I just listened to one of my most anticipated books for 2025, All the Water in the World, and I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed. This book is heartbreakingly pertinent. The story was reminiscent of Station Eleven (as the marketing suggests) or The Road. The premise: a handful of desperate characters, on a journey to find a haven, in a destroyed world. Through their journey, we catch snapshots of what ‘civilization’ might look like after disaster. While devastating, the story ultimately felt like a call for hope and togetherness, which one can feel distanced from in times like these. The characters were well drawn and I found it easy to connect with them emotionally. The audiobook narrator was excellent. I felt immediately at home with her narration style. Some readers have felt that the story was not fast paced enough; perhaps this is because the book has been marketed as a ‘literary thriller’. This book is certainly more literary than it is thriller, and the most heart-racing moments were really more horrifying than they were thrilling. Since I had expected the book to be more literary going in, I wasn’t thrown off by the pace. Overall, a solid 4 stars.

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.

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.

The audiobook version is a real treat, thanks in no small part to Eunice Wong’s narration. Her cadence and tone perfectly match the contemplative nature of the prose, making it incredibly easy to listen to and bringing the lyrical quality of the writing to life.

What a wild ride. This story had a bit of everything. I enjoyed the characters, faults, flaws and all and the setting was thought-provoking. I would like to see other titles by this author!

This story has a similar tone to Station Eleven and Parable of the Sower, which I loved. Our narrator, Nonie, is a very engaging storyteller with a unique perspective. As a child, she has a quality of innocence and practical acceptance. The story is set in the imagined near future, when the increased extreme weather and raising sea levels have created a dystopian reality. Nonie and her family took refuge in the American Museum of Natural History in NYC after the first floods. The book goes back and forth between 2 timelines; describing their life and community at the museum (callen AMONH) and the journey of a small group of survivors after the museum is destroyed by an immense hurricane. I really enjoyed how Eiren Caffall's writing paints a picture of a desolate, waterlogged world that is terrifyingly believable. However, she injects a sense of hope through the resilience and strength of love amongst a group of chosen family.

Eunice Wong does an excellent job narrating the audiobook. She gives each character a unique voice, and truly brings the world to life. I could see the world through Nonie's eyes, and felt her emotional journey throughout the events of the story. I strongly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for providing me an eALC copy in return for my honest thoughts.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me an ARC of this wonderful work.

Oh my goodness. This was an emotional, literary ride I was not expecting. Going in, I expected tense cli sci fi, and what I got was so much more. Told through the perspective of Nooni, who I felt was coded to be autistic, we are introduced to the world as it is. And the world as it is, well, it’s dangerous. Floods, disease, the Lost. We follow Nooni and her family, both biological and found, as they try to escape New York for a better, safer life.

This book was a slow burn, but a gut wrenching one at that. It felt very much like you were a traveler listening to Nooni’s tale by a campfire. I found the characters to be rich, developed, and unique. The story unfolded, flashing back and forth so we understood a little bit about how the world was as it is. Definitely recommend for my fans of LAST OF US, where character driven narrative is the name of the game.

This was probably my first climate science fiction book and I am not sure this genre is for me, but I am glad I gave it a try!

All The Water In The World follows a group of people living on top of the American Museum of Natural History after a mega tsunami flooded New York City with water. The main character, Nonnie, is a 7 year old girl, living with her family, who has a strong sense for water movement. She can even sense when the next storm is coming. This story follows Nonnie and her family as they escape from another flood and find a new place to settle.

What I liked about this book:
-The premise was definitely interesting and I was intrigued right from the start
-The author was very good at building that eerie and uneasy feeling that loomed over the story
-I am a water person as well - not to the same degree as Nonnie, but I always gravitate towards water in times of stress/discomfort. This book was fun to read because of that additional sci-fi element.

What I didn't like:
-It felt very boring and slow throughout most of the book. I felt like the synopsis basically gives away so much of the book that I just wasn't excited by the story itself. It just felt like it was missing something.
-It also felt a little too sci-fi for my liking. I don't think I realized how much of a magical element this had and it was just a bit much for me.

Overall this book was okay. It was intriguing and had an interesting premise but it ultimately fell short for me.

A great dystopian novel! The action scenes blended perfectly with deep insights into climate change, family, preservation, and survival. A book that makes you think about what you would do in such dystopian tragedies.

I keep seeing excellent reviews of this book, but I would definitely have to disagree. This book was fine, but also stunningly unremarkable. As someone who reads a good amount of climate fiction, I can say with confidence that none of the concepts or storylines here are anything fresh or original. Every piece of this has been done somewhere before, and it really made this story feel rather trite and lacking.

Not only did this not grab me from the start, it didn’t really ever. I had a hard time connecting to the characters and the flashbacks made the plot feel a bit disjointed. I felt like the characters’ depths weren’t really explored, which really made them all seem one-dimensional. I was never invested in their plight or their struggle, and didn’t find myself routing for their success or survival. The further in I got, the more disappointed I became that nothing about this story ever hit me emotionally, which I really hoped it would, and thought it should have considering the subject matter.

I think the main problem was that this book faithfully (and unfortunately) follows a very overdone formula for stories of its kind. I was never interested, or surprised, or invested in this, and it didn’t resonate with me the way other cli-fi books have in the past. Sure, it was written beautifully, and props to the author for that, but it didn’t make me feel anything... like, AT ALL.

With climate change and environmental crises occurring daily it seems, "All the Water in the World" is extremely topical, depicting potential future circumstances for our world. We are our own worst enemy, not only in terms of how we treat our planet but also in how we treat each other. At the core of this novel, is a story about humanity, community, and the perseverance of the human spirit.

Although the main antagonist is the weather and storms, the real issue is other people- oftentimes, isolation being the safer option. This novel depicts the water and people as the most dangerous factors to deal with and overcome. Water because it not only required for survival but is also a predator. The water can become poison, it can attract and fester disease, and it can destroy things in its path. Water is a force to be respected. When it comes to people, it's all about hoarding and protecting resources, prioritizing self-preservation over the wellness of others.

This novel is a slow-burn, highlighting the need to preserve our history and continue documenting and chronicling our world. And at the heart of the book, it's a story about keeping our humanity alive, creating and thriving within a community, creating relationships and safety within each other, and never letting go of hope. Hope is key to our survival.

This novel lagged in places and jumped around in others but overall is a robust and comprehensive tale of survival in a future state of Earth. The main character, Nonie, is the perfect lead for this story as she is relatable, curious, and strong-willed. She's a vessel for the story and is a highlight as well. I found her sister to be slightly irritating and some of the adult characters to be mildly grating but that's likely what we would face in this type of journey. We take what we get and we don't get upset. It doesn't matter if we like each other immediately, it's about banding together to stay alive and create a new way of life based on our current circumstances.

I really enjoyed the message and the themes presented throughout the narrative.

Thank you so much for sending me this ALC, but this book was just not for me… I DNFed about a 3rd of the way through and just could not get through it. The narrator was hard for me to focus on and I just could not see myself caring about where the story was going to go. It also seemingly drops you in the middle of the story, so I was very confused with the timeline of it all. Again, thank you for sending this to me to listen to, but it was just not for me.

Thank you MacMillan audio for the review copy of All the Water in the World. This is a tough one to review, a story I wanted to enjoy and themes I do, and did, appreciate and respect, particularly in terms of climate change and environmental themes as well as themes on survival, resilience, and community. The story overall though did not land for me, the story was dark, the chapters for me too abruptly short to really engage me in characters and themes and I often felt a push pull of action to then downshift into reflection and contemplation. The themes are important, the power of understanding our collective history as well as engaging in emerging new ideas about civilization and community are truly wonderful to reflect on; the book offers a sense of what if/what would I do, what would I focus on if I were in this situation, which is great for book clubs and chats. But for me the value of these themes got lost in the writing style, the heaviness of the writing, and for me also the narration, which is was impacted in part by the formatting of the story and short chapters but also simply was a little to static and bland for me, though I do believe that was a relevant decision to share how the main character Nonie likely would have sounded and how she thought (so I want to respect that artistic statement and production style).
a 4 star idea with a 2-3 star execution for me.

Finished up this new release yesterday and it was good….

But there were places for improvement? Overall, I love a good climate-based post-apocalyptic book (or a movie) and I liked the way this one went. The world has flooded and a group of former museum workers and family are stuck in the museum where they begin to rebuild life. Waters rise and they must make a tough decision to leave or stay.

I think my major places that this one didn’t work was 1. We didn’t get much info on how it happened. I wanted more. 2. They left the museum sooooo fast. 3. The plot overall just flies by after they leave the museum that it will give you whiplash. I think there were plenty of prices that could have been fleshed out more but it wasn’t bad considering all the plot that happens.

I never could get into this book. Sometimes disaster fiction works, and sometimes it doesn't. I feel like this is one of the times that it didn't work for me.

❤️ For my friends who want an action-packed, heart-filled post-apocalyptic literary thriller.

ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD by Eiren Caffall (Eunice Wong, Narrator)

🎧 Thanks, @stmartinspress and @Macmillan.audio, for the book and audiobook review copies via #NetGalley. (Available now) 8 hours, 12 minutes

After a global climate-based apocalypse floods New York City, a small group of researchers create a settlement in the American Museum of Natural History. They are equally concerned with their survival and the preservation of their collections, comparing themselves to curators in Iraq and Leningrad, who worked to protect their collections from war. With them are 13-year-old Nonie, her father, and her older sister. But when a superstorm breaches the flood walls, they are forced to flee north, facing threats from the elements and other survivors on their way.

This brilliantly written literary thriller was as heart-pounding as it was heart-wrenching. It highlighted the unbreakable bonds of a family—both those we’re born into and those we find along the way.

The audiobook performance is exceptional. Eunice Wong perfectly captures the nuance of each character and adds a haunting quality to Nonie’s old soul in a young body.

When a story is so compelling, I keep reading until it's finished; I must give it five stars. This dystopian novel hooked me from the beginning and did not let go. I loved the initial museum setting and all the continued references to the Museum of Natural History - I'm a sucker for any museum-themed tale. Caffall's characters were terrific, and I grew very attached to them as I read. I'll be looking for future books by this author - kudos for a brilliant debut novel.
Readers familiar with NYC and the Hudson River Valley will especially enjoy the inclusion of famous and not-so-famous landmarks along the protagonists' journey.
This is dystopian fiction, so bad things happen for those worried about trigger warnings. All the bad things you can imagine in a dystopian world are alluded to or occur, so the reader beware.

I listened to an audio version of the book. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free version in exchange for a review.

This climate dystopian novel tells of a world where the world has been flooded due to glacial melting and where people have been reduced back to the hunting and gathering tasks of the preindustrial world. Nonie, her family and friends have been living in the Museum of Natural History and once that is no longer a viable shelter, they begin working their way north to the farm her family owns. Having lost loved ones before the novel starts, the rest are now in jeopardy as well since the world is a more unstable and violent place than it was before especially as resources grow more and more scarce.

I was intrigued by this one because of the location - living in the Museum of Natural History. This location which is a place of education, childhood, galas and a place my kids always dreamed of having a sleepover in is now the only refuge for the desperate ones who remained in NYC. They then work their way to the Berkshires which is also near and dear to me and I know it very well - so for me there was enjoyment in the familiar places now so changed. You have to enjoy climate fiction to enjoy this one, but it reminded me of the Light Pirate and it was written so well that it kept me engrossed the whole time. I had the audiobook and the audio absolutely delivered - the narrator was amazing and I didn’t get confused even though I didn’t have the book to refer back to.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ARC to review

After the glaciers have melted, Nonie, her family, and a group of researchers stayed behind living in a settlement on top of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Survival is the name of the game for them. They learn to be self-reliant but when a superstorm hits, Nonie and her family flee, taking with them a book that holds their records. Along the way they encounter civilizations that have been created, they suffer, experience loss, experience community, and do their best to survive.

This book was very slow going and I struggled with that while reading. This book was also dark and dreary as one would expect the world to be after the effects of climate change changes the world. Nonie is an interesting character and has a connection to the water. It is all she has ever known. She can't recall a time when there wasn't water everywhere.

This book provided a lot of food for thought concerning climate change, survival, choices, moving on, and formed communities. I so wanted to love this book, but it was so slow moving that I put this book down and turned to other books. One positive is I listened to the audiobook, and I thought the narrator did a fantastic job. I also thought the author did a good job creating the dystopian world.

Much too slow for my tastes but others are enjoying this book, so please read their reviews as well.

2.75 for me rounded up to 3 stars.

The story is told using short chapters, many of which consist of flashbacks or memories that were interspersed throughout the primary plot. They were balanced well with the primary plot and it was an excellent way to provide relevant background information without slowing down the plot. While there are some darker events in the book, I appreciated how the author included them, avoiding being overly detailed but still writing them in an impactful way.

The characters and setting were strong. The idea of a world that's becoming more submerged and vulnerable to water-related disasters was explored well, and the setting was creatively utilized to bring this world to life. I loved how immersive it was, and how easily I could visualize the setting. The characters were excellently drawn, with lots of depth, realistic motivations, and very easy to emotionally connect to.

If you enjoy literary fiction with a dystopian setting and strong characters, then this is a must read. I listened to the audiobook version and the narrator was the perfect choice for bringing this story to life. Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[3.75/5]
All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall follows a young girl Nonie who along with her family live on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History surrounded by a world of water. Initially, this novel is extremely well-written and incredibly lyrical. However, there were some points of the novel where the author used comparisons that drew me out of the story. Moreover, there were some points where I really just wanted the author to get to the point.
If you are a reader that prefers a plot centred book, then this is not the novel for you. There was some plot in this novel, but I was left with the overall feeling of wanting more. This novels attempts to tackle many societal issues and it felt at times that the plot was simply to serve this purpose. That is, it somewhat felt like a checklist where the author wanted to talk about a specific issue so had a plot point that would allow for a discussion of this issue. This would then be repeated for the next plot point and so on. Overall, I was left feeling like the need to discuss a social issue was driving the plot forward rather than the discussions on social issues arriving organically as a result of the plot.
Overall, if you are looking for a lyrically written climate fiction novel I would recommend this novel; the plot may not be memorable, but Eiren Caffall does have beautiful writing.
*** Thank you to Netgalley, Eiren Chafall, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. All thoughts are my own. ***