Interestingly, I only have seven January books to review. So, they all go in one post, yay! Luckily this was a pretty awesome batch, too. (Don’t worry, I get to snark a little next month 🙊!)

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
After Life by Gayle Forman
A Sea of Unspoken Things by Adrienne Young
Old Soul by Susan Barker
This Is the Year by Gloria Muñoz
Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan
The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
Published by St. Martin's Press on January 7, 2025
Pages: 304
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

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.

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.

All the Water in the World was a really good one! It follows a teen girl and her family (both biological and found) as they navigate the water apocalypse. I love an apocalypse, and let’s be honest, the water one is the only kind I stand a chance in. I really loved the characters, oddly enough, especially the side characters. Honestly, I could have read entire books just about each of them. And the world building was great, too! It was exciting, and I was wholly invested throughout. And the atmosphere was absolutely on point. I felt the sogginess, you know?

Also, this would make an *amazing* show. Can we please get someone on this? A water world with a great cast of characters whose backstories are as provocative as their current stories, with unlimited world, plot, and character development potential is just… it’s the apocalypse show I need. So if someone can do me a solid and grab the rights to this ASAP, I’d be forever grateful. 

Bottom Line: This one was a huge hit, now can I please watch it somewhere, too?

After Life by Gayle Forman
Published by Quill Tree Books on January 7, 2025
Pages: 272
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Edelweiss

"After Life is a masterful tale about a family coping with loss, showing the way grief affects us and people we don't even know in ways we don't see. Once I met Amber and her family, I didn't want to let them go." -—Brigid Kemmerer, New York Times bestselling author of Carving Shadows into Stone

"Forman is a master at making her readers fall in love—with a girl whose life is over, with a community of people in a small town who are barely surviving her loss, and with the incredible, surprising way everyone's stories knit together into a heartbreaking and hopeful whole." —E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud

One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It’s just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber’s mom sees her, she screams.

Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle she’s inexplicably riding now.

This return doesn’t only impact Amber. Her sister, Melissa, now seven years older, must be a new kind of sibling to Amber. Amber’s estranged parents are battling over her. And the changes ripple farther and farther Amber’s friends, boyfriend, and even people she met only once have been deeply affected by her life and death. In the midst of everyone’s turmoil, Amber is struggling with herself. What kind of person was she? How and why was she given this second chance?

This magnificent tour de force by acclaimed author Gayle Forman brilliantly explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.

I flew through After Life, needing to know how things were going to work out, because I cared so very deeply for the characters. Obviously, this is incredibly emotionally provocative and thought provoking. I mean, what the heck would you do if someone you loved and missed dearly came back? And on the flip side, what the heck would you do if it was you coming back? There is a bit of a spiritual tone to this one, too. A bit religious, but not preachy- more of a “having faith” discussion, which I really welcomed as I was (am) dealing with a lot of my own questions on the subject. 

The story obviously deals with a lot of sadness and grief, but there is such a hopeful undertone to the story. I loved the connections the book makes too, which sounds vague and that is because I mean it to sound vague. Just read the thing if you want to know, I promise you won’t regret doing so! This is such a lovely story about family and grief and trying to pick up the pieces after the unimaginable. Just beautiful.

Bottom Line: This one got me right in the feels as only Ms. Forman can.  I found the whole thing to be both heartbreaking and wonderfully hopeful.

A Sea of Unspoken Things by Adrienne Young
Published by Delacorte Press on January 7, 2025
Pages: 288
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

A woman investigates her brother's mysterious death while coming to terms with her own haunting past in this atmospheric novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Unmaking of June Farrow

The only thing James and Johnny Golden have ever had is each other. For as long as she can remember, James’s deep connection with her twin brother, Johnny, has gone beyond intuition—she can feel what he feels. So, when Johnny is killed in a tragic accident, James knows before her phone even rings that her brother is gone and that she’s alone—truly alone—for the first time in her life.

When James arrives in the rural town of Hawthorne, California to settle her brother’s affairs, she’s forced to rehash the ominous past she and Johnny shared and finally face Micah, the only person who knows about it. He’s also the only man she’s ever loved.

But James soon discovers that the strange connection she had with Johnny isn’t quite gone, and the more she immerses herself into his world, the more questions she has about the brother she thought she knew. Johnny was keeping secrets, and he’s not the only one. What she uncovers will push her to unravel what happened in the days before Johnny’s death, but in the end, she’ll have to decide which truths should come to light, and which should stay buried forever.

So here is what I loved about A Sea of Unspoken Things:

• I loved the romance aspect of this one. Okay Idk why I even fell so hard for the romance between James and Micah, but I did, and I won’t apologize for it. 
• I also loved the small town secrets thing. Small towns are so messy! Especially when everyone knows everyone, and they’re all isolated, etc. Fabulous! 
• The vibe as a whole was pretty solid. I mean, you felt the uneasiness, and the isolation. As always, the author nailed it.
• The mystery definitely kept me wanting to know what happened. Even if I did guess a few of the things, I was never sure-sure, if that makes sense?

There were some moments that I did find a little predictable, but not too much so. And look, there were also a lot of things I didn’t figure out, so that was good! And it was perhaps a little slower in some places, but again, nothing that was a dealbreaker.

Bottom Line:  Overall, a solid mystery/romance/thriller, and I am eagerly anticipating whatever Adrienne Young writes next!

Old Soul by Susan Barker
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on January 28, 2025
Pages: 352
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

The woman never goes by the same name.She never stays in the same place too long.She never ages. She never dies.
But those around her do.

When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.

Each encountered a mesmerizing, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko - and then disappeared.

Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko's revelations. It's a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died - in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways - and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.

And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.

But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?

I wrote this when I was about 3/4 of the way through: “I am very intrigued by the whole premise, and how these people are connected. I really enjoy the stories of the folks who have been affected by this… woman? Entity? Whatever. Anyway, they all have some pretty messy and compelling stories. The book does feel longer than its pages imply, but it isn’t a huge deal. It may be that I am interested and want to decipher all the clues so I am reading extra carefully. In fact, let’s go with that.”

So to say, I was quite enjoying it! Even though it felt long, I did like it a lot. But you know what I did not like? The ending. I think some other readers may appreciate it more than I did, but alas. That isn’t to say the book wasn’t worth it, but… be prepared. If you need an ending that won’t make you stabby, this may not be it.

Bottom Line: It’s very well and intricately developed, except I need a redo on the ending.

This Is the Year by Gloria Muñoz
Published by Holiday House on January 7, 2025
Pages: 368
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Written in a hybrid of prose and verse, this spare and lyrical YA cli-fi imagines a climate-ravaged future through the eyes of a teen girl torn between the urge to fight for a better world and the impulse to run away.

"This is the year. Yes, Ofe, on this gloomy first day of my last year of high school, I swear before your grave, Hermana, this is the year I am getting out of here."

So swears Julieta Villareal, a seventeen-year-old wannabe writer whose twin sister died in a hit-and-run a few months ago. Juli’s Florida home is crumbling in the face of climate disaster, and with Ofelia gone, Juli can’t stand to stay any longer in a place that doesn’t seem to have room for her. She’s not sure how she’s going to do it—everyone knows brown-skinned, poverty-stricken New Americans like Juli have no options—but she’s getting out.

Then, Juli is recruited by the Cometa Initiative, a private space program enlisting high-aptitude New American teens for a high-stakes mission to establish a human sanctuary on the Moon. Cometa pitches this as an opportunity for Juli to give back to her adopted country; Juli sees it as her only chance to do something big with her life.

Juli begins her training, convinced Cometa is her path to freedom. But her senior year is full of surprises, including new friendships and fresh love, and against all odds, Juli begins to find hope where she was sure there wasn’t any. As her world collapses from the ramifications—both environmental and social—of the climate crisis, Juli must decide if she’ll carry her loss together with her community or leave it all behind.

A gripping prose narrative interspersed with poems from Juli’s writing journal, this genre-bending novel explores themes of immigration, climate justice, and the power of communities.

Why do I not remember this book? But I liked it. I remember that much. Admittedly, that doesn’t seem like a great endorsement, but also I have really been through it, so cut me some slack. Or don’t, I actually don’t care. Anyway, after I started reading my notes from this I did start to remember more. Juli’s lost her sister, and she is really struggling. She’s sort of shut herself out from the world, including her old pals. And when her school hosts a company planning to send new graduates into space, Juli is ready to GTFO of the whole planet. 

It’s set in a near future, we’ve gone and messed up Earth even more than we already have, to the surprise of no one. So this group is supposed to be helping to build a new colony on the Moon- basically to replace a dying Earth, as it were. There are some red flags, but Juli cares zero percent- she just wants to escape her life and the loss of her sister. Only, turns out you cannot escape grief. She also finds herself navigating relationships, both old and new, and trying to figure out how these relationships work outside of her sister’s orbit.

It’s a really lovely story, obviously emotional, but also uplifting because Juli is still putting one foot in front of the other. The ending was… well, it was a little silly? But I couldn’t really fault it too much, because the book as a whole was really quite good. I enjoyed Juli picking up the pieces, and learning so much about herself and her friends along the way.

Bottom Line: A lovely story about a young woman figuring out how to keep going after an unimaginable loss.

Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan
Published by Greenwillow Books on January 21, 2025
Pages: 400
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Edelweiss

It is 1846 and Ireland is starving.

The potatoes are black, people are dying and in the midst of it all Nell must do everything she can to keep her family together, and everyone she loves alive. Even if it means giving up her every want, dream and desire.

From multi-award-winning author Sarah Crossan comes a stirring, heart-wrenching novel that explores the value we place on humanity and asks can you survive on love alone?

Bottom Line: Beautifully written with all the feels, this is why I never turn down a Sarah Crossan book!

The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks
Published by Angry Robot on January 14, 2025
Pages: 400
Format:ARC, eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review

When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND.

As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone… is up.

And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent – and death stalks their every move.

Bottom Line: Very exciting and high stakes, but also delivered on the characters and relationships, too!

Have you read any of these books? Plan to? Let us chat about them!