WOW!!! How is this book not being talked about more than it is? I loved this book so much. The characters will break your heart, but give you so much hope. I think this book should be on the top of everyone's reading list.

I gave this book 5 stars because I feel it was an important story for me, as an older white woman, to read. The message was uncomfortable to hear so I can't say I "enjoyed" the story. I can say that it revealed to me how the black population feels like they are still held down and held back and helped me understand better why they feel that way. It will certainly make me more alert to those times when I can be an instrument to change that in my day to day interaction with everyone. As a woman who retired as an executive of a company in a predominantly male environment, I experienced some similar feelings over the life of my career. Not to near the extent that our minority populations experience but enough that I was open to try to understand the message of this story.

Sky Full of Elephants presents a thought-provoking premise: what if all white people suddenly disappeared into the sea? Cebo Campbell's narrative follows Charlie and Sidney, a father and daughter navigating this transformed America, blending elements of science fiction with introspective themes of identity and survival. While the story's second half felt a bit disjointed, the book remains a compelling exploration of race, power dynamics, and rebuilding society after an unimaginable event.

Wow - this is quite a read. Thoughtful, provocative, compassionate, angry, uplifting. I will be thinking about it for a while.

This is sci-fi with a major racial element. We are in an American society which has changed drastically when one day, all the White people have walked into the nearest body of water and drowned themselves. Although, this was murky to me, I don't believe this was a worldwide phenomenon and there might have been a few who didn't drown - or were those mixed-race people?

But the important point is that this has tilted everything. Everyone is horrified at first by the unexpected severity of the event. But understandably and sadly, soon Black America relaxes a bit. For the first time ever, they are free, and free to not look over their shoulder, and mostly free from fear, free to envision their own future.

Into this mix come our two main characters. Charlie is a college teacher who was sprung from/escaped from jail after the drownings. He had been unjustly accused and imprisoned 20 some years ago for a rape he didn't commit. He has been summoned by a daughter he has never met, the product of a love affair with a White woman. His daughter has been lied to but needs him to get her to Alabama where she thinks she can find surviving family. Charlie responds - even though they have no relationship.

Along the way they meet amazing characters. This is a journey, some philosophy, lots of history, and a lot of points to ponder. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Hmmm...🤔

Honestly I'm not sure what I just read or how I felt about it. This book had an interesting premise. I'm all for a dystopian, end of days, survival read. But this was more than that.

This book started off strong with the big event...and Charlie was a great character. I just feel like I lost the plot midway. Oh and I wanted to shake Sidney the whole time! The ending fell flat for me. I guess I was expecting something different.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for my ARC.

This was a DNF for me.

I wanted so much to like it, but the writing style was very literary and distant (perfect for many readers!), when I wanted something more entertaining.

In addition, though I understood the importance of the book, I've read similar things in the past and my head can't get past the science (or lack thereof) to concentrate on the message.

Unfortunately, not for me.

This being an exploration of the meaning and power of blackness, I'm not sure I'm the right person to review it. Beautifully written, will recommend and buy for my library.

What a plot! Think of a world where all of the white folks have killed themselves by drowning (called the event), leaving brown, biracial and people of color running everything. What a premise to discuss at length! Especially for people who have long wondered what the world would be like if white men hasn't plundered, colonized and enslaved other races.
The plot actually unfolds a year after "the event", with some flashbacks sprinkled throughout. Charlie, a convicted rapist who was innocent, spent 20 years in prison. He was only released after the event when all of the guards left to find their body of water. Banks closed and the remaining people took the homes they wanted. Charlie by now is teaching at a university, the one thing he had always excelled in, systems and electricity. The daughter he had never met, phones him and wants transportation to a beach where she was told she has some relatives. So the trek begins.
What I was really expecting was to see how they built up the failing infrastructures everywhere, all of the physical things. Now while some physical items were being worked on (no spoilers here!), people were also developing their true selves. They were discovering who they were, something their slave ancestors never had the opportunity to do.
There was lots of cooking, eating and socializing, fulfilling their potential.
One of many examples of the author's skilfull writing: "Sorrow to rage to resolution, everyone felt something every moment of every day and would for the rest of their lives. All because they cared so much. Cared beyond what they knew how to express". p 128
I actually feel like this is Part I of Campbell's saga. He really needs to tell us how the surviving people continue to survive and flourish. We really need to see, according to Charlie, how they rectify..."too suddenly did America fall into the hands unprepared to hold its bounty...all of it a result of us having too little to say in the running of the before world". p 140
I'll be waiting for Part II.

The premise of this book is amazing. I think a lot of black and pic wonder how much better the world would be without white people ( mainly the racist ones. But this also delved into ten delicate arena of parent and child relationships and how that too can be just as treacherous to navigate as a post apocalyptic world.

I wanted to read this book due to its fascinating premise. Sky Full of Elephants imagines a world where white people no longer exist. One day all of the white people mysteriously walk into the ocean and die, leaving black people to transform the USA. The book is centered on Charlie, a wrongly convicted former inmate, who is contacted by his biracial daughter, Sidney, whom he has never met. Sidney asks Charlie for his help in locating a white family member who might possibly be alive in southern Alabama. And so their journey begins. Sky Full of Elephants is thought-provoking and very well written. This would be an excellent book club read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

This book was unlike anything I've read in a long while.

One day all the white people walk into the sea and die.

Charlie receives a phone call from the daughter he never met, Sidney, who asks him to come get her and take her to Alabama where she thinks she might still have one relative left.

The details about the world, the writing, the characters, the ideas in this book are going to stay with me for a long time. I know some people will hate the ending, but I loved it. In fact I loved all of this book. It's rare that a book surprises me but this one did.

with gratitude to Simon & Schuster and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

"Sky Full of Elephants" is a really fascinating dystopian story about if all the white people in the world died. The commentary on race and the status of mixed race individuals was really interesting. This book will make you think, and it's written very well.

An interesting thought-experiment of a novel, this book looks at what the world might be like if all the white people in it disappeared. Sure to ruffle some feathers, it is nevertheless a thoughtful look at a provocative situation.

There was a lot to appreciate about this book, the overall intention, the issues raised and the celebration of culture, family. At times it was moving, at other times it felt a little flat and didn't esp like the sci fi/futuristic world. 3.5 rounded up

Big thanks to the kind folk at NetGalley for the chance to read an ARC of this book. It is a powerful, painful read. The writing is compelling, beautiful, often poetic. It made me think.

Sky Full of Elephants is an amazing, beautifully written book that I loved. It takes place in a world after all of the white people mysteriously walked into the nearest body of water and drowned, leaving Black people to rebuild the US in the aftermath. Charlie is a professor at Howard University after spending over a decade in prison for a crime he did not commit. He's still trying to navigate this new world when he gets a phone call from his daughter, Sidney, whom he's never met. Sidney is alone in Wisconsin trying to figure out where she belongs after having witnessed her white mother, stepfather, and half-siblings walk into a lake. She asks Charlie to drive her to Alabama where she's heard there are people like her living. Charlie agrees to do so.

This world that Cebo Campbell has created is fascinating as everyone tries to pick up the pieces after an event that nobody fully understands. Everyone is attempting to figure out where they fit in this new world. The storytelling is amazing. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

This speculative fiction is about history, identity, healing generational trauma, family, music, food, giving, and much more. This book is a thoughtful and interesting "what if" all the white people were gone to explore what a world would look like when black and brown people are left to reimagine, reclaim, and rebuild a new America. Cebo Campbell is a powerhouse word smith, and I can't wait to read every text he creates. All the stars!!!

Thank you NetGalley, Simon and Schuster, and Cebo Campbell for this wonderful reading experience.

A failed attempt at Afrocentism that missed the mark. The world now runs on black people time, which is quarter after whenever and ends when it feels like it. Government fails because apparently there are nothing but black people left and they don't know how to run anything organized. There is no central power, no food processing, only a bunch of disorganized people running wild in the South.
I give it zero stars.

I see many white people reviewing this book and calling it uncomfortable. It’s SUPPOSED to be uncomfortable for us. It SHOULD be uncomfortable for us.

That reaction to whiteness and white people being wiped out should really make is think about why that bothers us so much; and really, truly weigh and consider that fact that it not even equivalent to what has been done - and CONTINUES to be done - to Black Americans and Native People in the US.

Ok, so lemme step off of my soapbox and talk about this book. It is so beautifully written & the characters are drawn for us in such powerful ways… i thoroughly enjoyed learning about who Charlie and Sidney are and how complicated their relationship to each other and their Blackness is. I wanted to stay with them, and mourned a bit that the book was over.
I also love the ending - i’m a fan of ambiguous endings in art - and think that the way that we interpret that final page says a lot about who we are.

I’m excited to dive into more of Cebo Campbell’s work. I hope this book gets wide recognition.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

I’ll start at the end. The conclusion of this novel is a dud. Like a flat soda, no sizzle left for the denouement. However, getting to that end is quite a thoughtful journey. Protagonist Charles is the center of this highly implausible tale. As I’m sure you are all aware, the premise, all the white folks walk into their nearest body of water in a massive self drowning, leaving America to Black folks and others. Wow! So, as you can imagine the language and thoughts and dialogue give readers much to ponder. And Cebo Campbell’s prose keeps the pages turning. One thing most people haven’t considered is the generational trauma that has impacted Black folks, not only in America but in the world. Clearly that has affected how Black people move in the world, while others remain detached from the pain and the shame.

“Feeling what deserves to be felt is the only pathway to understanding. Let’s get it straight: white folks did rape and steal and kill, and black folks died by the thousands—was dying all the way up ’til a year ago. Never feeling shame for that, and not allowing us to feel anger over it, means we don’t evolve. We just go on repeating evil we can’t understand. I’m sure your momma was a nice lady with a good heart, but her not feeling ashamed about all that happened is the same as not feeling anything at all.”

Charles who is able to extricate himself from prison after the event, becomes a professor at Howard University because he has valuable knowledge of electronics, so the new standard becomes, “if you know, teach” credentials be damned. Charles learns he has a daughter, and when she reaches out to him for help getting to Alabama, because she believes some of her people may be gathered there, the novel gains propulsion. So Charles makes his way to Wisconsin to scoop his daughter Sidney, and they embark on a journey to Alabama. And on the way, they find out who they are to each other and who they are to their self. In uncovering identity, a discovery of fitting in unfolds.

This book will leave you with a lot to ruminate upon. I’m certain some will find some discomfort, but push on and come through the tough questions that will arise. Cebo Campbell will make you better for having persevered. Thanks to Netgalley and Simon&Schuster for an advanced DRC. Book drops 9/10/24, get ready world!