post-apocalyptic, fiction, thriller, environment, climatology, dystopian, museum, family, storms, flooding, disaster, relics, artifact, recordkeeping, unputdownable, refuges, refugees, international*****

The tidal wave/storm surge swept them all from their latest home/settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History where they had gone to survive as the waters rose and filled the buildings and the tunnels and the sewers. They gathered together to try to flee to the north even as they were felled by waterborne and mosquito borne illnesses and injuries without antibiotics and learned caregivers. They kept building an archive of what was and learning from the artifacts and lore even as humanity changed and evolved into both evil and supportive. All too plausible.
I requested and received a free temporary uncorrected digital galley from St. Martin's Press, via NetGalley. Thank you!
Avail Jan 07, 2025 #AllTheWaterInTheWorld by Eiren Caffall St. Martin's Press #SpecFiction #DisasterFiction #FamilyByChoice #KeepingThePast

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this novel that looks at a future flooded with climate change, fear, ignorance, and a little bit of hope.

I knew from an early age that I never wanted children. Even in the time that everyone considers the good old days, I could see the problems that were starting, and even more the problems that the supposed adults and smart people in the room were ignoring. However I am the Uncle of two awesome nephews, one of which told me once at the age of seven, "You adults really messed things up." I could only think to myself, yes we did. Many say that climate change is just a lie, that weather always has acted this way. My answer usually is name three types of clouds and what are micro climates if one is such an expert. I remember seasons, not once in a century storms that seem to happen every year. I don't remember tornados being a thing in New England, nor record droughts. Or winter's without snow. Though this year we got snow early. After again a drought. At this point, and considering the people in power I only assume things will get worse. And a book like this that is science fiction, might one day be considered a nonfiction memoir. All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall is a story about family, a love of knowledge, an epic journey, and unfortunately water, water everywhere, with everything at risk.

The glaciers have melted and the major cities after trying and spending billions in locks, dams and more are mostly underwater or deserted. Nonie is a young girl who lives with her family on the rook of the American Museum of Natural History, a place they call Amen. Nonie has a feel for water growing up surrounded by it. Nonie's parents worked at the museum and have created a small colony of the roof with some of their colleagues, gathering knowledge to survive from the museum, while trying to keep things safe so that things will not be lost or forgotten. A hypercane a beyond super hurricane has come and blasted through what has left of the City's defenses, and Nonie and her family have to leave the museum, using bark canoes in an attempt to find land. To do so they must enter the heart of darkness that is the outside going north. Along the way they find that humanity does go on, but not in the best of ways.

A book that seems to be more accurate the more that time passes. Caffall describes a future so real and so possible that it is quite disturbing. The world is well laid out, and I like the way Caffall sets up things. There are a few spots where the story drags, and it might take a bit for readers to get used to the way that Nonie acts, but the plot makes up for this. Caffall has done a lot of research, on weather, water, building, primitive skills, geography, and geology, that one really gets a strong sense of the world, and what might be.

Fans of the author Kim Stanley Robinson will have another author to read. I look forward to more books by this author, for I really the intensity the author brings to the story. One can feel the anger and almost desperation coming off the pages, a warning that it might be getting late, but maybe just maybe we can do something. Or watch everything we have just wash away.

I loved the premise of All the Water in the World. Survival in a post apocalyptic world after all the polar ice caps melt, flooding all the world’s coastlines. The world becomes savage and violent while people face new plagues and fight for limited resources. The story is a “log book” of a 13-year-old girl, told in first person, detailing her family’s fight for survival and journey to find lasting safety.

The book is clearly written and easy to follow. I loved the short chapters! The characters were diverse and likable.

I would classify this book as young adult, literary fiction. I could really see this book being assigned reading in high school. It deals with many relevant issues: found family, social structures, government, global climate change, racism, coming-of-age, grief, death, etc.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It really made me think about and appreciate my own safety and wellbeing; and the simple things we take for granted: water, food, shelter.

Oh, how I hate this part!

I think the worst part about reviewing books is being so excited for something new and just.. not being able to get into it. Unfortunately, I have to dnf All the Water in the World for this reason. Something about this book just isn't doing it for me, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I don't want to give an unfair review, and I genuinely hope that others really enjoy this book- but I'm going to have to pass on it for now. I will be giving this a one-star rating simply because I *have* to submit a star rating, but in my heart that feels unfair, and I wish I could just not give it a rating so as not to skew anything. I'm sending this book all the best vibes to reach the right audience, and hopefully others will be able to enjoy what I'm sure is a really wonderful book, even if it wasn't necessarily for me :)

I liked this book! It dragged at parts, but it was nice reading from a child’s perspective. I really enjoyed learning about the storms and AMEN!

I really wanted to love this story based on the description but ended up only finding it so-so. The pacing of the story is inconsistent and drags a lot in the beginning but then speeds up very quickly near the end. The ideas presented in the book - found family, preservation of knowledge, extreme climate change - would make for some excellent book club discussions, if everyone is willing to push through the first 30% of the novel.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC of this novel through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Gorgeous, yearning, hopeful

All the Water in the World is one of those books I needed to savor. I read the last chapter slowly, soaking it all in and wishing to stay in that moment for as long as possible.

The writing was complex in its simplicity and I loved every single word. Eiren Caffall is truly a talent!

-Station Eleven meets The Walking Dead (no zombies, but similar eerie vibes!)
-Environmental apocalypse
-Survival tale
-Young narrator

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This wasn't necessarily the best book to read immediately after seeing a bunch of articles in the news about how scientists are warning the world is on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. That said, it was fascinating to read about this family that had been living at the American Museum of Natural History, trying to preserve what they could in the aftermath of climate catastrophe - and ultimately how they needed to face great danger to find/create their own long-term community further away from the rising ocean and its storms.

I will recommend it widely to those who enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction and who ultimately enjoy a reminder of the importance of both humanity and hope.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in advance of publication.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was clearly written with so much attention to detail and research, done so in one of the best ways I’ve ever read.

It was raw, emotional, and at times terrifying to think of this reality.

Where it fell short for me was the pacing and character development. Despite the length, in some ways this read like a short story to me.

I received a free copy of, All the Water in the world, by Eiren Caffall, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Nonie has a connection with water., she is living on the roof of The American Museum of Natural History, in New York. There is a storm coming that will change them forever. This was a n interesting and enjoyable read.

I enjoyed this post apocalyptic book based on climate change instead of disease or zombies. It was an interesting take on post apocalyptic books. This book was interested and original.

I love the premise,and the dystopia setting. The author has a unique writing style which took a little time to get used to. For being a post apocalyptic book, it felt slow at times.

All The Water In The World is a dystopian novel occurring after cataclysmic storms and ice melt caused coastal towns to be submerged in flooding. Several survivors have taken refuge in a museum in NYC, but a “hypercane” causes the floodgates that keep the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean from drowning the city collapse, and 4 survivors set out in a kayak and head north, looking for dry land. Told through the eyes of a young girl, this deeply moving novel chronicles their dangerous journey and the people they meet along the way, good and bad, and their battle to survive. Interspersed with stories from an earlier period that bring perspective to their current plight, the author does a masterful job of immersing the reader in the scene with an easygoing writing style that captures the essence of their emotions. Thought provoking and unique, with the focus on the journey and the survivors, this is an interesting and highly engaging read. Loved it! I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I like this one it was a good story about a future earth destroyed by climate change which is happening now and how society falls apart and survives in the aftermath.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting review book

5/5 stars
Recommended if you like: cli-fi, disaster fiction, community, survival

This review has been posted to Goodreads as of 11/12, Instagram on 11/14, and to my review blog on 11/21.

This book examines survival in a climate ravaged world, and the positive and negative ways people rebuild after the end. It's told through a mix of 'present' day events, when a superstorm destroys their home and they have to find a new one, and past events that detail how there came to be a community on the roof of the American Natural History Museum and the kinds of things they did to survive. Technically the whole book is in past tense, with Nonie narrating, but there is a delineation between Nonie's childhood and the travels from the AMNH to a farm in upper-NY.

I really liked that the original group of survivors we follows is a set of anthropologists, scientists, and museum employees (plus their kids). It's such an interesting setup and it allows for the adults to have skills and knowledge that the average person probably doesn't possess. I also really liked the American Museum of Natural History in NY being the backdrop of the main character's childhood. It's such a unique location and I really liked seeing how they used things from the museum and knowledge from the past to survive in the 'modern' world.

It's hard at times to remember Nonie is only 13 when all this is going down. She has a pretty mature voice and even when she doesn't understand certain things, she still has a strong understanding of the world. Nonie is very empathetic and caring, and it comes through in how she handles her sister and Keller (and others) at various points in the book. Despite how the world is around them, Nonie is also a fairly hopeful character, both about the small things and the big things. She dreams of one day going on one of the research boats to study the changing waters of the world (big hope) and she also wants to believe the best of people, though she's also realistic, especially if something seems off. I definitely read Nonie as being autistic even though no one ever says it outright.

Biz was someone I had a harder time connecting with, though I also understand her. She's 16 during the course of this book and is not only old enough to remember when times were less apocalyptic, but she's also lived through some pretty grim stuff herself. Part of Biz is angry and a little reckless because of it, but part of her is also afraid and full of the knowledge of just what might go wrong. That being said, like Nonie she's very caring and determined to see their small group survive.

I liked seeing the different ways different groups of people survived, and how that compares and contrasts to the AMNH group. Some of the ways are remarkably similar, like the people at the Cloisters, while others only seem that way on the surface and others yet take a more violent dog-eats-dog approach to survival. This book really does a good job looking at how we behave when the end has come and the things we are, and aren't, willing to close our eyes to if it means survival. That being said, this book isn't all dark and I think it really pushes the narrative of community = survival, which I would say is both realistic and hopeful.

One thing that bugged me at the start of the book, as someone who knows a lot about tornadoes, is that they're trying to find shelter and keep running into rooms with windows! It's really a minor thing but it bugged me so badly, lol.

Overall this is a really good book and does a good job of examining survival and hope after the end. I liked the museum aspect of it a lot and also liked the community-oriented take on survival Caffall depicted.

Futuristic doomsday. A coming of age story as the main characters try and navigate survival after super storms that have destroyed land. They seek safety and encounter many different challenges along the way. This is somewhat like Station Eleven, but a bit slow along the way.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

In a futuristic world ravaged by climate disasters a group of survivors band together to escape New York City after a super storm. They lived on the roof of the ruined American Museum of Natural History where sisters Nonie and Bix learned about the world from their parents and scientists who sheltered there. The last storm takes much from them and their only choice is to make it to higher ground at a family farm upstate. The path is treacherous both by the natural and human dangers along the way with little medicine, few supplies and distrust from the people they meet. Nonie and Bix grow up fast in a world that feels more like an extinction than evolution. Readers of apocalyptic coming of age stories like STATION ELEVEN, THE LIGHT PIRATE and books by Lydia Millet will enjoy.
My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

This novel is an apocalyptic tale following an epic environmental shift with new, more powerful storms called hypercanes pounding the Earth into submission. Nonie’s family are survivors of these superstorms seeking supplies and sanctuary in a much-changed existence, as major flooding has destroyed much of the world's landscape and infrastructure. Before the hypercanes, Nonie’s parents were researchers at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Educating their children in many subjects and enhancing survival skills, whilst preserving their humanity . . . they are now entrusting their children as keepers of history and knowledge. Some of the other survivors they encounter have let fear dictate over logic and have devolved into animalistic desperation. Will ruthlessness become the only adaptation to ensure a future in this new world?

If you can get over the slow parts, this is an interesting and thought-provoking read . . . one that a younger crowd may also appreciate. I highly recommend this book to any fan of disaster fiction.

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of All the Water in the World for my unbiased evaluation.  3 stars

A gripping story set in one version of the future, focusing on the coming of age of sisters and their amazing survival techniques and adventure after a colossal storm. Much of their early lives were spent on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History, knowing that it would likely all disappear. They make an effort, with their parents and friends, to catalog and save as many of the museum contents as possible until they can do no more. Love and loss and survival skills are just a few trials by fire as they are inspired by curators in Iraq and Leningrad. The novel is filled with the grim reality of their time and place, but they have each other and a few fast role models, and the book ends on a happier note than expected!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A beautifully written and haunting glimpse into our possible future.

All the Water in the World captivated me with its vivid world-building and deeply emotional storytelling. The idea of a family surviving on the roof of the Museum of Natural History after glaciers melt and seas rise is both unique and eerily believable. Nonie’s narration adds a raw and tender layer to the story, capturing not only the struggle for survival but also the profound love and resilience of her family.

The descriptions of a submerged New York City and the communities they encounter on their journey up the Hudson are haunting and richly detailed, bringing the setting to life. The flashbacks to their life in the museum—trying to preserve Earth’s history as the world fell apart—are especially moving.