Readers who enjoy slow-paced books with a vague plot and multiple timelines will eat this up. The writing is excellent.

Haunting, horrifying, important.

All the Water in the World is a story of survival. Nonie, an autistic-coded teenager, lives with her family on the roof of the abandoned American Museum of Natural History because catastrophic floods have ravaged New York City, rendering it an uninhabitable and completely lawless place. Nonie grows up learning all she can from the museum as the rooftop community works to preserve and protect what they can of the museum's collections. When an especially devastating hypercane hits, Nonie and her family are forced to flee. The question is: will they make it to safety, with all that they saved from the world as it was?

What I liked: No better time for climate fiction than right now, as we watch communities all over the world struggle to recover from natural disasters that get closer and closer and closer to home. Even though this book is shelved as sci-fi and dystopia, it felt extremely realistic - scarily realistic actually - and we need more of that, because a lot of people are really comfortable pretending the climate catastrophe simply won't affect them from inside their million-dollar Manhattan homes. I also liked the emphasis on preservation, the reverence for our shared planetary histories, the call-backs to wars and disasters and lootings that have threatened those histories before. I liked the neurodivergent representation, and the harsh but necessary reminder that disability, disease, and chronic health complications are intimately tied to the climate crisis, and are coming for us all.

What didn't work for me: This book is thematically urgent, but I am already a person who is constantly stressed out about the state of the world, so I didn't need any convincing on that front. Unfortunately, this book didn't feel temporally urgent. I couldn't put my finger on why the pacing wasn't working out for me, but this was just....a little bit boring, and a little bit slow. I expected more from a book marketed as a thriller, and at the same time, the meditations on art and collections and preservation didn't feel weighty enough to offset the lack of tension. I understand that the author made a deliberate stylistic choice to make the narrator a young neurodivergent girl who is so clearly traumatized by the only life she's known, it seemed to halt the flow of the narrative moreso than it helped the tone, worldbuilding, and reflection. I see it, I understand it, it just didn't work for me. The choppy cuts to different points of Nonie's life made it hard for me to follow the story at times, and there was an emotional disconnect between her narration of the events and the chaos you assume is unfolding. For a water-logged world, the events of the novel read very neat and dry.

Lastly - and I will not let this part affect my rating, because I know it's not in the author's control - please stop comping books to Station Eleven that come nowhere near it in terms of emotional weight or prose. You're just setting the book up for failure. I know comps had to be tough for this one, but still.

Ultimately, I think this is a very timely, very important read, and I will reccomend it to friends who I know will appreciate it. I just don't think it accomplishes all that its trying to do, and I didn't have the greatest time reading it. Sometimes books like that make for good reads anyways.

Thank you NetGalley and SMP for the advanced e-copy of this book.

I was interested in reading this book because of my love of NYC. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into it. It moved too slowly. This was a DNF for me.

This book was a pleasant surprise.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, as it was a quick read and a good time.

I had such a hard time getting into this book. I kept starting and then turning to other books that held my attention more. I feel like I should have not been able to put this book down as it checks so many of my boxes. I will probably give it a try again at some point via the library. I'm glad others were able to find a hook and keep reading...just not for me at this time.

Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Cli-fi. (Climate fiction)
The world as it is vs The world as it was.
Found family.
Starting over.
Hope amidst the storm.

This story was very emotional. You meet Nonie and her family, surviving the world as it is on the top of a museum in NYC. The water levels are rising and change is coming. It’s their story of survival. I truly loved the family dynamics portrayed. Nonie knows and is loved by them even in the midst of chaos and tragedy. There are many flashbacks worked in between current timeline chapters. I thought it was well written and extremely entertaining.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

I love a good climate fiction book and this did not disappoint.

The cover of the book shows NYC with key landmarks showing above the water and that is basically setting the stage for the premise of the book. It can be tough to read a climate book when it is well written as this one is because I start to really visualize the potential for this story to be true.

I loved the characters and how they were developed - so sad, so lovely and so gritty. - not three words I would usually put in the same sentence. The book is a slow burn, and some will not like the coming-of-age story as the narrator is a young girl but I loved the perspective and found it to be insightful in many instances.

Thank you for this ARC from Net Galley and St. Martin's Press to read/review.

Thank you Netgalley and Eiren Caffall. Oh what a journey this was. I wish I could say I came out of this read with a smile on my face, but the sad reality is that our planet is in so much danger at the hands of humans that this apocalyptic tale of a world where water rules and much of the world is burning… just doesn’t seem so far fetched. My heart was ripped open for Bix and Nonnie many times and while I’m “happy” with the ending, my heart and head are just so sad that this was probably a book that the author imagined as more imaginative than reality and I fear that won’t be the case for long.

I will never deny talented writing, regardless of how I feel about a book. This one was written so exceptionally well. It just didn’t really ignite any emotions for me.

It moved pretty slow and I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I also want to point out that I read this during the cold, gray winter months and the subject is heavy. So it’s possible I might have enjoyed this more when I’m in a better head space.

Overall, I think this book is worth picking up. It might not be one I’d recommend to everyone but fans of Dystopian Fiction might love it!

This was a story of loss, survival, adventure, and hope. Although I have read many dystopian novels, I felt like Eiren Caffall's debut put a fresh spin on this genre. The setting of the roof of the American Museum of Natural History and the ways that these survivors carried on everyday life was so intriguing and different. This novel begs the question of its reader...despite losing everything, including personal possessions, loved ones, and the way of life as you know it...what would keep you moving forward? What would become important to you when you've lost all else?

I just could not get into this book. The concept was very interesting but I felt that I couldn't get enough actual understanding of the world and situation to get very far.

I don't usually seek out apocalyptic books, but this one somehow made it onto my TBR list. It takes place in a world ravaged by climate change, with relentless storms essentially turning entire cities into bodies of water. Everything is scarce, and electricity is almost nonexistent. The biggest problem is the lack of medicine, medical care, and new diseases popping up.
It was compelling , yet horrifying, which is why I tend to avoid these kind of stories. It started out slooow, so I knocked it down a star.
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this #arc of #allthewaterintheworld in exchange for an honest review.

This is such an excellent addition to the cli-fi genre, and much less horror adjacent than some other recent titles. Well-written, deftly told, with believable character development. I really enjoyed this, and could pair it with other titles very well.

A post-apocalyptic book of drowned cities and super storms and of danger and survival can sometimes provide the perfect escape from reality! All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall is such a book. It helps that I can visualize and put myself in the physical setting of the book. At some point, I think this book would make a good movie. The ending is perhaps too neat a package, but what an adventure getting there.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2025/02/all-water-in-world.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of a post-apocalypse family, from the POV of their young daughter, living in the National History Museum sounded very interesting to me. It reminded me of two books I really loved- The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, and All the Light we Cannot see by Anthony Doerr. In both these books, the children MCs find comfort and solace in museums and learning. This was also a quality of the MC Nonie in All the Water in the World (ATWITW)- she loves to learn about animals and the ocean. After getting into the book, it turns out that the story only starts in the museum where they have been living. We, the readers, mostly read about Nonie's family as they travel north in search of a farm that their mother told them about. There are flashbacks to the museum, and a few stories about items in the museum, but I just felt mislead when the summary implied that the story was set in the museum.

Anyway, the book is more about the journey the family takes northward, paddling in a canoe through drowned cities. There is not much going on until about the 50% mark, and there isn't much to glean from the characters, either. I know a little bit about the narrator, Nonie- she is a bit withdrawn, but she is intellectual and curious, and she misses her deceased mother. She can "sense" water, sense storms coming, but there is no further explanation or exploration of her ability. Overall she reads pretty flat to me, and I don't see any change in her character throughout the book, either. The rest of the family, plus friend Keller, were also completely uninteresting. We were told the sisters were important to each others but I barely say any evidence of that in their interactions. Same with the father. All we got with Nonie and Keller were them playing the animal game together.

Strorygraph asked me- Is the book more character-driven or plot-driven? I couldn't decide because I felt there was no plot and no character intrigue or even character development. I wanted to DNF, but I pushed through when the story picked up briefly at 50%, and the short chapters helped.

The only strong part of this book was the writing style, at points. There were lines here and there that sounded very nice, but they could not contribute anything to the bigger picture of the novel.

All The Water in the World is a story about what happens to a family trying to survive after ecological changes end the modern way of living. If you are a fan of Station Eleven and Parable of the Sower, you will like this book.

"All the Water in the World" by Eiren Caffall was an interesting novel, depicting a society where the water level rose, and the survivors are struggling with their reality and future. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

Published by St. Martin's Press on January 7, 2025

Postapocalyptic fiction continues to be popular despite the formulaic nature of the genre. All the Water in the World imagines an environmental crisis caused by global warming. Unfortunately, that takes little imagination, given the prevailing American insistence that fossil fuel consumption is patriotic and that global warming isn’t a thing, or at least isn’t a thing that human behavior affects. Corporate America uses Fox News to tell the far right what they should believe and the far right dutifully joins every culture war — whether a nonexistent war against Christmas or the notion that alternatives to fossil fuels are bad for America — without giving any thought to the consequences of their victories.

The novel begins with a family and a few others living on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The adults were museum employees who remain dedicated to preserving knowledge, but violent storms are making it impossible for humans to survive in Manhattan. How deer have managed to overtake Central Park without drowning like humans is a bit of a mystery.

The central characters are sisters. Norah, the narrator, likes to be called Nonie. She’s thirteen. Her sister Beatrice likes to be called Bix. She’s sixteen. Their mother has a bad kidney and, since hospitals no longer function and pharmacies have all been raided, everyone knows she’s going to die. Their father and the other important character, a Black guy named Keller, manage to salvage a Native American canoe from the museum just before the building collapses. They will use the canoe to begin a journey.

Journeys — the quest to find a safe place where life can be remade — are standard plot drivers in post-apocalyptic fiction. The protagonists hatch a plan to take the boat up the Hudson and then walk along highways until they reach a farm where Nonie’s mother grew up. Along the way, they will encounter and overcome obstacles, including infections and a group of bad guys who want to rape Bix. After two of the travelers contract dangerous infections, the protagonists manage to find a doctor, but she’s in a community controlled by a selfish a-hole who believes that medical care and antibiotics should be reserved for community members. The a-hole doesn’t want new people to join the community unless they can work and contribute, which doesn’t describe people who need to heal.

Postapocalyptic fiction often divides survivors of the apocalypse into groups of good people and bad people, the bad people consisting of rapists, thugs, racists, and dictator wannabes, the good being those who resist subjugation. The good are open to helping others; the bad are not. Well, that’s how preapocalyptic society works, so it makes sense that an apocalypse would only enhance division, selfishness, and delusions of entitlement. Better examples of the genre make clear that the dividing line between good and bad can be fuzzy when people fight for survival, but Eiren Caffall doesn't trouble the reader with subtle thought.

There is nothing particularly interesting, or credible, about the journey that the protagonists undertake. One of the kids turns out to be handy with a gun, but how she managed to capture the gun from grown men is never made clear. A character or two will die during the trek because that’s what the formula demands, but the story creates little tension regarding the fate of the resilient sisters. Caffall does, however, offer a convincing atmosphere as she depicts the dangers inherent in global warming, including flooding and mosquito-borne illnesses.

Perhaps with a view to giving the narrator a personality, Nonie has an affinity for water. The parameters of this superpower are unclear, except that Nonie knows when storms are coming. She keeps a water logbook to record her impressions of the water. Her entries are silly and pointless.

Flashbacks to the preapocalyptic world slow the novel’s pace, as do the intermittent entries from Nonie’s logbook of water. The story otherwise proceeds swiftly to its predictable conclusion. Genre fans who just can’t get enough postapocalyptic fiction might want to add All the Water in the World to their reading lists, but nothing about the novel causes it to stand apart from other formulaic depictions of post-apocalyptic struggles for survival.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

An elegy to the past, and a musing on how people would live after massive destruction of infrastructure and services by an increasingly volatile environment. This novel is also an homage to museum workers and archivists who work to preserve our past in the face of war and climate calamities.

Focusing on one small group of people, author Eiren Caffall tells of young Nora ("Nonie") her older sister Beatrice ("Bix"), her father, and a researcher friend, Keller, all of whom live in the America Museum of Natural History in New York City. Nonie's mother died some time earlier of kidney disease, and Nonie and Bix are taught to hunt and grow their own food, and to do their best to save the collections.

Nonie has a heightened affinity for water, and can sense when precipitation is coming, and how severe.

When a massive storm breaches the city's flood walls, the Nonie, Bix, their father and Keller must all escape with what little they can grab before the floods overtake them. Taking a birchbark canoe from the exhibits, they begin travelling north along the Hudson river.

They encounter small communities, and the threat of violence and misunderstandings increase the further they travel from their lost home. The journey is frequently harrowing, deeply sad and frightening, and this is contrasted with flashbacks to a quieter time when Nonie's mother was still alive and teaching her daughters.

The writing is excellent, and moving. The story begins with the threat of danger from a super storm, and each new encounter they have along their journey north only heightens the implacability of the turbulent, filth-ridden waters, but also the fears and violence of the people they meet, and from whom they must ask for help. Though not always sure how to react, or sometimes not responsive, to who and what they encounter while travelling, Nonie feels deeply and passionately.

This is a beautiful and really sad story of people trying not just to survive, but to do the hard work of preserving aspects of society, in the hope that one day things will turn for the better, and this knowledge, and associated objects, will be needed and appreciated again.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

All the Water in the World was such a deep book. This did take me a bit to get into but once I did I was hooked! If you enjoyed The Hatchet as a kid this book is for you!