4.5 rounded up! This was such a good read, it reminded me of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven but a more narrow picture of a post-apocalyptic world where sea levels have risen and climate change has made it so the world is a lot more dangerous, which has led to a lot of the systems upon which we rely to go down. I loved the main character and the cast of characters she knows and meets along her journey. Ultimately hopeful, I loved it!

Mother Nature has just about had it with the human parasites on her planet and she is doing everything she can to finish them off. A planet thats deadly hot in the winter, has violent hurricanes that combine with tornados to blow down and drown everything in their path. Most of the world already dozens of feet underwater. Starvation, Mosquito virus and sickness has finished off just about everyone.
A few survivors have barricaded themselves in the NY museum of Natural History. They were curators before and spend their days documenting everything they can about the world before. They form a neat little community- until it all comes crumbling down.
Our protagonist is Nonie. She and her older sister Bix flee, along with their father and family friend Keller across miles of river and countryside to the promised land- a farm owned by her mother’s family in upstate NY. On the road they face assorted dangers weather and otherwise.

I loved this book. Its dystopian but also at its essence when all material and societal constructs are stripped away all thats left is how you care for one another. And really isn’t that all that matters anyway?
Reccomend

This is a beautifully written book that paints a picture of a post-apocalyptic world and hints at climate change and the disastrous impact it has on our world. It's poetic, but it’s more atmospheric rather than plot driven for much of the book. Unfortunately, it’s a little slow for my liking.

All The Water in the World by Eiren Caffal is a novel that I found to be decent, though it wasn't quite what I expected going in. I came into the book thinking I was about to read a post-apocalyptic story about a group of survivors trying to preserve history at the American Museum of Natural History. This premise intrigued me and had me excited for what I thought would be a unique and layered narrative. However, what I got instead was a story about survivors searching for a home, which, while still engaging, took a different direction than I anticipated.

At the heart of the story is Nora, the main character, whose internal monologue is the driving force behind the narrative. Through her thoughts and reflections, we learn about the state of the world, the struggles of her group, and the backstory of their original settlement. The way Nora conveys the state of the world is both introspective and informative, allowing the reader to uncover the history and current challenges of their journey. Her monologue is insightful, adding emotional depth to the narrative, and as a result, the reader becomes invested in both her journey and the fate of her group.

While the story itself wasn’t bad, I had a hard time shaking the feeling that it wasn’t what I was hoping for. The tone and direction of the plot were more about the trials and tribulations of searching for a new place to call home than preserving the history and culture I had envisioned. That being said, I found the characters to be compelling enough that I wanted to know how their story would unfold. The sense of mystery surrounding their journey, as well as the bonds between the characters, kept me engaged.

One of the book’s strengths is how it portrays the emotional and psychological toll that this post-apocalyptic world takes on its characters. The group's struggle is not just about survival in a physical sense, but also about the personal growth and change they go through as they move forward. The world-building is subtle but effective, and the way Caffal shows the long-lasting impacts of such an environment makes the novel feel real and grounded.

However, for those who might go into this novel expecting a more action-driven or historically-preserving narrative, the focus on a more introspective and survival-based journey could be a bit of a shift. I wasn’t necessarily disappointed with the direction the book took, but I did feel that the story didn’t fully match what I thought it would be about. Despite this, the journey of Nora and her group was still interesting enough to keep me turning the pages.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of All the Water in the World, by Eiren Caffall, from St. Martin's Press/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

The description of this book sucked me in because it referenced From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which I read probably an innumerable number of times when growing up—and a few since then. (And I have given the book to young relatives and read it aloud to some of same. Hardcore fangirl, here.) To me, the latter is the embodiment of a truly good children’s story, the opposite of what C.S. Lewis is famed for saying: “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”

All the Water in the World seemed more like a story to be found in the juvenile fiction section; I actually went back to see how it was classified on NetGalley—General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction | Sci Fi & Fantasy.

Nope. Not for adults, to my mind. Which makes it, to me, not a truly good work of juvenile fiction, either.

I feel this way because I was so bored with the pace of the first third of the book that I almost didn’t keep reading it the next day. I was glad I did, because things got more interesting along the way. But, in the end, I went back to kinda bored because everything was so, so predictable.

I’m sure some people will be experiencing this genre for the first time when they read this book, and will have a completely different reaction to it. So be it.

A Link
To one of my most-favorite books of all time: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

A Bit Of A Tangent
I was struck by this particular passage in the book: ”There is the weather and there is death. You can’t control them, and you can’t fool yourself that your name is the only one they know. They have everyone’s names in the mouths.”

This is, has been, and will be forever true. It might _seem_ to resonate more these days because of the fires in Los Angeles and snow in New Orleans and some weirdly giant storm currently bearing down on Scotland and Northland Ireland, but like the Randy Travis song says, “As long as old men sit and talk about the weather……” Which, is, indeed, forever and ever, amen.

Anywhoodles, I was telling my husband at breakfast this morning that reading that reminded me of my days with the United Press International wire service and my primary editor drumming it into my head that sending out the weather brief was the single-most important part of my job. I can still hear him: “I don’t care if you don’t get anything else done all day—MOVE THE FUCKING WEATHER. It is the only thing people really care about. MOVE THE WEATHER.”

So move the weather I did, religiously.

Amen.

DESCRIPTION
In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.

"Gripping...tense, delightful and rich with resonance." —Scientific American

"Captivating...The setting, the detailed emotive descriptions, and nail-biting adventure are incandescent." —Library Journal (starred)

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.

Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most – love and work, community and knowledge – will survive.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Eiren Caffall, and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This book was unfortunately not for me. Although this book was right at 300 pages, it took me forever to get through because it felt double that length. I was initially intrigued by the comparison to Station Eleven, as that is one of my favorite near-future sci-fi/dystopia books I've read in recent years. I can kind of see where they got that comparison, but I don't think that All the Water in the World was nearly as fleshed out. My biggest complaint with this story is that there seemed to be a lot of details in the world-building glossed over to where readers never got a full picture. There were also a lot of repeated stories/scenarios/character memories throughout to where it felt like cyclical reading. I wanted to see the story progressing, but instead, it felt like as a reader we were stuck going round and round in one scene until suddenly it jumped to a new one and the cycle repeated. Then suddenly, the last 20-ish percent of the story quickly escalated in pace and sequence of events compared to the rest of the book. I think the idea was there, but the overall execution of both stories and characters was not as developed as my reading preferences would hope.

It is the 23rd of January and this may be my favorite book of the entire year already. There are many dystopian novels out there and a ton of the newer ones concern climate change. But I can't believe there are any where the prose is so magical and perfect, and the characters so clearly framed. A family has been living in the Museum of Natural History in New York since the ocean began flooding the City, but increasing storms force them to leave their sanctuary to try to find a family farm to the north. The book chronicles their journey while also giving glimpses of their past and how their community came to be only four survivors. Highly recommended.

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with this ARC! In All The Water in the World, the readers follow along as Nonie and her family navigate a post climate change world where NYC is flooded with water. Caffall’s writing style shines through in the vivid atmosphere and the initial hook of climate fiction intrigued me. However I was not able to form a connection with any of the characters that seemed to fly past while reading. There did not to seem to be high stakes when the characters would face obstacles and a lot of the wandering dialogue did not keep my attention. There was a lot going on, but also nothing.

In All the Water in the World, we follow Nonie and her family as they navigate a dystopian, flooded NYC. The author’s writing style is exceptional — her talent shines through in the vivid atmosphere of doom and despair that permeates the novel.

However, while the setting and tone are strong, the story itself feels unremarkable compared to other dystopian novels. The biggest challenge for me was the lack of connection to the characters. Nonie’s distant personality, while intentional, made it difficult to emotionally engage with her or the people around her. Even in moments that should have been deeply moving, I found myself struggling to feel invested.

The pacing also posed some challenges. While I typically enjoy alternating timelines, in this case, it often felt like the narrative meandered rather than driving the plot forward. This made the book feel slow at times and less compelling overall.

As a whole, the book didn’t leave a lasting impression for me.

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall is a stand-alone speculative fiction about one family’s fight for survival in the midst of global catastrophe. Climate change has melted the polar ice caps, water has moved in, and the weather has turned upside down. Nonie and her family are one of the lucky few to have survived the initial storms and floods in New York City. Living in the abandoned American Museum of Natural History, Nonie and her family as well as a handful of other survivors eek out an existence on the rooftop. Together they catalog what has survived in the museum and record what history they can. Nonie is one of a few children who the adults have taken on educating in not just history but daily survival. When a monster storm blows in breaking the flood walls and taking the roof with it, Nonie and a handful of survivors must leave their home and find a new one in the world that’s left.

This was an interesting read, one that will stick with me for a while. The story was told entirely from Nonie’s perspective and excerpts from her Water Log book. Nonie is thirteen at the start of the story and barely remembers the world before the museum. Her life has been boiled down to learning and surviving. While the author doesn’t come right out and say it, Nonie is most likely autistic, definitely neurodivergent. She sees the world around her in a different way and mentions multiple times how her sister and father do not understand her lack of emotions/ability to show emotions. Because of this trait, her narration is interesting. While the reader will pick up on the tension of the other characters and danger they are in, Nonie doesn’t always which really makes you feel for her when the danger presents itself.

Following the destruction of AMNH (they call it Amen in the book for short), Nonie, her father, sister, and one other adult are the only survivors. Together, they take a canoe and sail out of the city. The goal is to find a farm that belongs to Nonie’s mother’s family. The trek there is the story as Nonie has never left AMNH that she can remember since coming to it as a child. The trauma they face, as well as the world as it is now, isn’t what she expected. I loved the characters they met along the way. Not all are good, but some are. It’s interesting to see how the world has adapted to survive.

Overall, I really enjoyed All the Water in the World. It gives you a lot to think about. Nonie is a fantastic choice for narration as well as an interesting one. It took a bit to adjust to how she tells the story because it isn’t how most would. She focuses on details that don’t seem important at the time. If you are a fan of dystopia or speculative fiction, I highly recommend it.

Cli-fi is a newer niche genre that I absolutely love, but this one didn’t quite draw me in and keep my attention as some others have. The premise made me desire a quick start, but instead it immediately felt slow and drawn out. The author shows a lot of talent with descriptive writing, and I’m hopeful a future book will be a winner for me.

I was very excited for this and maybe I was a bit too excited, it was fine but somehow not up to my expectations. I like and read a lot of dystopian/climate crisis stories and usually enjoy them but this one was a little flat. I never really connected to the story.

If you are going to comp a book to Station Eleven (which I liked but didn’t love), it needs to be stellar. This one is not. Simply having a shared reality of a post apocalyptic setting isn’t enough. I am bailing out of this book at the 12% mark because I am finding it a slog and I just don’t want to pick it up. The writing is very YA and so far it’s so repetitive I feel a little beaten over the head. I also struggle with a book that states New Zealand is underwater but somehow Manhattan is only partially submerged. There’s a serious altitude problem there. I’m bummed because I enjoy clifi and this doesn’t work for me at all.

First, thank to NetGalley and St. Martin's publishing Group for sending me an preview copy in exchange for my opinion. I fell in love with the characters in this book, particularly the young narrator, Nonie. She's had the misfortune to be born into a world destroyed by climate change and humanity's inability to take steps to avoid it. She and her family, blood related and found family, manage to survive and even find joy in what remains for them of the world, and in particular in their sanctuary, The American Museum of Natural History, nicknamed "AMEN" by the group. Of course, you can expect for things to get complicated and they do, but I'll leave you to read about it in this wonderfully written book. I believe this is her first book of fiction. I certainly hope it will not be her last! I'd even welcome a sequel to this one that continues their tale.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC (book is out now). I struggled with this book, I couldn't get in to it. I almost felt like I missed earlier chapters and was just tossed in the deep end. I only made it through 25% of the book before I chose to move on. A friend summarized it well, a lot is going on but somehow nothing seems to be happening at the same time. The premise was fascinating, I would have preferred more opening chapters about living in/on the museum rather than disjointed flashbacks.

Beautifully written, beautifully told, and beautifully narrated. This novel follows Nonie and her older sister Bix through the world that comes after disastrous climate change. They live with their parents in a small community at the Museum of Natural History in a nearly submerged New York until a final storm makes it impossible to stay. They begin a journey north to the Berkshires and a mythic farm that belonged to their mother’s family. It was interesting to hear so many place names from the place I grew up, to imagine the new landscapes, to wonder if I would recognize familiar places changed by disaster. I really enjoyed the audiobook and thought the narrator captured Nonie’s feelings of being an outsider in her own life well. This is a meditative novel that dwells on memories of the World That Was and contemplates how to carry what has been salvaged into the future.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm torn on this book. There are parts I found so interesting and beautiful (the ending and describing Amen for example), however the writing lagged in parts and rushed through others. I found this made the book hard to keep up with. I found myself questioning if a certain aspect of the plot had been addressed and I might have missed it or it was never talked about.

I appreciated the unique (to me at least) view of a dystopian world. There were elements that I expected like people grouping together and learning how to live off the land. But aspects such as race and health were brought in in a way that made me pause and reflect.

Overall, a decent book with excellent moments, but for the confusion and pacing I would hesitate to recommend this book.

This is a magnificent novel reminiscent of Station Eleven. The characters are multidimensional and full of hope and resilience. The found family features predominantly and lends a diversity to the story that may otherwise not have been. The plot is propulsive and thrilling but maintains itself grounded by the memory “cutaways” which bring another layer to this fantastic story.

The beginning of All the Water in the World really pulled me in. The book starts with a huge event, and the narrator, Nonie, slowly lets the reader into the world where Manhattan and all other coastal cities and islands are underwater. Her family and a group of some others have been living on the roof of a museum in New York City, when a super hurricane comes and forces the remaining few who survived to evacuate in a small canoe with whatever possessions they managed to grab in the storm. Unfortunately, after a really strong start, the novel fizzled out for me. Despite the precarious nature of their lives, I couldn't connect to any of the characters and I struggled to care about their predicament. There was some world-building, but not enough to help me really GET IT, if that makes sense. I understood that climate change caused this disaster, but it was sort of glossed over in a way that made me feel like the reader should just understand that of course all the islands simply disappeared.

This book had a lot of promise, and I think a lot of folks will love it, but it was only okay for me.

I am a huge sucker for anything that appears to be even a little bit dystopian or post-apocalyptic, so as soon as I saw ‘All the Water in the World’ I knew I had to read it. The description for this mentions Station Eleven, which is easily one of my favorite books ever, so my expectations were very high. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit quite as well for me as that one did.

Starting off, I was instantly hooked. Nonie was an endearing character, and I was incredibly intrigued to know more about her, her family, and how they got to where they are now. The idea of living in a world such as the one they do is terrifying and made my heart beat just a little faster. Almost immediately upon our introduction to the small cast of characters, their lives are upended in a devastating superstorm that leads to even more loss and destruction.
 
While I wish the rest of the book had me hooked as the beginning did, around the 40/50% mark I found myself getting ever so slightly bored, and by the 60% mark I was setting it aside for the night after just a chapter or two. I still cared about the characters, and I was still rooting for them to find the safety they were seeking; however, I just really wanted them to get there so I could find my next read. Let me be so clear when I say I did not hate this book! I thought it was mostly beautifully written, I cared about Nonie and her family (found and otherwise), and there were parts that I was genuinely very invested in. There were just chunks of this one that didn’t quite do it for me.

Overall, I will say I believe you should give this one a chance if it sounds appealing to you. It gives you a lot to think about, and, if you like quieter post-apocalyptic/dystopian works, this might be just what you want.