Thank You Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon Press and NetGalley for access to the ARC of this book.

This was not what I thought it would be, I struggled to engage with the story and the characters. The pacing was too slow and the plot was almost non-existent. I was at the point of giving up about 30% in, I jumped to the end to see if it would give me a reason to stick with it despite the lack of interest in the beginning, but still nothing. I went back a bit further still, still nothing. The premise seemed like it would be the scaffolding for an interesting story, but alas, it was stagnant and flat and didn't give me a reason to stick with it.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. I really appreciated the details of everyday life for Bo and Mia but I just couldn’t stick with it. After reading other folks glowing reviews, I think the pace it just a bit to slow for me to stick with it.

Sadly this book just wasn't for me. I was hoping for it to be more about the setting and the world rather than the day by day of the characters, and I totally understand why the author took this direction so it is 100% a me problem! Totally recommend for people who prefer the literary fiction side of SFF. A huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me a free eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

The premise of this book sounded so interesting to me. San Francisco in the future - a floating city with never-ending rain. A young woman cares for an older woman (over 100 years old) and both seem stuck and unwilling to leave the city. Bo struggles to create art after losing her mother in a storm and much of the book followed her process in learning how to create a memorial after suffering such a loss. I had a hard time getting into this book and I felt like the plot was so slow. I just didn’t care about what was going on, like these characters who are unwilling to move I felt stuck and disappointed throughout much of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

In the crazy modern world, this is a book for those who want to slow down. This is for the ones who loved character driven stories, especially with the dynamic of an elderly character and a younger character having discussions about life. This book takes its time to unfurl its message. If you go in with the expectations this books will be a fast moving, climate-driven action novel, you may be a little disappointed.
Bo and Mia are touching characters, and their stories and discussions are beautiful. If you have the time or desire to slow down, you will enjoy the message of this book. The ending was beautiful and the setting was interesting, especially with how the remaining residents reacted to the climate crisis of flooding and moving society upwards into the top floor of buildings.
While I love the writing style, enjoyed the character dynamics, I did want to explore this climate altered world a little bit more.

San Francisco has been slowly sinking for years. The population has adjusted with rooftop markets, bridges connecting high-rises, etc., but the population has also been dwindling as people move to safer places. Bo is one of those who have stayed. Her cousin is coming for her soon, but she can't bring herself to want to leave, not since the disappearance of her mother a couple years ago in a great flood. When a note comes from a resident on another floor, a woman named Mia in her 100s, needing caretaking, Bo takes it as a sign to stay even longer and misses the boat.

There was so much of this I liked, the exploration of home and place, the ancestry and family, the sliver of Chinese-American history in the Bay Area, and Bo's return to her creation of artwork after a long struggle. Something about spending time with this supercentenarian brings Bo back to life and gives her a purpose she could no longer see. Bo is inspired to capture the past, to make something of Mia's memories, and eventually to honor her own memories as well. There are some survivalist elements to this book, but it was not your typical cli-fi title.

I felt like it could have been a bit shorter and I didn't love the storyline between Bo and Eddie, although I did see its purpose. Overall, I think this was well-written, quite touching in several moments, and I really appreciated the ending/20%. I'm glad I stuck with it to get there.

This book is a bit too slow and without plot for me. I think the writing itself is very lovely, but it’s hard to stay engaged when I don’t feel connected to the story or characters.

In a future San Francisco, everything is underwater due to heavy, nonstop rainfall. Most people have fled the city for drier places, but main character Bo has remained, struggling to leave behind the world and knows.

There is a meaningful theme in this book, but it just meanders too much to really speak to me. I hope it finds the right audience, and I will definitely check out Susanna Kwan’s next project.

Susanna Kwan’s debut novel Awake in the Floating City was a masterfully written surprise for me to read. I had gone in expecting to read a dystopian survival story, but instead ended up reading a character-driven study in relationships, place, history, memorials and art—all of which just happened to be set in a flooded future world. Her writing is reminiscent of Rachel Khong’s Real Americans with a hint of Charlotte McConaghy’s environmental storytelling. This was a book that I savored and has still stuck with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Awake in the Floating City is a speculative novel set in San Francisco some decades in the future. Years of extraordinarily heavy rains have caused the city to flood. Most citizens have fled, but those that remain behind are left in a strange limbo – attempting to go about their lives when everything around them has changed.

The novel follows Bo, a middle-aged woman who has remained in the city for years following her mother’s death in a flash flood. She is preparing to finally leave the city and join her extended family members in Canada when she receives a letter from an elderly neighbor hoping to find in-home help. When Bo meets Mia, she decides to cancel her plans to leave and remain in the flooded city to help.

The story was much more focused on Bo’s relationship with Mia and other secondary characters, such as her love interest, Eddie, and memories of Bo’s mother before her passing, than on the science fiction aspect of the world. It also explores the relationships Mia had/still has with her extended family, all of whom are dead or left her for an easier life in Europe. After caring for Mia for a number of months, Bo decides to re-instate her plans to depart for British Columbia. Before she does so, she completes a modern art installation as a memorial for Mia, whose life is coming to an end.

I’d recommend this to those who are looking for a well-written novel focused on found family and human relationships. For those seeking more SFF vibes, read elsewhere.

DNF at 37%

There were parts of this book that I did like, and I do feel like this author write well.
But nothing was happening, and I grew quite bored.
I think about the characters, so there was enough to get me interested.
You know when someone talks in the same monotone and it just seems to be flat? No pitch or variance? That was this book for me.
This book did however make me think of "Where the Crawdads Sing"- another popular book where nothing happens. I definitely think this will get high reviews, as it has already, but my review will not be among those.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy, and sorry I don't have a better review for you!

I won't lie. This was a 2 star read for me, but I'm bumping it to 3 stars because it was well-written and I really liked the ending.

This wasn't what I expected it to be. I thought it'd be more about survival in a climate ravaged dystopian San Francisco, but it was mostly about human relationships and the importance of family history.

This story would've worked on its own without the cli-fi setting. While it was cool to read about people surviving on the top floors of buildings and skyscrapers, I didn't think it was all that necessary to the story.

I admired the caregiver relationship between the FMC, Bo, and Mia. It's a found family type of story with a younger character and an elderly character. I really thought it was well done and showed the strength of human connection, even in the face of a climate apocalypse.

And if you're a lover of modern art, the ending with its very detailed descriptions of Bo's very moving artwork was perfection. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the novel, but it is what it is.

I'd recommend if you're into lit fic about human relationships. Not so much if you're more of a SFF reader like I am.

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for this arc.

In this cli-fi, an artist refuses to leave her home in San Francisco even though the city is being drowned in order to tend to a cranky 130 year old in her last days.

Bo has lived her entire life in San Francisco, and even though the city is now flooded, the rain never stops, almost everyone she knows has left, and her mom was swept away in a storm surge… she just can’t bring herself to go. This broken city still feels like home. But just as she’s half-heartedly preparing to leave, a mysterious note slips under her door—from 130-year-old Mia, asking Bo to become her caretaker.

Suddenly, Bo has a reason to stay.

Mia is prickly and particular, but as the two spend time together, a quiet bond begins to form. Mia shares stories from her past and what the city once was, and when her health begins to decline, Bo turns to her art to honor Mia’s life and preserve the memories of a world that’s disappearing.

I really enjoyed the dystopian feel of a flooded San Francisco paired with such an intimate, personal story. The exploration of grief, memory, and how loss affects creativity was powerful. It’s a slow and thoughtful read, but the character development is rich and rewarding. In the end, it’s a quietly beautiful story that sticks with you.

This slow burn story explores human nature, identity and relationships. A thought-provoking and emotional speculative fiction.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #AwakeintheFloatingCity

In an all-too-believable future, San Francisco has flooded so much that most of the population has left and the remaining people live on the top floors of high rises, with commerce on the roofs. Bo is an artist who has stopped creating until she becomes the caregiver of a prickly elderly lady in the same building. As Bo becomes fond of her dying neighbor, her creativity reasserts itself and she designs a major multi-media installation. I found that the plot developed slowly, and there was much more information about Bo's artistic process than I could absorb or care about. Readers interested in the prospect of rising waters in urban areas should check out All the Water in the World, by Eiren Caffall.

Awake in the Floating City is a story of a woman torn between two choices: to stay in the city slowly being engulfed by water, where her mother disappeared during a storm, or move abroad with what remains of her family to try to find a more successful life.

The story is based in a reality not far off from our own but stretched by science fiction. The biggest difference is the human longevity. It seems to be quite normal for a person to live well into the mid-hundred ages in the world of the floating city. 130, 160, not unheard of.

This novel is quite brilliant. There are many almost abstract ideas layered into a very straightforward story.

Bo is a caregiver for the very young or very old. She finds a new client just as she's about to leave the city for good, looking for any excuse to stay in case her mother miraculously returns. She is also an artist, but stopped her art long ago. Through this client, Mia, she is confronted with humanity in a way she's almost forgotten. In a way, her broken spirit begins a renewal process. She finds a level of acceptance for herself, and the world around her.

Through Bo's experiences in this story, you will find yourself pondering the deeper ideas of family bonds, tradition, culture, aging, immigration, relationships with others, adapting to climate changes, art, and the meaning of life itself. It's not that the story has its own ideas on these topics, it somehow skillfully evokes the hard thinking from the reader, seemingly without effort.

I'm quite impressed with Susanna Kwan, and will be looking forward to her next novel.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This novel is quite slow-moving, which for the story it's telling would have been appropriate and even required. In some chapters I even liked the slowness. Don't get me wrong, i love introspective stories and non-linear narratives, but I think the slowness I'm talking about here might also have been the main culprit of why I'd been unable to connect with the characters. I liked the premise though, and Bo is compelling enough to make me stay for a bit longer, which is why halfway through instead of DNFing this book i simply skimmed it. I like the ending, it ties Bo's navel-gazing together (although let's be real, her navel-gazing has been going on the same circles throughout the novel anyway).

I think if you're either a) patient in engaging with introspective stories; b) gracious enough to find circular/obsessive introspection compelling enough; c) don't mind slower narrative structures; or d) all of the above, you may find yourself enjoying this one in very specific places. i was in the d) all of the above boat and am indeed able to enjoy specific parts only but unfortunately i ran out of patience, graciousness, and endurance towards the middle. if you have very consistent energy levels you may even find yourself enjoying the entire novel. maybe when i'm retired i'll pick this back up, but lbr, in this economy that may never happen

Thank you NetGalley and Pantheon for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

There is definitely an audience for this book who will LOVE it, but it was not really the book for me. Far too slow-paced and repetitive, and the main character was frustrating as all get out.

The writing was solid enough overall -- some lovely, poignant lines regarding just... humanity... grief... processing things... etc.

It did read as a bit airy/disconnected, for my preference.

Bo kind of drove me crazy. Most of the book she had no agency in her own life -- things were just happening to her and she was letting them happen. The whole thing with her cousin coming to get her and her bailing last minute.... ?! And then later with the birthday party?! And then later with her cousin AGAIN?!?! I kind of started to hate her a little bit toward the end, not gonna lie. She was wildly frustrating for me.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.
This was a very thought-provoking climate-catastrophe fiction. Much of San Francisco is deep underwater; people struggle to survive on upper floors and roofs of buildings; our main character is an artist who lost her mother a while ago and has struggled with moving on. She receives a plea to become a caretaker of a 130-year-old woman who has no family nearby, and struggles to do this job well, try to return to doing art, trying to decide whether to move where it is "safe" and what that actually means. I loved the clifi aspects of this, but my favorite was the meditation on what it means to be a caregiver. This part really resonated with me. I think this is a debut novel? Good work, and I will be watching for more.

I'm generally a fan of dystopian and/or cli-fi novels, so I was excited to get my hands on this book. In the flooded city of San Francisco those who won't or can't leave make a live for themselves living on the upper stories of skyscrapers, connecting them together by bridges instead of roads. Young struggling artist Bo takes on a home care assistant position with Mia, an elderly woman in her building, a relationship that becomes increasingly important to each of them.

What I liked: the multi-generational friendship between Bo and Mia -- it was touching and realistic. The memories of a city and its inhabitants inspiring art and creative process. The resilience of the people still living in San Francisco - the market vendors, the young families, the librarian.

What didn't work for me: I never really felt connected to the primary characters, making this a book I had trouble wanting to pick up. It was a much more character-driven plot and for me (personally) I would have liked more information about the dystopian world they were in. Some of the dystopian elements never quite made sense or were explained -- why was Mia so old (i.e. why were humans living so long); why were people still living in a city that was crumbling (what happened to the rest of the world and where was any help); what's with these mushroom walls in their houses and all the things around foods hard to get (why exactly is San Francisco a city that's sort of been abandoned? There's obviously boats). I felt that the plot got too in the weeds with Bo's artistic process and how she created what she created -- too technical. Mia's declining health was just quite depressing to read, with a lot of detail about the parts of her body that were starting to fail and her frailty as the book went on. I think this is a trigger warning for anyone sensitive about the decline of a elderly person (i.e. hospice). I also found Eddie's character a bit strange -- his relationship with Bo; it was missing something for me.

So all in all, when I have to weigh up the things I liked and didn't like about the book I came out sort of neutral on it? If you're looking for a true dystopian novel, perhaps look elsewhere. If you're looking for a touching story about two women making a life in a city that has been forgotten, this may be a book for you.