She Treads Softly: All the Water in the World

Thursday, December 5, 2024

All the Water in the World

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
1/7/25; 304 pages
St. Martin's Press

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall is a recommended climate science fiction dystopian novel set in a flooded world.

When a massive hurricane (hypercane) slams into New York City and breaches the flood walls, 13-year-old Nonie her older sister Bix, their father Allan, and another adult man, Keller, are the only survivors from their demolished settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The group uses a birchbark canoe from the museum's collections and head through the flooded city to the Hudson. Their goal is to paddle north to a family owned farm in Tyringham, Mass. As they fight for survival and look for a safe place, they carry with them a notebook that holds their records of the lost collections from the museum.

This slow paced dystopian tale of a flooded world unfolds through the point-of-view of Nonie. Chapters follow the present day and past events. Breaking up the present day struggles with tales from the past slowed down the novel and my interest in it. It does focus on building community and preserving knowledge, which will resonate with most readers.

Honestly, the writing, the narrator, and the plot make this novel suitable for a YA reader and I'm rating it based on a reader around age 14+. Adult readers of science fiction and post-apocalyptic tales will be expecting a fast-paced, grittier story with much more realism, action, and depth. The plot has been seen before and none of the challenges they face are unexpected, but they also aren't as realistic, gruesome or formidable as one would expect. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

No comments:

Post a Comment

John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.