All The Water In The World by Eiren Caffall

At the heart this is story about survival and what is means to be a refugee in a world that is uncertain. This is not a light read but it was a hopeful one. The world has become one where there is more water than land and the world has become a place where you fend for yourself. In that world there are communities running in tight circles to survive.

I liked this one as it really showed what was important to who we are, our histories and our communities. It felt important as we head into uncertain futures and ones where the communities you create are so important. If you are looking for a book that will give you a different perspective, hope and the very essence of what it means to carry on after it feels like you can’t this is a good one to sink into.

I've never read anything quite like this book but I was immediately drawn in by the premise. It took me longer than usual to get into it and even finish it because of the way it was written. It takes place across two timelines: the past and the present. But it didn't feel like a clear separation of the two timelines, which is something I really struggled with. I definitely wouldn't recommend this to others (like myself) who are mostly romance readers, as the structure of the book is incredibly different and hard to get into. But someone who reads more sci-fi, futuristic style books may be the perfect kind of person to pick it up.

Thank you to NetGalley, Eiren Caffall, and St. Martin's Press for sending me an early copy!

This novel, set in a future when the dire predictions about climate change have come true, should serve as a wake-up call. The main character is Nonie, a teen who lives with her family at the top of New York's Museum of Natural History because all of Manhattan and environs have been flooded by rising oceans. After a super storm slams what remains of their urban haven, the family must set off in hopes of reaching higher ground and safety. Hoping to reach a family member in the woods of the Berkshires, they follow the Hudson River in various rickety water craft, encountering danger from weather, medical problems, and armed survivalists. This story is most powerful as a cautionary tale of likely affects of our inattention to the natural world, and also as a tribute to resilience and family strength.

I live near New York City and spend much of my childhood running around Central Park, climbing on the glacial rocks, looking at the statues and visiting The Central Park Zoo. I fondly look back at the hours spend wandering around the Met, MoMA, & American Museum of Natural History looking at the animal dioramas, sitting in the Planetarium or standing and staring in awe at the Blue Whale and dinosaurs. As I grew older I visited West Point, FDR's Estate and Park, the sculpture walks at Storm King, gawked at The Palisades and even visited Lee, Massachusetts. So, why is this list of my activities important to my review, this book literally took me on a road trip of myself and made me stare at the face of a world without these things and experiences, vividly and in detail. I saw a future where what is special to me was erased and forgotten due to global climate change and ocean level rise. You can tell this book's theme, narrative, and writing were amazing and hit too close to home for me. Now that, to me, is a book worth reading and owning. Although this is a world that is fictional, Nonie and her family live in a world this is all too possible today and one that becomes even more probable with every passing year. I felt as if my world was being, literally, washed away and a newer, unknown, and nightmarish one was emerging to take its place that I did not want to experience .

A good storyteller can share events that exist in their mind with a listener, but a great story teller puts you in the middle of a story and has you experience it with the characters. Eiren Caffall has done this with me -and thus the reason for my introduction to this review. This book, though written beautifully for a YA reader will resonate with anyone. This book left me stymied at several points because of the realness of it. It made me stop reading several times because I felt the bleakness of its present through the adults that once worked for the Museum that they are living in and their understanding of the altered world they exist in. I was transported back through the Hall of Plains Animal, to the Woodland People's exhibit to see the giant birch bark canoe, has he tearing up at the loss of the North Pacific People's Totem Poles rotting away; however, despite this all there was the hope that The Farm would be there to get them through it all and in Nonie and her sister I could see the fight to begin again. All is not lost despite the bleakness, humankind will move forward. And the Children of this New World will reclaim it with their grit, drive, and determination. This is a slow book, but one that used that pacing to transport me.

Power, beauty, vision, and hope all lie at the heart of this flooded landscape. I hope this book is viewed as speculative science fiction when it is looked back at in 100 years rather than as a missed Memo and warning. I hope we take a note of the question that is so often posed in this work today - "Didn't they know this coming? Couldn't they have done anything?" "

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ebook I read

All the Water in the World is an excellent addition to the growing genre of climate change fiction. The premise of a group of people in NYC trying to document the collections at the Natural History Museum for future generations was fascinating, and I thought the characters were well-developed. Caffall was deft in moving among various time frames and using those shifts to build our understanding of character and relationships. The suspense and action picked up once the small group of those remaining went north after a massive rise in the water level, and it is here that comparisons to Station Eleven come into play. All in all, I found this to be a thoughtful exploration of climate crisis built around characters I could definitely care for as the story developed.

I was drawn in by the premise of All the Water in the World and thought it might give Light Pirate vibes. Since that’s one of my favorite books, was excited to try this new climate fiction story. I also liked that it was set in NYC. Unfortunately the writing style wasn’t a good fit for me and I decided to DNF. Thank you to the publisher and Macmillan audio for the free ebook and audiobook to review.

I was a fan of Station Eleven and The Road and this book is also a very good post-apocalyptic novel. The apocalypse is caused by climate change here. We see a flooded New York City through the eyes of a young girl who only has faint memories of "The World as it Was." The story of her family's attempt to survive, then to escape to a family farm in upstate NY, was thrilling and heart-breaking and hopeful.

A haunting dystopian novel that brings together the best elements of literary fiction and climate change narratives, creating a world that feels both utterly alien and deeply familiar. With echoes of “Station Eleven”, “The Road”, and “Parable of the Sower”, Caffall offers a story that’s as emotionally resonant as it is thought-provoking.

What stood out most was the perspective of Nonie, a young girl navigating a world devastated by climate change. Telling the story through her eyes brings an extra layer of poignancy, offering a lens of innocence amidst the devastation. The dystopian society is shaped by the impact of hypercanes, a chilling consequence of global warming, and it’s fascinating how water—something so essential to life—becomes the force of destruction. The concept of a flooded New York City, with survivors living atop the Museum of Natural History, was both clever and beautifully symbolic. While the pacing is a bit slow at times and the plot sparse, much like The Road, it never detracts from the novel’s deeper themes of survival, memory, and the bonds that keep us connected.

Overall, “All the Water in the World” is a powerful meditation on what it means to preserve knowledge, culture, hope, and love in a world gone awry. Highly recommended for fans of literary dystopias.

I don't want the 3-star rating to indicate that this I found this to be a "bad" book. It has many important takeaways and was quite engaging at certain points... But I struggled to get *there*.

The first half of the book employs chapters that alternate between the past and the present. Although showing parts of the past can help with giving context for the present, this made it difficult for me to get a full grasp on who the characters were and what the world is like. The chapters are short. Many works do this in order to create and emphasize a sense of urgency; I don't think that this style necessarily works here. Each time I felt myself close to captivated, there was a sudden (expected, because of getting used to the style, but not welcome) shift that broke the immersion. I did not feel as though I could fully connect with the characters until nearly halfway through the story, when the shifting calmed.

As a side: was the style deliberate, to emulate the experience of fighting through a storm? Now I wonder.

At any rate, I do believe that this was a fascinating book. It touches upon several important matters on culture, nature, morality, and even just the trials of the human experience. It was a quick read once I was able to "lock in," but that took both determination and patience to become accustomed to the fragmented feeling throughout the reading experience. This was a pretty book, but it could have been beautiful.

Great title! I can't wait to see more by this author. What an interesting premise as well as a thought provoking setting. The characters were flawed, but likable and the story full of adventure. It had everything!

Dystopian books that center around the climate change are always going to be added to my to-read list. However, I would not recommend this book to others. It's slow, and it never picks up, despite action happening the entire time. Nonie isn't really dimensional or changing, ever. I forgot that Bix was there half the time. Keller had some personality, but he wasn't the narrator.

Even the New York-ness of it couldn't save this book.

I was expecting a bit of the Day After Tomorrow movie mixed with Atwood's After the Flood but I had no patience for the juvenile narrator.

All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.

This one was a big disappointment for me. I love dystopian books. I love how my heart pounds when I read them and love all the emotions that you get. But I didn't get the heart pounding feeling and I didn't feel any emotions.

I didn't have a strong connection to the characters. Nonie's voice tells the story and she didn't show any emotions. Since I didn't have this connection, I didn't care what happened to the characters. Nonie is a girl that is gifted with a deep feeling for water.

This book is very slow. I was really bored. I struggle with a book that is slow like this. Once I put the book down I had a hard time picking it back up again. I also found it to be repetitive in parts.

This book is about survival and a hurricane and climate change. I would think that I would have received a lot of emotions but it was more depressing than anything. There are a lot of readers who loved this book so make sure you check out their reviews.

2.5 stars rounded up.

I want to thank St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't so sure about this book - but was intrigued by the description. This isn't my usual type of book, and I wasn't able to get through Station Eleven. Even after that I really wanted to read this one. The beginning was a bit too slow for me. Eventually the plot got more exciting as the group had to relocate and deal with different struggles on the way. I felt the ending was too short - I wanted more details. Overall, I think it was a good story. I wouldn't say it was my favorite, but a pleasant story to read.

I’m inclined to agree with the lower rated reviews on this book - so much climate fiction out there and this one is squarely in the ho-hum pile, alas. While it’s not bad, it <i>is</i> a basic and shallowly told story. The journey is fine, the characters are fine, the ending is fine .. and fine isn’t what I super want to spend my time on? I didn’t mind the dual narrative in the first third, if anything I felt it gave more substance to the story by giving us somewhat of a window into what happened before, but that tapers off and leaves the reader with point A to point B monotony without much to jazz it up. I appreciated the lesson being that they would build a new safe space / society by letting in vs. hoarding / keeping out, but this was just all right at best, whatever and unsatisfying at the worst.

<i>Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for an eARC of this book. 🙏🏼</i>

The story is packed with so many wonderful moments and details, that I have barely scratched the surface in this review. All the Water In the World would make a fantastic movie, and it sort of reminded me of the Netflix movie Leave the World Behind. My favorite apocalyptic stories are the ones that leave the reader with a feeling of hope, and this one does that brilliantly.

This is really enthralling book. I love the look at what could happen in the future if all the ice has melted and water has consumed the world.
These characters are strong and do what it takes to survive.
I enjoyed watching Nonie, how smart she is and how brave she is throughout the journey. She protects her sister Bix and helps her along the way.
This is a fast paced book, that keeps you reading, as you want to see what will happen to these characters.

Thank NetGalley for this ARC.

An excellent dystopian/climate fiction novel set in a not too far future where the icebergs have all melted and the world is hot, flooded, no electricity, and worse. The book is told from the perspective of 13 year old Nonie, who has been living at the American Museum of Natural History with her family and a small group of other workers and their families since NYC flooded. The book alternates between the night of a terrible storm when the remaining survivors decide it’s time to leave the museum and head north, and flashbacks to Nonie’s memories of the years they have spent living there and her hazy memories of before.

I thought this one was just fabulous - literary writing that was spare and yet deep, interesting characters, and scenes I could really picture in my head. It’s often sad and scary but with a little bit of hope. Think Station Eleven crossed with The Light Pirate, with a dash of The Road or The Passage. Definitely one that will stay with me.

4.5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an early copy of this book!

4.5 stars rounded up

I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did! At its core, it’s a story of survival—it follows a young girl named Nonie and her family in an apocalyptic world where New York City has flooded and they find refuge with other people in what used to the American Museum of Natural History. But when a massive storm destroys the settlement they’ve built, they have to make the difficult decision to head north for survival.

It took me a minute to get into this book, but once I was in, I was hooked! The short chapters really build tension, as we follow Nonie’s journey and see her flashbacks to the World As It Was. I think it’s best to go into this book not knowing much about it, but it’s a story of family, memory, and recording for the next generation. It’s an emotional journey, with both literary and thriller aspects, but it ultimately feels like a genre of its own.

This flooded, apocalyptic world feels like it could never happen to us, but with the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, our relationship with the earth feels so fragile, and this world doesn’t seem that far off. This book particularly resonated with me because I recognized so many of the New York City and Westchester landmarks that they mention here (though they’re destroyed or underwater in this world).

Thanks to Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A young girl lives in the American Museum of Natural History as the oceans are rising and storms are destroying the land. A super interesting premise to me, especially as a childhood reader of From the Mixed-Up Files... This book had a bit of a slow start, and the character was definitely a child and did not always know or understand what was happening. The author also chose to move forward and backward in time, and seemed to delay some of the world building that helped to set the scene. I almost DNF'd around 25% and then the book finally started to move and make sense. I think there are parts of it that I'll be thinking about for a while, so I am giving 4 stars instead of the 3 the overall writing earned in my mind.