This is an apocalyptic book that is a little different. The glaciers have melted and the world has been flooded. This story is told by Nonie, a child who lives in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City with her parents, her sister and a small group of other survivors. Their life is hard but they have learned to survive. When a "hypercane" destroys their settlement and kills most of the people, Nonie and her group find a canoe they had stored and leave to try to get to a place of safety. There is danger, excitement and tragedy along the way.

The book started a little slowly but once they started their journey it really took off. I really enjoyed it and tn8nk you will too.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall is a beautifully haunting story about memory, loss, and survival in a world that feels both familiar and distant. Seeing everything through the eyes of a young girl who barely remembers the past makes everyday life feel almost mythical, like stories passed down over time. It gave me the same eerie, dreamlike vibe as Station Eleven, where the ordinary becomes something sacred and strange. This book really stuck with me—poetic, thought-provoking, and hard to shake even after the last page.

I did not finish this book and stopped after about 100 pages. I thought the premise was unique and I could appreciate the atmospheric vibe the writing evoked. However, the pace felt awfully slow and left me wanting more thrill.

This book gave me a lot to think about—climate change, survival, the choices we make, and how people come together (or fall apart) in difficult times. The world-building was immersive, and I appreciated the depth the author put into it. But the pacing? So slow. I kept hoping it would pick up, but eventually, I found myself reaching for other books instead.

{thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this ebook!}

First of all, this cover is everything and immediately made me want to read this book. And it's a good book, a solid 3 stars in my opinion. It just wasn't great for me, mainly because I had a really hard time connecting with the characters. And considering the book's subject matter, I really, really, wanted to connect and feel for the characters.

The plot of the book is fascinating and terrifying. It takes place in future NYC where the entire city is flooded. Nonie and her sister Bix are living with their father and many others on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. It's obviously a scary time as food and medicine are short, disease is rampant, and everyone is just doing their best to survive. Nonie's mother passed away recently and the girls have seen countless friends die. When a "hypercane" hits and the city is no longer safe, Nonie, Bix, their father, and their family friend escape by canoe in search of their mother's childhood home in Western Massachusetts.

Getting there is going to be tough with a lot of obstacles and this is what the rest of the book focuses on. I love climate fiction and this book features circumstances that actually feel really real and terrifying. However, I felt like there wasn't enough character development and I couldn't get a good grasp on Nonie and Bix, which made it hard for me to feel much for them. I will say the book picked up as it moves on (the beginning felt super slow to me), but I wanted to feel more for the characters.

If you enjoy plot-driven climate fiction, I do think you'll enjoy this one. But if you're looking for a book with rich characters, it might not be for you. I'm very happy I read it and, like I said, it's a good book. I just wanted a little more from it.

After the climate crisis peaks, Nonie and her family seek shelter on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History with a small group of survivors. When a devastating storm strikes, they are forced to embark on a dangerous journey to a promised refuge, confronting both human and natural threats along the way. A beautifully written, literary exploration of the seemingly inevitable outcome of global warming. I loved the story and its characters, especially the found family dynamic. If you enjoy speculative fiction that hits uncomfortably close to home, this is a compelling read.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

Sometimes you're certain a book will be a five star when you read the synopsis and then it turns out to be too slow... darn.

After the world is flooded, Nonie, her family and other survivors flee what was once New York City to her mother’s home, a farm in upstate New York. Nonie, a little girl, tells the story in a dual timeline of the events leading up to the flood, what happened to their family after the flood, how they survived, up to her current trek across the water. This dystopian book is a prediction of what is to come if we do not get this world right. A story about survival, family, and what it means to survive in the face of extinction. I really enjoyed this book and have recommended to family already. The publication date was early January and have seen it everywhere! I really enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy a novel that is about the downfall of civilization. But did get me wondering how I would survive in such a world. I think this book is accurate in that military groups would take over a lot of the resources and would do more harm than good. The end reminded me of the season of Walking Dead when they are on Herscel's farm.

As someone who grew up watching Waterworld with Kevin Costner, I never realized how it must have felt to see the world slowly flood around you.

All the Water in the World is narrated by Nonie, and how she has to learn and cope with her life constantly being changed by water. Her narrating style was a little difficult to get into, however, once I understood her the story completely entranced me. From losing all her ‘Mothers’, handling puberty in a world where there is no more medicine, and fighting for years to find a home, Nonie remains true to herself and to her love of water.


Thank you for the opportunity of an eARC, and I am leaving this review willingly.

The description of this book was an instant hit for me - Station Eleven is one of my favorite books ever and I couldn’t wait to get started reading this. I struggle with my review - the book was well written but while I expected to not be able to put it down, I felt it was a very slow read that I pushed myself to get through. My interest picked up more toward the end and I think I could see this better as a movie but it was not the read I was expecting when I started.

3.5 stars
This was a harrowing tale of the devastating consequences of climate change. Nomie and her family are struggling to survive in a submerged world with melted glaciers and super hurricanes. She can sense when water is going to shift, which helps keep some of her family members alive. When they can’t remain in NYC, they take a canoe north on the Hudson and encounter other survivors. I’ve read enough post apocalyptic books to know that as bad as the destruction event might have been, somehow the way some people treat others is often worse.

A monster hurricane changes the world!

Nonie lives in the American Museum of Natural History in New York because of the immense hurricane and other intense storms that have swept over the world. When a huge flood hits the museum, Nonie leaves with her sister Bix, their father and their family friend Keller. They are heading to their Aunt Clare’s house. On the way, they fight nature as the storms increase in strength, the wild and unknown. They try to stop for rest from the river and shelter from the rain but meet Lost, two men that only seem to want to harm. Father gets shot, Bix also gets shot and Keller gets pneumonia from jumping into the dirty river to rescue their boat from the strong currents. Will any of them survive?

Likes/dislikes: The story has an interesting premise and dystopian plot. The author made the main characters flawed and relatable. I like that the story was carried on by hope, even when everything seemed lost.
Mature content: G for kissing.
Language: PG-13 for 13 swears, no f-words.
Violence: PG-13 for bloody death.
Ethnicity: mixed.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It is though provoking. I found it interesting not only in the subject matter but as it is told from the perspective of Nonie, a young teen girl, who sees the world in a different way and who is lacking emotions/ability to show her emotions. Because of this, the narration is interesting. I did find it challenging to stay engaged and to adapt as due to this, it is challenging to feel for her as she is experiencing dangers. If you are a fan of dystopia or speculative fiction, I highly recommend as it well written, unique.

While I was super interested in the premise of this book, in the end perhaps it just wasn't for me. I found the plot a bit difficult to follow and ended up putting it down about halfway through. I do think it was a well-written story and innovative idea, just felt a bit off for me genre-wise.

I think my review will be like the other reviews for this book, unfortunately. I love dystopian/post apocalyptic/climatology books but this was so boring it could have been so much better. The premise was so good too!

What I Liked
A fight for survival and living when the old economy and quality of life has vastly diminished for all on the planet.
The weather on Earth has become unpredicatable and life threatening.

What I Did Not Like
-Isn't the point of any book to feel empathy or have an opnion about the main character? Nonnie, who is the main protagonist and narrator is very flat and dimensional as a MC. I thought her younger sister with a fear of the water was far more intriguing.
-The book ended hopefully but it again it was flat..

I think the book "The Great Transition" by Nick Fuller Googins which was a featured NG book in 2023 is a much better post-apocalyptic climatology book than this. JMO.

Overall, I think other readers will love or be bored by this book. Thanks to Netgalley, St Martins Press and Eiren Caffall for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Already available

4.5 rounded up! This was such a good read, it reminded me of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven but a more narrow picture of a post-apocalyptic world where sea levels have risen and climate change has made it so the world is a lot more dangerous, which has led to a lot of the systems upon which we rely to go down. I loved the main character and the cast of characters she knows and meets along her journey. Ultimately hopeful, I loved it!

Mother Nature has just about had it with the human parasites on her planet and she is doing everything she can to finish them off. A planet thats deadly hot in the winter, has violent hurricanes that combine with tornados to blow down and drown everything in their path. Most of the world already dozens of feet underwater. Starvation, Mosquito virus and sickness has finished off just about everyone.
A few survivors have barricaded themselves in the NY museum of Natural History. They were curators before and spend their days documenting everything they can about the world before. They form a neat little community- until it all comes crumbling down.
Our protagonist is Nonie. She and her older sister Bix flee, along with their father and family friend Keller across miles of river and countryside to the promised land- a farm owned by her mother’s family in upstate NY. On the road they face assorted dangers weather and otherwise.

I loved this book. Its dystopian but also at its essence when all material and societal constructs are stripped away all thats left is how you care for one another. And really isn’t that all that matters anyway?
Reccomend

This is a beautifully written book that paints a picture of a post-apocalyptic world and hints at climate change and the disastrous impact it has on our world. It's poetic, but it’s more atmospheric rather than plot driven for much of the book. Unfortunately, it’s a little slow for my liking.

All The Water in the World by Eiren Caffal is a novel that I found to be decent, though it wasn't quite what I expected going in. I came into the book thinking I was about to read a post-apocalyptic story about a group of survivors trying to preserve history at the American Museum of Natural History. This premise intrigued me and had me excited for what I thought would be a unique and layered narrative. However, what I got instead was a story about survivors searching for a home, which, while still engaging, took a different direction than I anticipated.

At the heart of the story is Nora, the main character, whose internal monologue is the driving force behind the narrative. Through her thoughts and reflections, we learn about the state of the world, the struggles of her group, and the backstory of their original settlement. The way Nora conveys the state of the world is both introspective and informative, allowing the reader to uncover the history and current challenges of their journey. Her monologue is insightful, adding emotional depth to the narrative, and as a result, the reader becomes invested in both her journey and the fate of her group.

While the story itself wasn’t bad, I had a hard time shaking the feeling that it wasn’t what I was hoping for. The tone and direction of the plot were more about the trials and tribulations of searching for a new place to call home than preserving the history and culture I had envisioned. That being said, I found the characters to be compelling enough that I wanted to know how their story would unfold. The sense of mystery surrounding their journey, as well as the bonds between the characters, kept me engaged.

One of the book’s strengths is how it portrays the emotional and psychological toll that this post-apocalyptic world takes on its characters. The group's struggle is not just about survival in a physical sense, but also about the personal growth and change they go through as they move forward. The world-building is subtle but effective, and the way Caffal shows the long-lasting impacts of such an environment makes the novel feel real and grounded.

However, for those who might go into this novel expecting a more action-driven or historically-preserving narrative, the focus on a more introspective and survival-based journey could be a bit of a shift. I wasn’t necessarily disappointed with the direction the book took, but I did feel that the story didn’t fully match what I thought it would be about. Despite this, the journey of Nora and her group was still interesting enough to keep me turning the pages.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of All the Water in the World, by Eiren Caffall, from St. Martin's Press/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

The description of this book sucked me in because it referenced From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which I read probably an innumerable number of times when growing up—and a few since then. (And I have given the book to young relatives and read it aloud to some of same. Hardcore fangirl, here.) To me, the latter is the embodiment of a truly good children’s story, the opposite of what C.S. Lewis is famed for saying: “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”

All the Water in the World seemed more like a story to be found in the juvenile fiction section; I actually went back to see how it was classified on NetGalley—General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction | Sci Fi & Fantasy.

Nope. Not for adults, to my mind. Which makes it, to me, not a truly good work of juvenile fiction, either.

I feel this way because I was so bored with the pace of the first third of the book that I almost didn’t keep reading it the next day. I was glad I did, because things got more interesting along the way. But, in the end, I went back to kinda bored because everything was so, so predictable.

I’m sure some people will be experiencing this genre for the first time when they read this book, and will have a completely different reaction to it. So be it.

A Link
To one of my most-favorite books of all time: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

A Bit Of A Tangent
I was struck by this particular passage in the book: ”There is the weather and there is death. You can’t control them, and you can’t fool yourself that your name is the only one they know. They have everyone’s names in the mouths.”

This is, has been, and will be forever true. It might _seem_ to resonate more these days because of the fires in Los Angeles and snow in New Orleans and some weirdly giant storm currently bearing down on Scotland and Northland Ireland, but like the Randy Travis song says, “As long as old men sit and talk about the weather……” Which, is, indeed, forever and ever, amen.

Anywhoodles, I was telling my husband at breakfast this morning that reading that reminded me of my days with the United Press International wire service and my primary editor drumming it into my head that sending out the weather brief was the single-most important part of my job. I can still hear him: “I don’t care if you don’t get anything else done all day—MOVE THE FUCKING WEATHER. It is the only thing people really care about. MOVE THE WEATHER.”

So move the weather I did, religiously.

Amen.

DESCRIPTION
In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.

"Gripping...tense, delightful and rich with resonance." —Scientific American

"Captivating...The setting, the detailed emotive descriptions, and nail-biting adventure are incandescent." —Library Journal (starred)

All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.

Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most – love and work, community and knowledge – will survive.