For a plot summary, I’d encourage you to go check it out on Simon & Schuster's website. I won’t focus on that, they do a nice job over there. Long story short: All white people across America drown themselves. The two main characters in this book (a father and daughter) couldn’t be dealing with it any more differently.

NO SECRET - my favorite genre is speculative fiction. And if you’ve been hanging around you’ll note that I read books by authors and about characters that aren’t just like me. I am attracted to books by BIPOC authors and explore their stories & books exploring LGBTQA accounts. Sure, I’ll read the Frieda so I don’t get FOMO, but the characters always seem to be the same. Stories that offer a wider-world perspective have opened my eyes, educated me and also entertained me along the way. This book has hit that sweet spot for me. I also took a lot away from this story.

Let’s get this out here too - Cebo Campbell is a fantastic writer. I’m talking about a high level of beauty here! He developed well-crafted characters, laid out an interesting plot and challenges and painted a fascinating utopian world. Campbell writes with love and laughter - this is a book that has the power to make you both smile, chuckle but also feel crushed and cry. He tells the story of a father and daughter who meet for the first time about a year after the event. They embark on a journey into the south where they have no idea what they’ll meet.

This book is an exceptional work of literary fiction that sucks the reader in and you’ll feel the world that Campbell has built. His descriptions are really elegant.

I’ll close with this. For any idiots calling this book racist or giving it low ratings due to its plot: you quickly show your ignorance and obviously haven’t read it.

Thank you to Cebo Campbell, Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book.

Campbell is a poet and that lyricism flows throughout the prose of this book. I wish I had a physical copy because I wanted to underline so many beautiful, powerful lines -- "the magic of the night became the consequences of the day", "when she woke, all the stars consolidated into the lone, hot Texas sun at her feet", "she buried herself in the refuge of her glass house." It's gorgeous.

I couldn't put this book down. The premise that all white people have died and Black and Brown folx finally have the liberty to explore, recover, and heal their own identities, history, and society is fascinating. And, honestly, the results that Campbell shows make me appreciate (and also want?) the fantasy of destroying white patriarchy. That deep, deep desire to be healed but not being able to go back in time to right the wrongs, so you can be a happier, healthy person and people...I get that. And am saddened that there's isn't some magical radiowave machine in existence to heal that but appreciate this book's "...what if?" exploration of what that could look like and I hope writing and reading this book brings a sense of healing.

There also is well-illustrated, heavy guilt in wanting a freedom that hinges on the deaths of so many. Sydney's struggles -- growing up white and being disconnected from her Black roots -- was well done, as is her growth through all that is thrown at her. I wanted to give her a hug by the end and I hope she's found peace.

I hope this book survives the racist, what-about-me, this-doesn't-make-sense haters. While the book relies on speculative scifi to tell the true story and message, the science isn't strong, it's only there as a magic realism to enable the real story happen.

An unusual and interesting premise. What would life be like if all white people drowned in water. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.

Sky Full of Elephants, Cebo Campbell’s debut novel, has been marketed almost entirely outside of genre spaces, but an audacious speculative premise and a family story at the core had me intrigued, and after a terrific experience with my last debut-marketed-outside-genre-spaces (Chain-Gang All-Stars), I decided to give it a try and see what it was all about. 

Sky Full of Elephants pulls no punches with an eye-catching opening that features the mass suicide of white people across America. The lead, an engineering whiz fresh off decades spent imprisoned on false charges, is trying to help those who remain to build a better and more sustainable society when he’s contacted by an estranged, biracial daughter who needs help navigating a dangerous journey to a part of the country that had gone totally silent. What follows is part road trip and part reckoning with past trauma, a tale about finding a way forward, both personally and in society. 

I promised an honest review of this book, and while I’m here doing my best, I really don’t think I’m the right person to review this book. I don’t necessarily object to a premise in which I would be among the dead—otherwise, I wouldn’t have requested the book in the first place—but this feels less like a story that uses the premise to make a point for a general audience (as, for example, Chain-Gang All-Stars talks about the prison system with an audience that very much includes those outside that system) and more like a mix of encouragement and discussion fodder for Black audiences. I can say what worked and didn’t work for me, but I’m saying that as someone outside the target audience. 

Though the story gestures a few times at the difficulties that come from suddenly losing a massive portion of your population, the world of Sky Full of Elephants has generally gotten better for the people in the story. One of the main characters is no longer imprisoned on a false accusation, and the other must slowly unravel all the ways in which her white family had raised her to hate that part of herself that came from her father. Meanwhile, on a broader societal level, the collapse of the existing systems has given those who remain an opportunity to build better ones, more sustainable and with less focus on profit. There’s certainly plenty of trauma to work through, but the trauma was largely caused by the old world, and the new one gives people a chance to recover. 

Campbell could’ve easily chosen more complicated storylines—characters whose past problems had been self-inflicted, or systems lost that had had genuine value—and for a good chunk of the novel, I was wishing he’d done just that. But as the story progressed, it became clear that the obvious improvement of the world was necessary to set up the book’s big question: is it right to pursue healing for your people in a way that will irrevocably harm those whose families have hurt you? It’s a heavy topic, and it only makes sense to ask in a world where such harm to one group genuinely does lead to another’s healing; that is to say, the world of Sky Full of Elephants had to a better one to really investigate the theme. 

And while I’m not sure I’m completely sold on the way the novel answers the question, I appreciate the careful meditation on a difficult question and the genuine searching for a healthy way forward. I still prefer my characters a bit on the messier side, but Sky Full of Elephants is written in an engaging style and digs into difficult themes, and that’s enough to come together for a good read. 

On a more negative note, as a Christian reader with a healthy appreciation for the way that the Black church in America has persisted through oppression and led some of the most pivotal movements in the nation’s history,  I was disappointed to see the way in which it was pushed to the side in Sky Full of Elephants. The conversation was driven primarily by characters steeped in the spirituality of Africa-via-Haiti, with Christianity reduced to little more than white evangelicalism. This isn’t a simplification that will bother every reader, but unlike the straightforward healing for the people and systems, it’s not a simplification that meaningfully strengthens the theme. 

But on the whole, Sky Full of Elephants is a pretty good book. The prose is engaging, and there’s enough interpersonal conflict and worldbuilding mystery to hold a reader’s attention. It does feel like a book that’s written as part of a long-running conversation in Black American culture, so other readers may get the feeling of looking in on a book written for someone else, but there’s still something to like for readers outside the target audience, and I imagine it’s a fascinating read for those inside it. 

Overall rating: 15 of Tar Vol’s 20. Four stars on Goodreads.

I read an excerpt of this book that captured my attention, and the book did not disappoint! The premise is fascinating--when the book opens, all white people in the US have died by suicide--drowning themselves. We meet Charlie, who was formerly incarcerated and is now a professor in this new world. When he receives a call from the biracial daughter he never met, he rushes to her aid, and they embark upon a journey to Alabama to search for her family.

All of the characters in this book are so beautifully drawn, and through their eyes we can see what it would be like to live in a literally postracial world. This book gave me so much to think about, in a totally different and unique way.

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

Cebo Campbell starts SKY FULL OF ELEPHANTS with a fascinating premise: "What if all the white people in America walked into the nearest body of water and drowned?"

That premise, that "what if", leads to deep real-world inquiries in the tradition of all the greatest science fiction. What racist and classist structures and ideas still stay in place even after their architects and main beneficiaries are gone? What can we replace them with? What traumas linger? What traumas heal? What parts of the country are still only open to certain people, in our real world and in his fictional world? Campbell explores all of these questions and more with tenderness and nuance.

He even applies this careful (in the sense of "full-of-care") examination to the complex questions his fictional premise leaves behind: Why did this happen? Was it a good thing, and for whom? Was it a bad thing, and for whom?

This narrative is full of curiosity and love in the form of restorative justice. It is a deep examination of the USA as both a state and a nation. Read this.

What would the USA be like if there were no “white” people? This novel daringly tackles that scenario and does it with inventive and philosophical flair. One day, called simply “The Event”, every white person in America walks to the nearest body of water and vanishes. The story then focuses on Charles Brunton, a black man, recently released from prison, on a wrongful conviction and working now as a teacher. He suddenly receives a call from Sidney, his 19 year old daughter, who he did not know existed. She is mixed race, so has survived. She was brought up by a white family and since, Charlie is her only surviving relative, she reaches out to him. She asks him to take her to Alabama, where she believes some white people still exist. Their journey begins, as they travel across this changed landscape, from Wisconsin to the gulf shores of Alabama. Lots to chew on here, about what it means to be black in America. I enjoyed the ride. Fans of Station Eleven and the TV series Last of Us, should have a good time with this one.

*Thanks to Netgalley for supplying me with an DRC. This novel will be published Sep 10th.

The premise of this book was intriguing. An event happens that causes those who are considered white to walk into the nearest body of water, drowning themselves.
This story starts a year later with the main character Charlie, a former prisoner, now an instructor at Howard University (teaching engineering), who gets a call to rescue his bi-racial daughter, Sidney, who is now living in Wisconsin, her home, alone. Her mother, stepfather, and siblings all died due to the event. Sidney, a young woman who knows nothing of her black history and lineage, wants to get to Orange Beach Alabama, where she thinks she can find surviving white family members. She has never met Charlie, and harbors nothing but disdain for him. They set out from Wisconsin to Alabama.
This book had its ups and downs. Some parts of this book were written well, and other times, the writing fell flat. I enjoyed the dialogue between the characters, but outside of the dialogue, the writing was monotonous and needed editing.
I wanted more exploration of the relationship between Charlie and Sidney, and some healing, for both characters, but ultimately this storyline left me unsatisfied and the ending of this storyline was disappointing.
I think there were many areas of racism, colorism, etc that the author could have explored through this story. I did like the exploration of the need to heal from hundreds of years of racism and slavery, even with the engineers of those institutions no longer walking the earth.
3.5 STARS

This novel was just okay. The synopsis was much more intriguing than the actual book. While the concept of all white people in the U.S. walking into the nearest body of water and dying, leaving only people of color behind, is provocative, the execution didn't quite deliver. The subject matter of racism and the working class is undeniably important, but the novel lacked the depth and substance I was hoping for. The story started to unravel about halfway through, and though the author is clearly talented, the book failed to fully capture my attention. The father-daughter relationship, in particular, fell flat for me. In the end, it's a mixed bag—while it raises thought-provoking questions, it ultimately didn't give me what I wanted.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced reader copy.

A speculative book about the idea that all the white people in the U.S. one day walk into the nearest body of water and die, leaving only people of color. While the book, at times, fell into the trap of many debut literary novels--getting too entranced in its own language and losing the thread of the story being told--the end result is still one that will leave me thinking about the questions it brings up.

This novel was just okay. The synopsis was much more interesting than the actual book. I think the subject matter of racism and the working class is a very important topic, but I felt the novel didn't give me what I wanted. I wanted more depth and substance. The story kind of collapsed about halfway through. The author is a good writer, but I don't think this book really captured my full attention. The father and daughter relationship fell flat for me as well. It's a mixed bag for me.

When I read the synopsis of this book I was hooked. I loved how the reader comes in not far after the tragedy has occurred. The reader gets to see how everyone is processing and dealing with it. I did feel like the ending was a bit abrupt and wish Campbell had spend more of the story on the end.

A dystopian present in which all the white people in the US walk into bodies of water and drown themselves causing chaos and a range of reactions from the people of color who are left.

🖤🤎 𝕊𝕜𝕪 𝔽𝕦𝕝𝕝 𝕠𝕗 𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕡𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤 🤎🖤

America has reached the age of being “post-racism.” All it took was what most people think of as The Event: the day white people all across America stopped what they were doing, walked into the nearest body of water, and downed.

A year later, Charlie, an African American ex-felon tuned college professor, receives a call he never expected, from a person he wasn’t sure existed: his daughter Sidney. Hidden in seclusion from the day her mother walked into the lake beside their house, she needs Charlie’s help. Convinced she has family still living, Charlie agrees to help her find them, in what Sidney believes to be a refugee for the white people in Alabama.

As the two journey across the country, and arrive in the Kingdom of Alabama, they encounter a world unlike anything they’ve ever known. As Sidney and Charlie’s journey comes closer to the end, they will realize the journey to know themselves has only begun.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥—𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥—𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥. 𝘐𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥. 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵.

Sky Full of Elephants is an extraordinarily powerful book that, among other things, asks readers to take a deeper look at trauma. Not just our own personal traumas, but the historical traumas that play a role in defining who we are and how we view the world. It shows us that real change doesn’t just come from changing a few laws. It comes from changing the way we view others in this world, as well as ourselves.

I’m honestly honestly don’t have the words to truly convey the impact this book has had on me. I could keep trying, and failing, but instead I simply urge you to read this book. Because isn’t that why we tell stories? To convey the feelings we don’t have the words for? Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pub date: September 10, 2024

Thank you NetGalley & Simon and Schuster for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sky Full of Elephants was a compelling read with a completely unique twist on a classic premise. Not only was this an "end-of-days" sort of tale, but it added a thought-provoking component in which all white people walk into the sea and drown.

The book is about Charlie, who meets his estranged, biracial daughter, Sidney, after the event. The two have a lot of time to make up, and it isn't a hallmark reunion. Sidney must grapple with the fact that this man has never been a part of her life in addition to mourning the losses of her white family members. Charlie has a desire to prove his worth and prove to Sidney that he's her family, too.

I enjoyed the story more at the beginning than the end, but I can't deny what an imaginative concept it was. It was uncomfortable in a way it should be (particularly as a white reader), and I can picture this being THE book club pick later this year. I'm glad I picked this up.

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
Genre: Literary Fiction & Science Fiction
Pages: 304 pages
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
TW: Death by Suicide in a cataclysmic way.
Series: stand-alone
ARC?: Yes, Thank you Simon & Schuster for this free review copy of Sky Full of Elephants. I appreciated being able to read this ARC on Netgalley. #SimonBooksBuddy

This book had me in a chokehold from the first chapter. The book literally starts off with all White people killing themselves by walking into the nearest large body of water (the Ocean) and drowning themselves. Like if that doesn't make your ears perk up and make you say, " What in the hell", I don't know what will.

Living in a world where white people no longer exsist nore do the things they have created nothing have changed yet everything has changed. Charles gets released from prison along with others due to the justice system changing (not to mention he was wrongfully convicted in the first place). He goes from being a prisoner to a profesor at Harvard University.

Charles gets a call that with set his journey into motion and have him seaking answers he isnt sure he will trully find.

This story focuses on finding power in something more ancestral then tactile. Healing from years of programing and finding the difference in what it looks like and means to be black then and now in this new world.

I think the death of all white people my be harsh and uncomfortable for some to read yet some may not bat a eye-lash due to the desensitized world we live in where people are killed or killing themselves daily for nothing. It is all perspective and I hope all readers are able to understand this point in his writing.

This is a must read thought provoking novel that does not drop the ball. It is meant for some readers to be uncomfortable and for others to dare to dream. I was constantly picking up my jaw while asking myself "What if?" Over and over.

The beautiful thing about the book is you can have 10 people read it and get 10 different perspectives from it. I think it was meant to be thought provoking while acknowledging the challenges we face on a day to day just due to color.

Bravo Cebo Campbell. 👏🏽 This book will be tough for me to forget.

Starting with a intriguing premise that all the white people walk into gthe closest body of water, the novel focuses on Charlie, who is now a professor at Howard University. He gets a call from a biracial daughter Sidney, who saw her family die, and wants to go to Alabama to find a whie aunt. In Alabama they meet the Queen and King of Alabama, a state that cut itself off from the rest of the country. The novel's focus on the growth of the two protagonists and their relationship. A fscinating debut!

I like the idea of a book that attempts to create a new reality, and in this aspect this book does not disappoint. In the story, something happened and one day, apparently out of the blue, all white people disappeared. The book tells the story of a daughter trying to reconnect with her father in order to seek for answers after the other half of her family disappears. It’s an interesting read, but I felt like I was dragging to go through some parts more towards the middle of the book.

Probably more like a 4.5 for me. In my opinion, this was an astounding work of speculative fiction (which would pair nicely with My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem). Knocking that half star for the ending though, which totally fell flat for me.

I read a lot of dystopian fiction that doesn't have much to say about humanity and is more focused on how we survive an apocalypse. This book takes a very different tactic, framing that ending around the subject of the legacy of racial trauma. It saddens me that so many white readers are turned off by that approach and felt like the book attacks them personally.

Quite frankly, as a white woman, I think we SHOULD feel ashamed of the history of our ancestors. We SHOULD be aware of how dismissing uncomfortable truths and feelings also dismisses the legacy of hurt that it has caused within the Black community. We SHOULD wonder what would happen if there was a reckoning or a rebalancing of the scales someday. What would that world look or feel like for the people left behind?

But the main reason I loved this book was the gorgeous writing. I must have highlighted a dozen quotes. For instance, this passage on what it means to be Black, "What a strange fruit we are to have never ripened. Hung, dangled, sweetened, eaten, but never just filled up with the miracle of ourselves." In this book, we explore what it would feel like to have that opportunity.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

An entry into contemporary speculative fiction that is sure to be discussed for years to come.

One morning, all of the caucasian people in the United States drown themselves. One by one, they walk into the nearest body of water. We pick up the story a year later when Charlie, a professor at Howard University is contacted by his estranged daughter. She is alone in the North now that her mother and step family dies along with other whites. He has no choice but to go to her and help her move towards the South where she believes there are others like her. Thus begins a character driven story of a post disaster exploration of "what if?"

I loved the premise, I loved how it made me uncomfortable and thoughtful. I felt a little lost or rushed towards the end but would still highly recommend this book.
#cebocampbell #skyfullofelephants
#simonandschuster