All the Water in the World was such a strange, moving book, and I am so thrilled I received an ARC of it. I went into it semi-blind and am actually glad that I did: getting to watch Nonie's story unfold with no expectations whatsoever was so thrilling, and I felt completely absorbed in the worldbuilding. I feel like the only apt comparison would be with All the Light we Cannot See -- this book's got a similar blend of intense character study, thrilling plot, and prose with a keen eye towards the natural world. I cannot stress enough how every chapter of this book was such a perfectly crafted vignette; I can't believe I hadn't heard of Caffall's work before this.

All the Water in the World fits neatly in between literary fiction and the growing speculative subgenre cli-fi. Thirteen year old Nonie and her older sister Bix are daughters of scientists who, when the world flooded due to climate change, took refuge in a museum of natural history. Called AMEN by its residents (draw what Biblical parallels from that you will), this museum does an apt job of providing for those who look after it. Nourished by the gardens and educated in medicine by the historical texts there, Nonie and crew seem poised to outlast the apocalypse. But when a hypercane (a supercharged hurricane) floods their refuge, Nonie, Bix, their father, and their father's friend and chief entomologist Keller pile onto a canoe and attempt to make their way to a family farm upstate for shelter. There is no guarantee that the farm will be still standing, and there are dangers aplenty along the way -- both natural and human. But the crew has no choice but to hope, because giving up hope means certain death.

This book felt so fully realized, it was heartbreaking. No little detail goes unnoticed, adding to how dire the stakes are. From the poisonous water around them, made undrinkable by sewage runoff and industrial spillage, to the simple diseases made deadly by lack of antibiotics, this was such a perfectly imaged apocalyptic scenario. And I cared so, so deeply for the characters. I know some readers struggled with Caffall's choice to bounce us back and forth between past and present, but I personally felt it both added urgency and gave us much needed character development. When we're thrust into a life-or-death scenario every second of the book, it's hard to stop and find those moments of growth. Caffall gave us those, and more -- the pauses and rushes of All the Water were so well timed. Like the tides, this book ebbs and flows effortlessly.

I also particularly loved the choice to make Nonie some variety of neurodivergent; seeing how her neurodivergence brushes up against their new world was such an interesting bit of intersectionality. The representation's also very well done, not only for Nonie but for all the characters. Keller in particular is a highlight. And the prose was so beautiful that, if I'd had a print copy, it would've been dog-eared and highlighted and quoted for all eternity. I look forward to reading more of Caffall's work, and I hope that this wins all the accolades, because it so deserves it.

Timely, well-crafted, and moving, All the Water in the World is a stunner.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Eiren Caffall for gifting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Nonie is the young protagonist of this stark climate-change dystopian future, in which her small community fights to survive and to preserve history--from the roof of the American Museum of Natural History--before a horrific storm sends them fleeing up the Hudson, encountering kindness and nefarious groups in their quest for a new home.

In a dystopian future in which the glaciers have melted, Nonie, a young girl with a gift for feeling the water, coming storms, and weather, lives in a largely deserted New York City with her family.

Their settlement is on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH, or "Amen"), and they hunt and gather in Central Park. They must be careful, as packs of feral dogs--and packs of desperate humans, the Lost--will try to take what they can get to survive. Along with her parents' researcher friends, her family helps try to save and further the exhibits of human history and science.

The scenes of Nonie and her sister Bix, who have long been trapped in a confined boundary of existence, wandering the partially destroyed museum and wondering at the history and the world are particularly captivating. I was also struck by the haunting moments of grown-ups sharing the old stories: what it was like to swim (when waters were not deadly with pollution), to pick wild berries, to fly in an airplane, to have easy access to medicines, and more.

But a superstorm (which they deem a "hypercane") floods the city further, and the group must escape up the Hudson. Nonie and her group carry a book holding precious history preserved from Amen, and on their journey they encounter a few communities, each of which has adapted to survive. Some try to help, while others have nefarious intent. It's sometimes tough to tell which is which until it's too late.

This climate-change novel is powerful, disturbing, and, starkly lovely in its stripped-away love and loyalty. The story keeps in the forefront the looming dangers, the fear of disease and ill intent, and the bone-weary fatigue involved in simply fighting to survive--and I couldn't ever forget that the enemy, the deadly monster here, is the human race that destroyed its planet.

The found-family element is a favorite of mine, and the makeshift nature of Caffall's imagined future in All the Water in the World necessitates crafting a family from like-minded survivors. This story was upsetting, fascinating, and wonderfully shaped.

I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of St. Martin's Press and NetGalley.

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
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In a dystopian world, the melting of the glaciers has caused extreme flooding in places. Nonie and her family live with a group of survivors on the roof of the American Museum of Natural history. When a superstorm arrives they must flee the city and head in search of a new place.
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What I liked:
-I loved the plot of the story. Dystopian, flooded world, people trying to survive. All really cool ideas for a story.
-I love a good journey in a book. Nonie and her group had a pretty epic journey they made and mostly by a very old and historic canoe.
-There were some parts of the story that were very suspenseful!
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3⭐️⭐️⭐️ I liked this book. The writing jumped a lot between the present and the past and I sort of wish there was a way to differentiate the two better because I felt like I had to really pay attention. Maybe if the past would have been italicized that would have been easier.

In a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by storms and flooding, a small group of people survive in and on top of the American Museum of Natural History. They do their best to preserve the knowledge contained in the museum while trying to survive and care for each other.

I enjoy tales of survival and how some people form new families and communities, while others turn feral and malevolent. I thought the characters and world-building were good here. Recommended.

I thought about this book for days I after I finished it and was really surprised I was able to pick up another book to start soon after.

All the Water in the World is a dystopian novel set in a world where water is essentially taking over. The story starts on the roof of the Museum of Natural History which was so interesting. There are a lot of facts about animals and storms scattered throughout the story and I really enjoyed that.

The beginning was a little confusing due to the story weaving the past in with the present but the main character, whose POV the story is told through, is a child so once I figured out what was going on it made more sense. It took about the whole first chapter.

There are some tough topics addressed in this book with racism and sexual assault being talked about and alluded to. I thought it was very well done and necessary to the story. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Dystopian novels or has ever wondered what would happen if storms kept evolving to massive proportions

A solid 4 stars for this dystopian novel that is more terrifying than any horror story. Given our country's current political leaders, it's not far off to say that this book is entirely prescient. I liked our young neurodivergent narrator Nonie, but felt like almost all of the other characters were not fully explored (esp Bix). The alternating timelines in chapters also didn't always work for me, and some parts were slow. But overall, I enjoyed (well, enjoyed is not the right word as I was often filled with dread) this adventure-filled story of the horrifying effects of climate change, the power of found family, and all of the details about living in the top floors/roof of the American Museum of Natural History ("Amen") in New York City after the glaciers melted and flooded the city. Here's hoping that this book remains "fiction."

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I'm not going to say much about this one as I did not find it as interesting as I would have thought. It was very slow to start out but I did notice that the farther I progressed the more interested I became. This book had a lot of potential but it fell a bit short for me.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you for this ARC! Speculative, cli-fi fiction is one of my favorite genres. This was an interesting take, largely set in NYC and the Hudson Valley. I live in NYC and frequent the AMNH, so it was very easy to visualize the "world as it is now". I found it very interesting that water, the thing that allows for life on earth as we know it, became what was destroying earth. I did think the characters were under developed and the plot meandered along, but I loved the world building that the author created.

I DNF'd this book at about 20%. The premise was interesting, but the structure of the novel undermined the tone that the description of the book suggested. All the Water in the World definitely leaned toward literary rather than thriller, and even though it had the dystopian setting, it lost some of the urgency typical of that subgenre. The time setting alternated too frequently, pulling the reader out of any immediate danger every time something interesting happened. The writing style also made it difficult to read and connect with. While having a neurodivergent character necessitates a distinct cadence, the absence of punctuation could have been used more sparingly. Rather than conveying racing thoughts or a particular speech pattern, it made it seem unedited and hard to follow. There's some good content about preservation and climate change, but it was lost under the incongruent tone and staggered sentence structure.

Caffall spins a fascinating dystopian tale of a young girl trying to survive in a Day-After-Tomorrow-esque world, filled with worsening climate change, floods, tornados, and a civilization that is hanging on by a straw.

"Mother found other mothers for us all along. Her own mother died young. In The World As It Is, she knew she would too."

While the dystopian aspect of the novel initially piqued my interest in this novel, I was surprised by the depth and richness of the character development and interrelationships. This book, while short, is very multifaceted and kept my attention throughout.

I am usually a big fan of short chapters and fast-paced plotlines, but the short chapters here bounced around, with some being in the present time and many being flashbacks. I found this a little disorientating, and during very tense points in the book, I found myself aggravated by having to trudge through an emotional flashback just to get back to the present-time storyline. The ending was also relatively satisfying, but I wish it touched on whatever came of the ever-worsening weather.

That being said, this was still an enjoyable book all around!

"Mother was always pouring this future into me, and I didn't see, until I did. She was my first sea, and she left me this water, waiting all along."

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

I love dystopian fiction with a dose of cli-fi and with the comps to Station Eleven, I was very intrigued by this one. It was an interesting scenario and I really appreciated what Caffall did, weaving in different people and situations ro make this one a well realized what-if along with some great writing. I absolutely loved the curator angle, in fact I liked it so much that I was very upset to leave the setup and wanted it to be explored a lot more.

My overall thoughts are a bit mixed on this one. The plot starts slow and I do struggle with books that take place on the road sometimes, I can’t always get a great sense of the setting (American Rapture and Sky Full of Elephants were recent reads I had the same problem with, and I’m just now realizing these books all have an apocalyptic theme too) but there is a lot of hardship, hope and loss to discover here.

This is an apocalyptic book that is a little different. The glaciers have melted and the world has been flooded. This story is told by Nonie, a child who lives in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City with her parents, her sister and a small group of other survivors. Their life is hard but they have learned to survive. When a "hypercane" destroys their settlement and kills most of the people, Nonie and her group find a canoe they had stored and leave to try to get to a place of safety. There is danger, excitement and tragedy along the way.

The book started a little slowly but once they started their journey it really took off. I really enjoyed it and tn8nk you will too.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall is a beautifully haunting story about memory, loss, and survival in a world that feels both familiar and distant. Seeing everything through the eyes of a young girl who barely remembers the past makes everyday life feel almost mythical, like stories passed down over time. It gave me the same eerie, dreamlike vibe as Station Eleven, where the ordinary becomes something sacred and strange. This book really stuck with me—poetic, thought-provoking, and hard to shake even after the last page.

I did not finish this book and stopped after about 100 pages. I thought the premise was unique and I could appreciate the atmospheric vibe the writing evoked. However, the pace felt awfully slow and left me wanting more thrill.

This book gave me a lot to think about—climate change, survival, the choices we make, and how people come together (or fall apart) in difficult times. The world-building was immersive, and I appreciated the depth the author put into it. But the pacing? So slow. I kept hoping it would pick up, but eventually, I found myself reaching for other books instead.

{thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this ebook!}

First of all, this cover is everything and immediately made me want to read this book. And it's a good book, a solid 3 stars in my opinion. It just wasn't great for me, mainly because I had a really hard time connecting with the characters. And considering the book's subject matter, I really, really, wanted to connect and feel for the characters.

The plot of the book is fascinating and terrifying. It takes place in future NYC where the entire city is flooded. Nonie and her sister Bix are living with their father and many others on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. It's obviously a scary time as food and medicine are short, disease is rampant, and everyone is just doing their best to survive. Nonie's mother passed away recently and the girls have seen countless friends die. When a "hypercane" hits and the city is no longer safe, Nonie, Bix, their father, and their family friend escape by canoe in search of their mother's childhood home in Western Massachusetts.

Getting there is going to be tough with a lot of obstacles and this is what the rest of the book focuses on. I love climate fiction and this book features circumstances that actually feel really real and terrifying. However, I felt like there wasn't enough character development and I couldn't get a good grasp on Nonie and Bix, which made it hard for me to feel much for them. I will say the book picked up as it moves on (the beginning felt super slow to me), but I wanted to feel more for the characters.

If you enjoy plot-driven climate fiction, I do think you'll enjoy this one. But if you're looking for a book with rich characters, it might not be for you. I'm very happy I read it and, like I said, it's a good book. I just wanted a little more from it.

After the climate crisis peaks, Nonie and her family seek shelter on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History with a small group of survivors. When a devastating storm strikes, they are forced to embark on a dangerous journey to a promised refuge, confronting both human and natural threats along the way. A beautifully written, literary exploration of the seemingly inevitable outcome of global warming. I loved the story and its characters, especially the found family dynamic. If you enjoy speculative fiction that hits uncomfortably close to home, this is a compelling read.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

Sometimes you're certain a book will be a five star when you read the synopsis and then it turns out to be too slow... darn.

After the world is flooded, Nonie, her family and other survivors flee what was once New York City to her mother’s home, a farm in upstate New York. Nonie, a little girl, tells the story in a dual timeline of the events leading up to the flood, what happened to their family after the flood, how they survived, up to her current trek across the water. This dystopian book is a prediction of what is to come if we do not get this world right. A story about survival, family, and what it means to survive in the face of extinction. I really enjoyed this book and have recommended to family already. The publication date was early January and have seen it everywhere! I really enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy a novel that is about the downfall of civilization. But did get me wondering how I would survive in such a world. I think this book is accurate in that military groups would take over a lot of the resources and would do more harm than good. The end reminded me of the season of Walking Dead when they are on Herscel's farm.

As someone who grew up watching Waterworld with Kevin Costner, I never realized how it must have felt to see the world slowly flood around you.

All the Water in the World is narrated by Nonie, and how she has to learn and cope with her life constantly being changed by water. Her narrating style was a little difficult to get into, however, once I understood her the story completely entranced me. From losing all her ‘Mothers’, handling puberty in a world where there is no more medicine, and fighting for years to find a home, Nonie remains true to herself and to her love of water.


Thank you for the opportunity of an eARC, and I am leaving this review willingly.