Yet I've found that the people who are the happiest are the ones who learn best how to feel. It takes practice, you know. Effort."

"If you wish to become a storyteller, here is a hint: sell your labor, but not your mind."

"Deadly beauty is the starkest variety. And you will never find a murderess more intoxicating, more entrancing, than the sea."

"Unfortunately, sympathy is not a valve, to be turned off when it starts to flood the yard. Indeed, the path to a life without empathy is a long and painful one, full of bartered humanity sold at a steep discount."

"People consistently misjudge common things in their lives. (Other people come to mind.)"

"Memory may not be the heart of what makes us human, but it's at least a vital organ."

"Enjoy memories, yes, but don't be a slave to who you wish you once had been.
Those memories aren't alive. You are."

"Heroism is often the seemingly spontaneous result of a lifetime of preparation."

"Our words, like our hearts, are weapons still hot from the forging, beating themselves into new shapes each time we swing them."

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Any story involving the sea, folklore/fairy tale retellings, and Studio Ghibli inspirations swiftly makes it onto my to be read list. I quite promptly ate up The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea. Having primarily read it on the London Underground and two trains to and from Scotland, I can say it’s a great travel read. More than anything else, this book sucked me into its otherworldly setting, which literally takes place in the realm of the Sea God, a being said to have been slumbering in a cursed sleep for a hundred years. His city, lively with the presence of spirits caught in between the mortal world and other worlds, makes for the kind of fantasy landscape I always crave in a book. I think this novel’s two greatest strengths are the execution of such a fantastical setting and the dialogue. I could sense the influence and wonder of Spirited Away in every chapter. All of the characters, from Mina, the fallen girl herself, to Namgi and Kirin, the loyal friends of Shin, the head of Lotus House and (here’s the reason for that spoiler warning!) the actual Sea God, are developed through their interactions and unique ways of speaking. I also loved the decision to have Dai, Mask, and Miki, three helpful spirits Mina would certainly have been lost without, revealed towards the very end of the story to be her ancestors living within the Sea God’s city. It’s a plot point I saw coming, but still shed a joyful tear over. I think the romance is also developed very well; it constantly asked me as a reader if I knew the characters well enough to anticipate their next moves, if they would give in to their true desires and growing emotions, or continue to act out of duty. Very thought-provoking questions are asked concerning what the responsibilities of gods are versus the responsibilities of humans in a world full of joy as well as heartbreak. Seeing how human the gods and goddesses act and appear may be a greater part of the original mythology this author draws from (that I can’t admit to be very knowledgeable in at all), but I like how she crafts it in her own rendition here. The story’s consistent theme concerning fate and the authority one can choose to have over such a thing really intrigued me. At times it felt a bit aloof, and as a result left me feeling like I wasn’t as close to the characters’ inner minds as I would’ve liked to be. I think this is partly due to the writing style, which I enjoyed as well as admire, but it’s just different from my own and others I’ve seen in fantasy authors that I can’t quite put my finger on so soon after finishing the book. It might be due to the fact that Mina, our main heroine, tells us her story through a first person account, but does a lot of telling and flashing back to memories of her family and homeland. I consciously noticed flashbacks at the beginning of the novel more so than in the middle, and was truthfully a bit disconcerted. It seemed like more time could’ve been devoted to developing Mina as a character in her current situation under the sea than in telling about her life before the inciting incident. It’s because of her love for her brother, Joon, and the clear love he has for Shim Cheong, that Mina sacrifices herself to a fate as the Sea God’s bride in the first place — so her brother may live with the woman he loves. However distant I may have felt from Mina as a narrator, I never doubted her upstanding character and deep desire to just see those she loves and cares about happy and safe. The other gods and goddesses in the pages of this story also added color to the already multilayered Spirit Realm we become well-acquainted with. I loved the unexpected character development of the Goddess of the Moon and Memories, as well as the time spent back in Mina’s homeland, Beside-the-Sea, in the last few chapters. A book that prompts me to check how many pages are left before the end is a good book on my shelf; I wasn’t sure if this tale was going to have a happy ending, or if I was going to be okay with such an ending. I ended up really appreciating how all the events tied together, how Shin lost his memories rather than abandoned Mina. The irony of the emperor essentially asking Mina to marry him twice also felt fitting, since time and again Mina is called to enter into the spotlight of a role she feels she must play to save the lives of others, with her own life considered second. I think her selflessness might contribute a bit to why she felt less relatable than other heroines, because she truly acts as the daring and loving heroine worthy of legends and timeless retellings. Despite being human, physically weak within a realm of spirits, and afraid of the unknown more than once, she proves to be the bride of the Sea God because the love she finds for Shin grows free from the constraint of “shoulds” or “musts”. In short, this story’s plot swung like a pendulum, keeping me on my toes and changing direction just when I was sure I’d had everything figured out. Oh, and it was kind of short lived, but I loved the trope where Mina wasn’t able to speak and Shin read her lips. The sass and banter from both parties was so fun to read and clued me in pretty early to where I could expect the seed of romance to bloom. That being said, I’m also very grateful to this book for helping me with a bit of my thesis research. It’ll be just a drop in the bucket of other books, articles, and works I’ll be referencing for my project. But because it possesses love, a god of the sea, memory loss, and a creative spin on rich folklore, it’s been helpful in the marathon writing my own ocean-related novel has been. :) 



Some of my favorite quotes from The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea:

“Stories are both an escape from the truths of the world and the only way to see them clearly.”

“Not all storytellers are grandmothers, but all grandmothers are storytellers.”

“In order to remain a human you'd have to tie your life to an immortal. I may not be the god of a river, a mountain, or a lake, but I am a god, and I would tie my life to yours, if you'll have me."

​I won’t go so far as to say that the movie was better in this instance, but seeing the film adaptation of this zombified-classic made it a bit hard for me to be as invested in the more tame plot the novel holds. Frankly, the movie goes for a more action-packed feel and focus, which makes sense — our modern audience’s attention span is already so short. But the novel’s afterword helped me to better appreciate what the addition of zombies in a Jane Austen book means in the larger perspective of the gothic genre. The afterword, written by English professor Dr. Allen Grove of Alfred University, makes it clear that the emergence and wild popularity of the gothic genre in Austen’s time (which she pokes fun at in Northanger Abbey, a fave of mine) would be most likely influenced Austen to like a version like this one to be made out of her now-beloved novel. Because, of course, there’s all sorts of reimagined literature already in existence concerning the Bennet sisters, Mr. Bingley, and Mr. Darcy. But Gothic writers in the early 1800s wrote the dark stuff they did as a form of rebellion when people all over the world were physically rebelling in revolutions over freedom and politics. Adding brain-hungry monsters to the landscape of a peaceful, high society-driven London and English countryside is delightful precisely because it doesn’t seem like the two should fit together, but they do. They really do! It makes sense to see the Bennet sisters highly trained in the deadly arts, in fact it’s incredibly satisfying to see them act dually as refined ladies and warriors. I at least think it adds a layer of true depth to these already interesting female characters, making them even more relatable and likable heroines for modern readers because they are more than capable of taking care of themselves and rival if not equal the warrior skills of their eventual husbands. And it also makes sense to see zombies infiltrating England, forcing what would otherwise be undisturbed young ladies and gentlemen into soldiers in the service of keeping their country safe. I just have to say, though, that I like some of the liberties the movie took in making a more action-based plot (aka, more of an attachment between Lizzy and Wickham, the congregation of St. Lazarus’ Church, and Wickham literally being the Anti Christ lol). The novel, however, has some fun quirks and plot points I appreciated, like Charlotte’s slow transformation from human to zombie, Mr. Collins’ unexpected end, and a final image of Wickham attached to Lydia, continually wetting himself. I’m glad to have tried my hand at some zombie literature, and essentially reread my beloved Pride and Prejudice in the process. It was also quite fitting to read during the current time I’m spending living in London, too!


Some of my favorite quotes from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:

“Of all the weapons she had commanded, Elizabeth knew the least of love; and of all the weapons in the world, love was the most dangerous.”

“‘I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”