Dystopian Fiction | Book Chatter

All the Water in the World
By Eiren Caffall
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250353528, January 7, 2025, 304 pp.

The Short of It:

Compelling and impossible to put aside. I am still thinking about these characters.

The Rest of It:

The glaciers have melted. Nonie and her family take refuge in the American Museum of Natural History. Nonie’s mother was a researcher there. Those who still had keys in their possession made a home for themselves, only taking from the exhibits when absolutely needed. Finding comfort in the memories of the past, they do their best to preserve and record what they can.

Food is grown in Central Park with the help of others, but after the Hypercane storm, which Nonie predicted, their food stores are gone and they barely make it back to the museum as the worst of it hits. Other families, snatched by the horrific winds leave only their startled faces behind as Nonie replays it over and over again in her mind.

All the world is under water. The story alternates between The World as It Was and The World as it Is. Nonie, naturally gifted with the ability to detect the big storms, becomes a crucial piece of this group as they navigate up the Hudson to what they perceive to be a safe place.

Nonie, her older sister Bix, her father and a family friend named Keller, take off in a canoe with packs on their backs and head into the hostile unknown.

I was absolutely riveted by this book. It’s a harrowing tale of survival. The love that this family has for one another, and the lengths they go to protect each other kept me glued to the pages. Their journey is not easy. They encounter danger at every turn, food scarcity, illness and injury.

As they push through, Nonie can’t help but think of the “before”. These memories are sweet and heartbreaking. Her resilience is admirable as she rallies this family of hers with hope for the future.

The writing is amazing and relentless. Caffall takes you by the hand and doesn’t let go. YOU are in that canoe, feeling those hunger pains, terrified of what tomorrow brings. If the glaciers melted tomorrow this story would be our reality. Terrifying and brutal.

Who do they encounter? Who do they lose along the way? How does one survive when everything is covered in water?

Apocalyptic stories can be too heavy but this one has hope written all over it. It comes out January 7th! Highly recommend. It will be on my fave list at the end of the year.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

I Cheerfully Refuse
By Leif Enger
Grove Press, 9780802162939, April 2024. 336 pp.

The Short of It:

Some books just stop you in your tracks. This is one of them.

The Rest of It:

Rainy and Lark live just off of Lake Superior. Their marriage is pretty wholesome. She is a lover of books and runs a small bookshop. Rainy is a little rough and tumble in appearance but a musician and a romantic at heart. The two are happy, and live a simple existence.

Their lives take a nasty turn after taking in a boarder. Kellen is a strange one. Young, but existing on what is essentially laughing gas. He keeps strange hours and is on the secretive side. The world is slowly changing and Lark and Rainy continue to ponder where this young man fits in.

Then, the unspeakable happens. Their lives are turned completely upside down, Kellen the boarder is gone, and a horrible tragedy is left behind. Did Kellen do this? Did someone else?

Completely bereft, Rainy prepares his small boat and hits the open water to find that elusive thing. Happiness? Peace? But the world is not the same. Towns are overrun by thugs and bullies. Abandoned towns are left with these odd statues taking up residence. What is going on? Some people are fending for themselves, weapons in hand. Others use the downward spiral of the world as an opportunity to take advantage of the weak.

Rainy is at a complete loss until he accidentally runs into a young girl by the name of Sol who needs his help. Sol is like Pippi from Pippi Longstocking! Full of spunk and with a natural tendency to survive. She is the breath of air that Rainy needed and the two form an unbreakable bond.

This story is full of adventure on the high water. Enger puts the reader right on the boat. The sailing terminology, the cold spray when the weather takes a turn, their hunger as they figure out how two can eat with supplies that were hardly enough for one. There are bad guys, a form of “treasure” that makes Rainy and Sol a target, and then there is beautiful music and lovely words from the one book that Lark cherished, a book titled I Cheerfully Refuse.

What a wonderful book!! I cannot sing its praises enough. I laughed and cried. Literally. You will be choked up. It’s slightly dystopian but mostly adventure with plenty of hijinks. Rainy and Sol will forever live in my mind.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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