The Floating World by Axie Oh: Review

Welcome to my review of The Floating World by Axie Oh! The description of this one really captured my attention, and I’m so glad it did because this book did everything it needed to.

Title: The Floating World (The Floating World #1)
Author: Axie Oh
Genre: Romantic Fantasy
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Pub Date: 04/29/25

Description

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 lighthearted 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…

Review

I don’t believe I’ve ever read a story about the celestial maidens, so the worldbuilding and lore in The Floating World sucked me in. This was such a satisfying reading experience seeing all the dots connect with the plot and characters, especially because there were some mind-blowing moments that made for a great payoff.

Ren had this aura of innocence to me, and I loved seeing how her goals and desires shifted over the course of the story. Her skills being a troupe performer came in handy so much throughout the story, and I appreciated that her past and present were such a factor in her temperament and choices. I mostly felt bad for Sunho because of what he’d been through, but his protection of Ren was everything. They were such a great team.

And when the description says the book is a romantic fantasy, it’s not lying. Ren and Sunho’s interactions were so sweet and heartwarming. Lately I’ve been growing a little tired of the heavy emphasis on romance in a lot of fantasy, so I was glad that the emphasis of the book was more on Ren and Sunho’s journey than their budding relationship.

I really enjoyed the multi-POVs, and how though Jaeil didn’t have a lot of chapters, his perspective always came in at the right time to give us the right amount of information or to drop more curiosity seeds. The pacing is on the slower side in the beginning of the book, but I didn’t mind it as it allowed us to get an understanding of where our characters were at in their lives before everything jumps off.

Honestly, the only thing I’m upset about is that the book ended. I need to be able to dive immediately into the next book to see how everything is going to come together, but patience is a virtue. Overall, I really hope that this duology becomes the next big thing because there’s so much to digest and discuss. I would recommend this for readers that love books with expansive worlds, memory loss, and characters with intertwined histories and destinies.

*Thank you to the publisher for the gifted ARC. All opinions are my own.*

Author

Photo Credit: Daeun Lee

Axie Oh is the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, the Floating World duology, XOXO and ASAP, and the Rebel Seoul series. Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, she studied Korean history and creative writing as an undergrad at the University of California San Diego and holds an MFA in Writing for Young People from Lesley University. Her passions include K-pop, anime, stationery supplies, and milk tea, and she currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her dogs, Toro and Leila.