The Floating World: Synopsis, characters, book review & FAQ
Axie Oh’s The Floating World is elegant, eerie, Studio Ghibli-esque and emotionally loaded.
Axie Oh set the bar high with The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea. And Axie Oh fans will be delighted to know that The Floating World clears it without breaking a sweat.
In this The Floating World guide and book review, I’ll cover synopsis, break down the main and side characters, flag some key content warnings and get into what worked beautifully for me, in my review.
Whether you're here to decide if it’s your next read or to process your feelings post-read, you're in the right place.
The Floating World synopsis.
🌟 Lower your gaze. The light is not for you 🌟
Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this unputdownable romantic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea .
'EXQUISITE' SUE LYNN TAN
'ENTHRALLING' JUDY I. LIN
An amnesiac sword-for-hire and a theatre troupe performer with mysterious powers discover that their destinies will change the fate of multiple worlds.
Ex-soldier Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. Possessing just his name and sword, he comes across the score of a lifetime - a chest of coins for hunting down the girl who wields silver light.
Ren is a spirited acrobat travelling with her family. But everything changes when they are attacked by a demon. Desperate, Ren releases a blast of silver light and kills the monster - but cannot save her beloved uncle from grievous injury.
Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off for the mountains, where the creature came from - where Ren herself fled from ten years ago. Her path collides with Sunho's, but he doesn't realize who she is. As the two grow closer, it becomes clear their pasts - and destinies - are more entwined than they could possibly have imagined . . .
Get The Floating World here.
The Floating World characters.
The Floating World unfolds in third person narrative perspective, weaving through three distinct perspectives. More on each below.
Main characters.
Ren.
Ren is a spirited acrobat who travels with her family as part of a theater troupe. Gifted with mysterious powers, she's urged by her Auntie to keep them hidden because it’s far too dangerous to reveal them. The reasons why remain unspoken, but the warning is clear.
Sunho.
Ex-soldier Sunho is an amnesiac sword-for-hire who gives me Cloud Strife x Wolverine energy in terms of his story and character. He’s haunted by a past he can’t remember.
Jaeil.
Jaeil is a captain of a military unit as well as the mysterious and aloof son of General Iljin. What’s his angle? What’s his motive and his story? It’s best to read to find out.
Supporting characters.
Here’s a list of all the characters in The Floating World who aren't Ren, Sunho or Jaeil including on-page characters, flashback memory sequences and off-page mentions.
Big Uncle
Auntie
Little Uncle aka Wook
Hwi
Mokjae
Yurhee
Tag
Haru
Nochak
Bo Dan
Sana
Yohan
Doona
General Iljin
Junho
Commander Su
Heetae
Rohoon
Grandma Jin
Yumi
Jinyoung
Binna
Gukwa (horse)
Lady Maya
Minister Jo
Minister Bak
Minister Lim
Claw
Dagger
Goddess
The Floating World by Axie Oh book review.
The Floating World is Final Fantasy meets reimagined celestial maiden Korean folklore, with a generous dash of RPG storytelling and it starts out with a bang. A claws-out, people-dying, secret-magic-to-fight-demonic-creature kind of bang.
The Ghibliesque-adjacent worldbuilding is lush and strange with murderous mercenary train journeys, a pitch-black Under World filled with poisonous blue clouds and toxic mines, and a world quite literally floating above it all. It's all beautifully rendered, but never overindulgent. The stakes hit fast and hard and the emotional undercurrent is real. There’s blood, grief, memory loss, scientific experimentation and family, real and found, but it never felt like too much was going on.
What I didn’t expect was how tender the heart of this story would be. Beneath the sword fights and yearning is a story about trauma: inherited, inflicted, survived. What it means to be soft without being weak. And about reclamation of identity and memory.
It didn’t hit instantly for me. Probably due to me taking a while to connect with FMC, Ren, who felt too naive for her age, plus the third-person narration, which kept me emotionally distanced for a while. That’s a “me” problem, I know.
Plus, after the banging start, it was a slower burn, with the first half moving like a side quest-heavy RPG, all mood and mystery. To be fair, however, it really builds up to a gripping crescendo.
Once the character work clicked for me, The Floating World soared, with the last third steeped in love, grief and heart-wrenching reveals. It got under my skin. Made me care more than I expected. And that’s what elevated my rating in the end.
I need the sequel. Immediately. Please protect our sadboy, Cloud Strife x Wolverine Sunho at all costs.
Thank you so much to Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!
View my review and follow me on GoodReads here. I chat about books a lot.
The Floating World book FAQs.
SPOILER ALERT:
Some answers may spoil the book if you haven’t read it already. Proceed with caution.
Here are the answers to all your common FAQs.
Is The Floating World part of a series?
Yes, The Floating World is book one in The Floating World duology. The second book, The Demon and the Light, is slated to be released in October 2025.
What are the content and trigger warnings?
Blood
Violence
Murder
Blood
Death
Death of parent
Injury and injury details
Classism
Grief
Child slavery
Abandonment
War
Human trafficking
Is The Floating World spicy?
The Floating World is young adult (YA) and while it has romance, it is very sweet, pure and slow. No spice, although there is a kiss… which takes its time to get to.
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