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

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