The story is good overall. I wasn't drawn to it, excited for the time of day that I get to read again. I have enough anxiety as it is (about everything, but for the purposes of this book, about climate change) and reading about a world destroyed by it was not easy.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The state of today's climate and the natural disasters that seem to occur with each nightly news gives each of us a look at what the future could bring. Eiren Caffall has done her research and written of the horrors that are possible. In ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD, the glaciers have all melted, rising water levels have forced civilization onto high ground and higher buildings. As super storms batter the world, retaining walls weaken. It's not a matter of if, but when. Future generations must adapt or die.

ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD centers around a family that has managed to build a home on the roof of the Museum of Natural History in NYC. They have learned to make the most of what they have and document the world as it was and as it is now, hoping future generations will be able to use the history that came before them. When they are forced by the breach of retaining walls to find higher ground, the world along the way looks nothing like any other "after the world as we know it fails" book I've read before.....and I love the apocalyptic genre. The genetics of the central character have adapted to a world dominated by water. She chronicles the lives and deaths of those around her, giving readers one more scene to haunt their nightmares. This book is so well written, it seems more like a prophecy, one I'd hope never comes true. 5 astounding stars.

A fascinating and unique story.
This easily could’ve been one of my favourites, but I feel like it was missing something to make it a great book.
Overall, this was an intriguing climate-themed dystopian/apocalyptic story, and I did mostly enjoy it.
I recommend this if you love reading speculative climate fiction.

3.5/5 stars

A unique dystopian thriller told through the perspective of a girl named Nonie. We follow her and her family trying to survive in a flooded world, facing every challenge that is thrown at them. There were many characters and a lot going on, but at the same time, it also seemed too slow of a pace for most of the read. I loved the concept of the antagonist being water, something that can kill while also being something we can't live without. While I wanted to love this one, I felt like it had so much more potential. The writing, however, was beautiful, and I was surprised to find out this was a debut. Overall, I give this one three stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

This was definitely an experience I enjoyed. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc.

The writing of this took a little time for me to get into. The voice is very distinct and there are a lot of words and terms that I had to figure out what they mean.

Once the book got moving I really enjoyed it. It is such a unique premise and really made me think. I liked how the story floated back and forth between before and after to build a clear picture of the world. I found the characters interesting and the plot fast paced. Overall, a different and interesting dystopian story.

This was a beautiful, devastating and hopeful story in a realistic post apocalyptic world. We follow our main character, Nonie, as she grows up in a freshly devastated world. This story was done so well!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

I read the first 1/4 and had trouble getting into the book. I was able to get an audiobook copy and listened to most of it and enjoyed the book much more this way.

Nonie, her sister Bix and parents live in the American Museum of Natural History trying to survive a world where the waters have risen dramatically and are dangerous. After a huge super storm they are forced to leave their sanctuary. I read a lot of dystopian books and enjoyed this one. Nonie and team tried to be care keepers of the museum and also were able to learn a lot about survival from the exhibits. As always after reading an end of the world book I need to go stock up my pantry!

This book was marketed to those that liked Station 11 - I think severance by Ling Ma would be a good comparison as well. This is not a new concept of an apocalyptic event that wipes out society and then survivors learn to co-exist- but…yet…this felt completely fresh and rich with characters and the incredible setting. I loved this book.

Knowing the setting of this novel from being there and having been in New York during Super Storm Sandy, I felt both intrigued and like I wanted to cover my eyes when I picked this title up. After all, it describes terrifying events, including floods, in a city that I love.

This is a story with characters for whom readers will care. They are an intrepid group including Nonie and her family.

In this novel, the characters are invested in their world and want to save all that they can. Readers will just desperately hope that they are successful.

Recommended to those who enjoy literary fiction with some sci-fi elements and those who are concerned about climate change. It is an original story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

Dystopian fiction is a genre that I never pass up, so I was excited to receive an ARC of this book. Having recently read a lot about Hurricane Katrina and the levees breaking, this book made me think a lot about that and use it as a frame of reference as I imagined what this would be like. To be living on the roof of a museum, having to go back to all basics and figure out how to live again without comforts and conveniences at my fingertips - it's pretty overwhelming. I also thought about how lucky Nonie and her family were to be stranded somewhere "safe" with resources available to gain knowledge of long-lost skills. They could reference books and educational materials throughout the areas of the museum that were still accessible., whereas others did not have that option and were left with whatever they could figure out on their own. The story is certainly devastating in many ways and it's difficult to fathom being in this situation. I enjoyed the storyline overall.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read an ARC of this book!

Noni- a 13 yo girl is living in a deserted NYC on top of the natural history museum. The flood gates keeping them safe were breached with a big storm. Now Noni and her family must travel north on the Hudson River to hopefully find her mother's childhood home. It's not a short journey nor a safe one.

I happen to love post apocalyptic/dystopian stories and this was no exception. The storyline was great and I was definitely invested in the characters. Character building was good with some characters and not so great with others. I felt a tad lost trying to keep track of some of the lesser characters as well. A few times in the book I found the writing to be a bit choppy and the storyline to be a bit confusing but overall the idea was excellent. I think this book could have even been longer with more scene building and character depth. The premise of the story would definitely support that. Overall, I really enjoyed this story and would read more from this author.

[arc review]
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
All the Water in the World releases January 7, 2025

<i>“Sometimes what looks like shelter is only menace.”</I>

When the first of the world’s climate catastrophes became seriously fatal, Nonie and her family fled to the American Museum of Natural History and built a settlement on the roof of its library.
Now that they’ve been living there for 8 years, they are forced to relocate once again now that the sea levels have risen and the entire city has flooded.

I liked the commentary on what it meant to rebuild in the wake of destruction and the importance of preserving history and keeping an archive of accounts for future generations, but I thought the ending was a bit abrupt in comparison to the rest of the story.

This is the epitome of a book with the most beautiful and lyrical writing and the most mid level plot possible. I thought that this sounded so promising - I can really get into some climate fiction and one that had a bit of a thriller/survivalist element to it sounded so fantastic. However, this is a story that felt so disjointed and ultimately so anticlimactic that I was left disappointed.

We are following a tiny quartet of survivors in a post-apocalyptic New York where everything has been flooded and rained out. There are these massive storms that come and cause catastrophic destruction in the blink of an eye and our main character has the ability to sense these storms (and their potential severity) before they hit. In the course of this story we encounter the run of the mill apocalyptic scenarios - lack of food and shelter, the hoarding and looting of resources, bands of violent people, and the power tripping "leaders" of the new societies. The only new element that we get is the tie to climate change and that is something that we are just thrown into as we get no real back story or explanation for how the world got to the place it is in other than climate change, duh. I would have liked a little more character and plot development to accompany the prose.

I will say that I do give the author props for talking about thyroid medication in a post apocalyptic world. As someone who *literally* needs to take that medication on a daily basis or I will actually straight up die - I appreciated how the author was like "oop people gonna die if they can't find that..". Absolutely. Your girl here would very much like to be permanently removed from any apocalyptic narratives - please and thank you. I don't want to go survivor without my meds, okay.

I did enjoy reading this story. Noni and Biz were interesting character that I enjoyed. The plot was a little slow at times for me. The writing style was great.

This was my first time reading a climate related dystopia book, and I just didn't connect with it like I thought I would.

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025.
An engaging post climate-crisis, dystopian coming-of-age story
This action-packed, tense survival and adventure story kept me wanting more.
I enjoyed the journey the writer takes us on.
A fantastic dystopian thriller. And a wonderful debut.

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I loved this! Climate fiction meets dystopian coming of age. Sobering concept, lovely writing and execution. I was rooting for Nonie the entire way.

I tried to read this book but I couldn't get into it. It was atmospheric but the language also felt very cliche and dramatic for the sake of being dramatic instead of making me feel invested.

“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.” I was drawn in by the cover and this description and happy to share that I did enjoy the story. While I don’t read a lot of apocalyptic novels, I felt like this one had a unique premise and setting. I loved the realistic detail that was included about the exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, where the family resides for some time preserving artifacts when New York is completely flooded and abandoned. The science-loving part of my brain appreciated the “I’m thinking of an animal” game that the narrator plays with actual facts about animals or insects either common or unusual. The story was really about the journey (getting out of New York City) and had a satisfying ending. If you enjoyed Station Eleven or Songs for the End of the World (I liked both) I think you’d like reading this.

For my Christian reader friends, the story has no sort of Christian viewpoint or connection at all, purely fiction. But it made me think about the book of Revelation and other prophecy in the Bible about the end of this world. Putting myself in this story made me appreciate that we can actually look to the end of the world as we know it with hope because we believe God is all powerful, good, and merciful.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an early electronic galley to read and review. For once I timed it perfectly and finished this book today, right on the day it is released, January 7, 2024, so it is available now.

<b>Finished Reading

<i>Pre-Read notes</i></b>

I went into this one blind, and have since discovered a wonderful post-apocalyptic thriller about a young girl coming of age in a world turned to water and all its perils. A few themes and tropes that I enjoy make appearances here as well, like coming of age, mothers and daughters, water as metaphor, and the definition of home.

<b>Final Review </b>

<i>Mother taught me how to love the water.... I have more of that than any of them.</i>p 40

I finished this book a couple weeks ago. It must not have made an impression at me, because my recollection of this read is vague. I remember that I loved the main character, a seven year old trying to survive the end of the world in a small group of people. Her perspective on this story

<b>Reading Notes</b>

<b><i>Three (or more) things I loved: </i></b>

1. Mother taught me how to love the water... I had more of that than any of them. I had to give Father and Keller and Bix the water love Mother gave me, put them into the bathysphere with me... p40 At first, I found the perspective jarring, as the narrating character is only about seven years old. Most often, I find inauthentic, overly adult tone, diction, and syntactical complexity ascribed to a very young narrating character. Here, the style strives for simplicity and focuses on describing things phenotypically, like "bathysphere" in place of bathosphere.

2. The antagonist in this book is water, an ocean-like deluge that covers most of the world, as a natural force the characters must grapple with and survive. One of the things that makes this book unique is how much the protagonist, a child survivor, empathizes with this water, her literary nemesis.

3. Bodies of people we love die, we leave them. Something of them remains in us, something we have to keep like we would a fossil, a story no one remembers, .... I knew that a place is just a body, no longer alive without the people that ensoul it, but it still hurt to go. p58 This book takes on some wonderful themes, like the definition of home or the definition of the body.

4. I like numerous short chapters, which is how this is written. More organization is better than less, in many cases.

<i><b>Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof. </i></b>

1. This is kind of a dry read. It has to do with a few style choices, namely the narrative voice, fashioned as coming from a child. The sentences are all simple and similar to each other in form.

2. I really struggled to connect with this book. I think it's because the story developes into multiple directions at once– the long past, the recent past, many directions in the present, and possible futures for the characters. The pace is almost leisurely, but the plot still manages to be convoluted. There needs to be more than just survival in the story; the story needs a point, a primary conflict.

<b>Rating:</b> 🌊🌊🌊🌊
<b[Recommend?</b> Yes, for fans of more literary novels
<b>Finished:</b> Dec 23 '24
<b>Format:</b> Digital Arc, NetGalley
<b>Read this book if you like:</b>
🌊 water, lots of it!
🏚 distopian settings
👧🏽 girl's coming of age
🔥 slow burn plot

Thank you to the author Eirin Caffall, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD. All views are mine.
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