I love a dystopian novel and was excited to get an early copy of All the Water in the World. I will preface this by saying I really liked the book, but I felt as I was reading it the experience I was expecting based on the book synopsis didn't match what I was reading. I was expecting a lot more emphasis on the time spent in the American Museum of Natural History, time preserving the collections, focusing on scientists as heroes. That almost wasn't the focus of the book, but the journey of leaving NYC and moving north up the Hudson became the more important part of the plot. I also found the pace of the book quite inconsistent. For a lot of the book it's slow moving (literally -- canoeing up the Hudson), but then there are a handful of parts that are very tense and scary. Those parts were adrenaline packed page-turners, and some of the other parts felt almost meditative and a little sleepy. I think if the emphasis of the book synopsis had focused on the book as post-apocalyptic/climate change journey to safety and to rebuild home and community it would have felt more true to my experience of reading it. The journey and the longing for stability, family, community, and home, really came out as a theme. In the end I did really like this book -- I think it captured the fears of what would happen if the world changed, and how a group of good people can survive it together.

This was such a visceral apocalyptic novel that had my heart pounding and my eyes rapidly trying to take it all in as quick can be. I felt totally engrossed in this book and it unsettled me and thrilled me—I couldn’t put it down. If you enjoy dystopian fiction, you’re in for a treat with this one. .

As promised, ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD is similar to Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. It also reminded me of other post-apocalyptic, speculative novels like Leif Enger’s "I Cheerfully Refuse" and Michele Lin Sterling’s "Camp Zero," in which characters must make great journeys while the world is falling apart around them.

Nonie and her family live on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, at a time when the glaciers have melted and the city is mostly deserted. There is no government, no electricity, and no contact with the outside world. When a massive superstorm floods everything, they must leave the museum they’ve been carefully protecting to find safety elsewhere.

ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD is thought provoking and easy to read, with short, snappy chapters. The book is long-ish, but it reads fast. Stories like this one leave me with an uneasy feeling about the potential disasters of climate change.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher St. Martin’s Press for an early digital copy of ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD in exchange for my honest review.

I had a tough time getting into this one, but once past the first bits I was all in. Felt a little too scary and real of what could happen with global warming and ocean levels rising. The characters are well developed and you begin to care for them as you get further along.

I’ve always been drawn to unique dystopian novels, and I was so intrigued by the concept of this one: a flooded world & a group of individuals who have learned to survive atop the Museum of Natural History in New York.

I really loved the science and history woven throughout this one, and the different take on a dystopian future. The pace was fast as we are taken through time- before the flood, the time after, and their current situation. I was anxious & on edge, and SO rooting for these characters to find a way to survive.

This was a fascinating premise and I love a good post-apocalyptic or climate fiction novel, so this was right up my alley. It was somewhat interesting - enough to keep me reading, but in the end I found it just okay. I loved the way the author built the world - seems to be a realistic depiction of life in a coastal city as polar ice caps are melting/melted. But the story itself was a little bit boring. It was a fascinating premise and I applaud the author for the idea, I just didn't quite enjoy the story enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an eARC in exchange for this book.
Expected publication: January 7, 2025

4.5 out of 5 stars (can we please get half-star ratings, Goodreads??? please?!)

A post-apocalyptic coming-of-age story that follows Nonie from the roof of Amen, where she lives with her father, her sister, Bix, their friend, Keller, and others who took refuge after The World as it Was ended. The blurb on Goodreads doesn't do the book justice, although it worked to lure me in and make me hit the request button on NetGalley.

This is my second post-apocalyptic book in as many months (I read The Way by Cary Groner), but also, my second book about water this year (I read There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak).

There are whispers of hypercanes - monstrous hurricanes that blow prior hurricanes out of the water in terms of wind and damage. The dams aren't keeping the water out. The rivers and lakes are full of dangers - bacteria, trash, etc. Humans have abandoned belief in pets, and packs of wild dogs roam the streets. They've also turned on each other - most groups clearly made of a single race. The group at Amen are different, since they found each other The World as it Is.

But when the waters rise and they can no longer remain at Amen, they find that the world is more dangerous than they could have anticipated, with Lost - people roaming the broken world - looking for trouble, water everywhere, trees below the water that scrape their boat, and few buildings that are safe from the water, the weather, or the Lost.

Trying to make their way to a farm where Nonie and Bix's mother's sister allegedly lives, they find friends are few and far between in this new world, and when their father and Bix are shot and Keller gets a lung-full of river water, their journey becomes a race where winning means a chance to live a while longer, and losing means certain death.

This is not just a story of survival; it’s a testament to the human spirit’s resilience in the face of unimaginable odds. The relationship-building in the book is where it's at, and Nonie's entries in The Logbook, which she keeps are a record of existence in The World as it Is.

This is the first book by Eiren Caffall that I have read, but it will certainly not be my last. I think this is her first novel, but I spy a memoir that beckons to me from the shadows.

Take the young narrator of A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World and add in the literary tone of The Road's journey or the character growth arc of the Walking Dead and you'll get something like All the Water in the World. Eiren Caffall's first novel, follows the journey of Nonie, a 13 year old, who has spent most of her life in the upper floors of the American Museum of Natural History with her family and the family of other museum employees. They have found a new life their, safe from the waters that rose to make much of New York City and other low lying coastal areas unlivable.

Nonie and her family often talk or reflect on "the world as it was" with its ease of car or plane travel, and oceans at our present level, but then cataclysms arrived, the poles melted and the world was reshaped and distance an insurmountable burden for much of the populace. There are still those privileged few, by wealth, knowledge or position had a cozy landing, but much of the world makes do with a more 18th century style living.

In the museum, called Amen by those living there, the former museum employees still seek to secure and care for the collections still housed there. Nonie and her sister Bix have both been raised and educated in the museum, gaining knowledge and skills that could make the difference in their survival.

At the start of our story, disaster strikes, a giant storm strikes New York, destroying the museums upper floors and finally destroying what had remained of the flood control system. Nonie, Bix, her father and one other survivor must now seek a new home, perhaps the farm they could have journeyed to when they were forced out of their apartment.

In the world that is, there have been mosquito born plagues, failure of infrastructure, and general societal breakdown.

As the narrative goes, it starts dramatically, but then slows down for the backstory. Chapters then alternate between the present and snippets from the past. It is very much a coming of age journey story, but with some wonderful language and phrases. While our narrator is 13 at the time of events, it is clear they are much older as they relate the tale. There are typical problems explored in dystopian literature, those out for only their own gain or interests, dangerous to women, threats from loss of hygienic practices, or balancing ideals against brutality.

Overall is it a much softer dystopia then some of the titles reference above.

Recommended to readers of climate fiction, coming of age tales, survivalist accounts or stories where the journey is just as important as the destination.

Many thanks to Eiren Caffall, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel. The premise here — a young girl trying to survive with her family in the American Museum of Natural History following a climate catastrophe — was intriguing to me and definitely kept my interest. This seemed like it might be an inspired combination of two of my favorite books: Station Eleven and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I enjoyed it enough to read it quickly and I was engaged enough that I wanted to see how it ended, but I do think it was a bit uneven. The characterization of Nonie, the main character, was not consistent, which was often confusing. I thought the ending was very well done though I’m not sure it was believable. All in all, a good read, particularly for people who enjoy this type of post-apocalyptic novel. I look forward to reading Ms. Caffall’s next novel!

If you want a book that pulls you in from the first page, has short chapters to keep you moving, and richly developed characters who make you think of them long after you finish reading, this is the book for you.

An apocalyptic/climate fiction read, All the Water in the World follows one family as they navigate a world where the oceans already rose to swallow coastal cities and even some island nations. They have to flee their NYC apartment and find refuge at the America Museum of Natural History. They farm in Central Park and survive for a time, until the inevitable collapse of the sea walls created to save the city. Their journey to find refuge and peace is harrowed and gut wrenching.

I love the Museum of Natural History and reading about familiar displays there felt like coming home. The concerns both children and adults had during this difficult time felt visceral. The themes of found family and survival were a joy to read. Grippy, fast-paced, and superbly digestible.

This book could have easily slipped into a heavy-handed cautionary tale, but, though the setting is post-apocalypse due to climate change, the plot takes front seat here. Told in first-person via the perspective of a 12-year-old girl, the book throws the reader right into The World as it Is, and her family's efforts to survive a catastrophically flooded New York. The speaker's voice is fairly consistent, growing as she does, though there were a couple times I had to stop and go back to determine how old she actually was, as she communicates at times as a much older person would.
It's an engaging story with the perfect amount of character development that allows the reader to experience the depth of each character--even the ones who had died before the beginning of the book. I highly recommend.

What a haunting and achingly beautiful book about the end of the world. Heartbreaking, frightening, but with an undercurrent of hope that runs throughout, this book also feels a bit like a cautionary tale. Maybe less of a cautionary tale and more of a reality, considering current rising sea levels and the environmental impact we’re feeling as a result.

Narrated by Nonie, a young girl who lives in AMNH with her father, sister, and fellow survivor Keller, the story chronicles life before when climate change was just ramping up for them, to current life where the storms have reached hyper status and the ocean is knocking on fifth floor windows in NYC. Nonie feels a connection with the water and can tell somehow when storms are going to hit. She feels an affinity for the water, whereas her sister Bix is terrified of it. They’re forced to travel upstate when one of the storms all but destroy their sanctuary, and it’s a journey of loss, grief, danger, and so much more.

This is one of those books that burrowed under my skin and won’t let go. I adored Nonie and how the book was told in a way that a young girl would speak. Both Nonie and her sister are resilient, as are most people in this broken world, but they possess an inner strength that most adults, let alone children, don’t possess. The story will break your heart several times over, but it’s Nonie’s outlook that something good can still come of this world that makes things seem a little better.

All told, a fantastic tale of the end o’ the world that feels plausible. I love when fictional apocalypses feel like they could happen, and this one certainly feels that way. Definitely pick this up if you’re a fan of apocalyptic tales, coming of age stories, and books that tug on your heartstrings. 5 stars.

4.5 stars. This book is astoundingly good. It starts off a little bit slow but once the story starts moving I could not stop reading. I read about 90% of this book in one sitting (which I was not expecting.)
All the Water in the World tells the story of a small group of survivors who have to leave their safe haven at the American Museum of Natural History after the last remaining sea wall is breached and the city is completely flooded and destroyed. This is an intense story of survival but also a quieter story told in flashbacks about the people they loved and left behind. This is a story of loss and love, of destruction and building, of injury and repair. This book is being compared to Station Eleven and while I will say it’s not quite on that level I haven’t read a dystopian survival story as good as this one in a very long time.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was the first dystopian book I've read in a while, and I found it very interesting. Biz and Nonie had great growth as characters. They fought very hard and endured so much heartbreak throughout the book. I found the writing to be amazing, which kept me hooked from the very beginning.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance reader copy in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
Phew.
I had high hopes for this book and immediately downloaded it when offered. It even skipped the TBR line I had. I am a big fan of The Light Pirate (which you should read) and this is in the same vain. Ice caps have melted and the country is flooded and now we watch the survival of a family in New York.
But this is not Light Pirate or Day After Tomorrow (for the movie reference). It started really well and the author builds the setting and characters really well. You can clearly envision the people, the museum, and the area around. The story works with flashbacks and with the family utilizing their resources to find shelter and safety.
Sadly, the story really drags after getting going. It ends well enough, but I found it quite hard to get there.
3* for the premise and the beginning, but if I didn’t promise a review I might not have gotten through to the end.

I really liked a lot here, the story was pretty interesting and for the most part kept my interest. I like the idea of it being 'Day After Tomorrow' like with them hiding away in a museum, I wish that we had stayed there a little more though, even though there were a good amount of flashbacks. I enjoyed the detail that went into the story that helped the world seem well fleshed out.

I was drawn to this book because the description referenced Station Eleven, one of the post-apocalyptic books I really enjoyed. The similarity is that in Station Eleven, a traveling performing troupe tours what used to be Michigan, sharing their belief that the arts must survive. In All the Water in the World, our characters start out sheltering in the American Museum of Natural History (which they call Amen, a play on the initials of the name as well as a prayer for their safety). The publisher's description mentioned that the people who took shelter there after the glaciers melted and New York City was flooded were concerned about saving the artifacts for future generations. Unfortunately, a super-hurricane forces them out of Amen, and onto the Hudson River in the hope that an upstate farm they know about might still be livable, so very little of the book was actually spent in the museum..

I was further encouraged when the first humans they encounter after leaving Amen were staying at the Cloisters, a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and caring for the medieval manuscripts in the collection. What a wonderful thing it would have been if they encountered more people on their travels who were working to save the great works of art and literature endangered by the climate crisis! But alas, this is the last time they encounter people like this, and the remainder of the book is a standard-issue post-apocalyptic tale of refugees seeking a new home. They continue to encounter humans - some good, some not so good - and so instead of a story about preserving culture, this is a story about finding high ground (at least there are no zombies. I hate zombies).

The author makes an interesting choice to tell the story through the eyes of an adolescent girl, who was very young when the climate crisis started and therefore cannot reliably tell us what life was like before the flood, or how the way they are forced to live compared with what they call The Life Before. This makes the first third of the book confusing at times, until we get used to Nonie's voice and have enough information from the others to piece together a context. Nonie represents the hope of all of them; she keeps a logbook describing what is happening, and even names the periods they experience the way scientists named the prehistoric ages. If someone in the future finds this book and saves it as they attempted to save the artifacts in Amen, then perhaps humanity has a future that is more than mere survival.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Eiren Caffell’s climate thriller opens in New York City with a group of people surviving climate change on the American Museum of Natural History’s roof. Even before the main character, Nonie was born, melting glaciers and storms had flooded and taken cities and islands--places such as Miami, Mumbai, Bangkok, and even island countries—the Philippines and New Zealand. Crops failed, forests burned, and people were forced from their homes, many becoming known as “the Lost,” lone or small groups wanderers foraging for survival in the World That Is.

Long ago, back in the World That Was, New York City had constructed floodgates, protecting inhabitants from total annihilation. In the World That Is, cars have become obsolete, useless on flooded streets. Electricity is a thing of the past, and food and medications nearly impossible to find. Stores, pharmacies, and hospitals had shut down, and museum employees with keys have brought their families to take shelter in the American Museum of Natural History, naming their rooftop shelter Amen after the sound of the museum’s abbreviation, AMNH. There construct make-shift shelters, hunt in Central Park when they can, and assiduously create logbooks of museum holdings, records that can preserve knowledge even if the artifacts are lost forever. A mosquito-borne illness takes many lives. Other members of Amen vanished one by one due to other causes. Then the hypercane hits, a super-charged hurricane, blowing out parts of the museum and other buildings. As the waters rise, Amen’s four survivors—a father, his two teenage daughters, and the museum entomologist--find a way to escape and stay afloat. Setting out with a bare minimum of supplies, they attempt a hazardous voyage to the inland farm where the girls’ deceased mother had grown up. Facing natural and human dangers as they travel, they slowly advance, hoping that the farm might have survived.

Chapters skip back and forth in time, sometimes moving forward along the foursome’s journey and other times filling in the travelers’ backstories and those of lost family members during their years at Amen and even earlier in the World As It Was. Filled with vivid descriptions of life in each of these worlds, the book paints a bleak picture of the direction the world is heading as it largely ignores signs of climate change.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance reader egalley of this important and suspenseful look at the dystopian world ahead if climate change worsens.

This is a book that will stick with me for some time. Climate change has warmed the planet, melted glacial ice, and created superstorms. Low lying areas are flooded and there is no real infrastructure remaining. A small group has stayed in NY and live atop the Museum of Natural History. When even that location becomes dangerous, they have to travel outward to try and find somewhere safe. The story moves back and forth between the present and the past as the main character, Nonie, takes us along on her journey forward and her journey to date. This book is not an easy read and terrible things happen to people in this apocalyptic world. This is the first book of this genre that has actually gotten me thinking about developing specific skills and hording certain supplies (and I've read a lot of book in this genre).

There are many fascinating themes in this book. How do you decide to stay or leave when safety isn't guaranteed in either scenario? Who do you help when helping them could deplete your own scarce resources and how do old prejudices impact this decision? What defines a family? How do you maintain order in a chaotic world? This book would be great for a book club discussion or just to contemplate on your own.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy. My opinion is my own.

I had taken a break from dystopian fiction for a while, but this book was a great reintroduction to the genre. Caffall imagines a world where climate change and glacier melt has led to superstorms and rising ocean levels. Nonie and her family have been living in a small settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History in a mostly-deserted New York City, trying to protect the collection and human records while scrabbling for survival. When a particularly bad storm breaches the city's flood walls, Nonie, her sister, her father, and a family friend are the only survivors and are forced to flee with hardly any supplies. I loved Caffall's writing and the way she told the story - both past and present - through Nonie's eyes. Caffall is definitely an author I will read again. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital review copy.