A review by thestorydragon
All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

✨Introspection and Inner Monologue
✨Neurodivergent Protagonist
✨Beautiful Prose
✨Commentary on Climate / Society / Historical Preservation

Cons:
✨Slow Pace 
✨ Lack of Urgency
✨ Flat Secondary Characters

 

Our narrator in this novel is Nonie, a thirteen-year-old girl who has grown up in what society calls The World As It Is, meaning after the melting of the glaciers, the flooding of the land, and the collapse of the planet’s known climate patterns. Told in both the past and the present, Nonie’s story flips back and forth between the day of the hypercane that sends the main plot of the book spiraling forward, and the time at the beginning of The World As It Is, when her family first fled to the American Museum of Natural History (shortened to Amen) in New York as a means of refuge from the drowning world.

Although it took me a good while to feel immersed in this novel, it’s one that has stuck with me well after reading. I continue to untangle new threads as a news headline or a conversation with a friend or a jaunt out to my car reminds me of a point within this story. I enjoyed Nonie as a protagonist; her voice lent such childlike wisdom to a world so unlike--but not far off from--our own. For all I that this book will stick with me, there a sense of imminence that never quite made it onto the page, and the pacing was slow due to the literary angle of the prose. Still, the concepts explored here, as well as the questions asked, made me pause and think. I cannot wait for Caffall’s next novel. Even if the plot doesn’t grab me by the throat, I know the introspection of the characters will follow me like a shroud, and I love that. 

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