Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review 'Sky Full of Elephants' by Cebo Campbell.

After all of the white people in America calmly walk to their own deaths in lakes, oceans, and rivers the BIPOC population, but specifically in this novel the Black population, is left behind to deal with the aftermath and establish their new role and come to terms with the new reality.

The main focus of the novel is on Charlie - a Black man - and his estranged bi-racial daughter Sidney and the 'royal family' and new civilization that's been established in the new Kingdom of Alabama.

This is a novel of identity and as a Black person in America finding out who you are, where you've come, and where you might be going. What is 'Blackness,' what makes a person 'Black.' There was an element to this that reminded me strongly of the blood quantum element of Native American/Indigenous identity. It's also about white people accepting their historical role in the persecution of BIPOC people and acknowledging responsibility.

I thought the novel started like a steam train and the setup was powerful. For me as we entered into the more magical realist element of the narrative - what caused the mass suicide of white people and what's driving the Kingdom of Alabama - it lost some momentum and interest for me but was still extremely imaginative. I felt that - with a couple of exceptions - the communities that emerged after the disappearance of white people were unimaginably utopian. It was unclear as to how these communities operated on a day-to-day level but they were at the other end of the spectrum from the conventional Orange Beach community that Sidney was trying to get to.

It's a tough scenario to face, only after the utter annihilation of hundred of millions of white people can people of color truly be released to be who they can be, I can imagine that it will raise some hackles when publicly available.

All that said, hugely imaginative, thought-provoking, and uncomfortable novel.. Congratulations.

Very interesting and well written book. I would like to read again with a group for discussion.
Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC

Creative, imaginative and bold. This book effortlessly delves into the topic and all the complex feelings, thoughts and actions that might arise from a new world without white people. I was engrossed the whole time and can’t wait for more people to read this one!

I thought this was a good book overall with a very interesting premise. I was surprised at how things were. I would’ve liked more about why everything collapsed the way it did. Such as no power in places nowhere to repair things. There are no minorities that know how to do these things? On one hand it’s not surprising but on the other hand, I’m thinking, no one knows? in the whole country? I was also confused about the people who remained in Orange Beach who were not white. They seem to believe so why didn’t they walk too? The people who were passing, not walking because it’s in their DNA, but the other minorities? It could be in their DNA too, but it was still just confusing. I also feel like the author spent too much time in peoples heads. The feelings they were experiencing were long-winded and just made for a more confusing read. Finally, I felt like the ending was not very satisfactory. I wanted to know what happened with one of the main characters. Perhaps a sequel?. I gave this four stars because overall I felt it was a good book and a good premise. I would love another book to either, explore the world more in depth after the event or one to explain what happens after this book. I think it would take a special kind of person to enjoy this book, not literary, but an open mind to other things, of which I am. This is why I think I enjoyed the book overall. I could see this book becoming very frustrating for a variety of readers because of the scientific talk and the need, the absolute need to just let things be and be open to what this book is discussing in metaphysical terms. I’m not sure if metaphysical is the word, but I found myself as a lay person, getting a bit lost when they were trying to explain, scientifically or maybe “spiritually” how this all happened. However, I am a person who is open to things I don’t understand and don’t just shut them off. I think this was a pretty good read overall and enjoyable book.

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
Shakespeare’s problem plays were some of my favorites, “problem” because they defied categories, containing elements of tragedy, comedy (romance), history, all together telling rich tales. SKY FULL OF ELEPHANTS is a bit like that, sci-fi, magical realism, history, painful realities mellowed with romance and lyrical descriptions. There is much that’s gentle and loving, vibrant and alive, but there’s also real pain.
If ebony and ivory cannot live together in harmony, healing might seem to require one to disappear and allow the beautiful ombre of others to shine. The ending offers hope but no certainty. If white is only an idea, a self-definition, then the mindset can be changed, and ivory can join the beautiful tapestry. The repeated refrain that Charlie FIXES things may be a trumpet calling for us all to heal.
This book is not easy, but it’s beautiful and thought-provoking, a way to face the weight of history and look toward better ways, an education. I looked up some things: Ishango Bone, murals in Mobil, Alabama, and there’s much more to explore.

This spectacular idea was a bit bumpy in its execution, but it did give me a lot to think about.

I know we, as white people, aren’t always willing to embrace the part we may have played in Black trauma. I wonder if that’s why this was quickly bombed with one star ratings on Goodreads. When I first glanced at the book’s profile, its average rating was under three stars. I was enraged by this so I requested it on NetGalley. Perhaps I was a bit too confident in the love I expected to feel for it. I am glad, however, that others have now read and loved it so it can be fairly rated. We all know those early one star ratings did not come from people who had actually engaged with the content.

It hurts my heart to confess that I am not able to rate this as well as I’d hoped to, but it wasn’t the premise that didn’t work for me. I think it’s a brilliant one, as well as an important concept to explore. And I don’t think the author was completely careless with the idea.

Sky Full of Elephants was uncomfortable, and that discomfort communicated a powerful message, but its potency was diluted by the issues I found within the text.

My first complaint is that the author explained too much. Since he invested so much time into making his point, the elements that needed a more profound development were shortchanged. The author wanted to mold a narrative around the harm that white people have done, and that’s fair, but his overt communication muffled the actual story. As a result, no conflict ever truly felt strained, including Sidney’s relationship with her father.

I wish Charlie’s storyline had been a bit different. I do understand that what he endured has happened to Black men, and that there was a time when a Black man wouldn’t have even made it to a courthouse under such circumstances, never mind prison. I know the author’s choices further exemplified the cruelty we are capable of. He demonstrated Charlie’s goodness beyond what had been done to him while explaining that he wasn’t (as Sidney presumed) a deadbeat dad at all. It was just difficult for me to embrace the device used because, as a woman, I know that my gender is also marginalized, that our voices have been silenced, and that most claims regarding sexual assault are actually true. I realize Sideny’s mother did not fling the initial accusation, but this angle in the narrative felt problematic to me. I did, however, like Charlie’s character.

Sky Full of Elephants did make me think a lot about our failure to encourage cultural identity, as well as our blatant attempts to erase it. I felt saddened as I considered my own children, who are mixed race like Sidney. Although it was never deliberate, I do fear I did not expose them to enough Black history or culture while they were growing up. I’d like to say that I was overwhelmed and dealing with my own trauma as I raised them, but who’s to say I would have done any better without those impediments? Would I have even recognized the need? The novel certainly made me want to do better, even though my children are adults now. I grieve the pieces of their identity I never nurtured.

I am immensely grateful to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

I am a straight white middle-class educated cisgender male. I check off every category of privilege possible in the USA of 2024. This book was not written for me, and it made me uncomfortable. I think that's why it was important for me to read it.

Sky Full of Elephants begins with all the white people in America walking into the sea and drowning. The book centers around Charlie, a former inmate liberated after the event, who is a master of electricity overseeing the transformation of a new United States. He receives a message from his estranged daughter who was living in Wisconsin with her white family, telling him to take her to the South where some white folks might still be alive. The rest of the story follows Charlie and Sidney as they take electric cars (because nobody drills for gas anymore) into the South and expose the beauty and the complicated realities of a post-White world.

The tough part for White readers, of course, is that this is a utopia predicated on genocide. At some points in the book Campbell seems to savor that fact, but at his best, the characters in the novel wrestle with that reality in different ways. In this new world, Black folks can laugh and dance and sing without fear of violence or reprisal. Campbell even seems to suggest that capitalism and oppression are natural features of White culture, and both have been gleefully abandoned once the White folks are gone. That's the Utopian piece, and I can see where Campbell is coming from in his imagination, but it's still an oversimplification that can lead to the very danger and violence that Campbell seems to be against. I give Campbell credit for at points questioning this violence, and for his imagination - this world is a world that I would want to live in, without question. The bigger concern is whether I would be allowed to -or whether the utopia requires the death of people like me.

5.0 I rarely give a novel five stars but this book was an exceptional read for me. The story is about a day when all the white people in the world walk into nearby bodies of water and drown. Suddenly, unexpectedly, white culture, customs, and practices are a thing of the past. Only people of color are left on earth. They are unmoored, ungrounded at first, and confused. I don't want to provide any spoilers, here,, so I'll not reveal the rest of the book. The story revolves around a black man and his biracial daughter, now a young woman, who have never met. The daughter, Sydney, was raised by her white mother and white step family while her father languished in prison for a rape he didn't commit. In desperation, the daughter reaches out to her father to help her to find any vestiges of her white family that may still exist. This story is profound for me because of my own life experiences. Thirty some years ago I blithely adopted two latiño children from Peru. I brought them home to my white home, in my white suburb,, white culture and white friends and family. I did not give sufficient thought to the impact on these little ones of being ripped from their homes, from people who looked like them, from their language, their culture and practices. Over the years I have become acutely aware that the world is different for those who are non-white. I have become an ardent anti-racism advocate. Had I known then what I know now, would I have so blithely adopted trans-racially? I don't think so. Raising these children has been one of the most, if not the most, impactful experiences of my life. Although replete with challenges and joys, it has enriched me and made me a different person. I am grateful for my own experiences and to the author of this book, who so accurately captured my awareness. Thank you.

"Sky Full of Elephants" is not a work that I would consider post-apocalyptic, even though its premise and setting are based off the mass death of a large segment of the population. However, said premise and setting, (not to mention the weight of trauma that can be felt throughout the narrative) also easily keep from me from categorizing it as utopic. There's a few elements of science fiction and the fantastical, but ultimately, this is a read that is very much its own unique experience. It carries its unapologetically introspection-heavy story forward in a confident manner - which is honestly very fitting, given how deeply themes of identity, self-discovery and self-actualization that permeate the narrative form start to finish.

I found myself hopelessly gripped as I flew through its pages. This is definitely one of my standout fiction reads of 2024 - and one that makes me excited to see what Cebo Campbell has in store for us in the future.

An amazing read. Had difficulty putting it down. Campbell’s words are smooth, evocative, painting pictures of a world that doesn’t exist pieced together from a world that exists all too well. The book grabbed me from page one with its fanciful premise and kept me guessing as to the direction its story and characters’ stories would take. Only occasionally did I question its logic and pacing but found myself forgiving because I was so drawn to the characters and concepts contained in its pages.

I was first intrigued by the title, but the moment I read the synopsis for this book I was very eager to read it. I thought the premise was very interesting. What happens when all the people who identify as white/European in the United States decide to unalive themselves and why?

I thought the book would focus more on the above question, but it ended up being about something much deeper, the reactions and trauma of the Black Americans who were left. I also thought it would be a typical apocalypse travelogue, with someone taking a road trip across a devastated landscape, and there is a little of that here, but most of the focus is on the lead character, and his feelings about the event that left people of color to pick up the pieces in the absence of white people. He has has some racial skeletons in his past and a daughter he is meeting for the first time. She has conflicted feelings too, since she is biracial, and most of the novel is about the two of them dealing with their grief for the people they lost, and the racial trauma of a world that was. Black Americans have some interesting and varying reactions, with some going mad, some gleeful, and others, like the protagonist, not knowing what to think or feel about what happened.

I didn't care for either one of the main characters very much because I simply couldn't relate to them, and the daughter is snarky, hostile, and mostly unlikable, but little by little, I started to understand the two of them, and I became immersed in the story. The lead character tends to overthink things, but by the end of the story, that turned out to be a good skill to have.

The is not a celebratory story. It is very melancholy and philosophical, like a film by Martin Scorcese perhaps, and I wasn't expecting that. It is also written in a semi-poetic style that I initially found it difficult to settle into, but once I got used to the rhythm of it, I found it slow, but otherwise well paced, with a mix of conversation, imagery, and the occasional action scene.

I was not disappointed at all, and will likely read any future novels from this writer, especially if they have an interesting premise, or maybe just a sequel to this one.