In a post-apocalyptic world where a city is beset by constant rain and flooding, Bo is one of the last people still remaining. Amidst the protests of her family, who tries to get her to evacuate, she finds a job caring for an elderly woman, and through it rediscovers her passion for art.
This novel deals with themes of memory and remembrance - what it means to respect the past amidst a world that wants to move on. There are moments of juxtaposition between people who have been able to evacuate and live as though their lives have never been upset, and people who are stuck in the floating city with very little companionship or care. This also looks at the theme of community, and how Bo finds companionship and cares for those around her even as her circumstances get more bleak. All in all, it was a poignant and well-written book that I would recommend to those who enjoy semi-introspective fiction.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Another brilliant dystopian read that already feels like a classic. Such an interesting idea that really has you thinking about what could happen

Set against the backdrop of a dystopian world plagued by floods which have severely altered the lives of our characters.
This book delves into some emotional topics, like loss of family in more way than one. As well as showing how our characters handle living in a city which is sinking around them.
I found the writing of this book to be so beautiful and immersive.
It's a very character centered novel and pretty slow paced, which may not work for some, but it's a style that I love, so it drew me in.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read and would definitely recommended if you live character driven narratives, set in interesting worlds with at times poetic writing.

4.5/5

A cli-fi story of the loss of family, friends, history and the city around you. This was emotionally moving to the point of being utterly depressing, but I couldn't help but feel that Mia was used by Bo to deal with the loss of her mother, and her stagnating abilities as an artist, and the amount of times Bo let Mia down was negligent at best.

I really loved the way the book was written. It had a dream like quality and it painted very beautifully the state of the world. I also like the care of the relationship between Mia and Bo. A couple of things felt inconsistent though. By the end of the book Bo’s mum was no longer mentioned and the will she won’t see leave strand felt incongruent that she would actually keep organising it and then not go. Just an opinion obviously and didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the book. Thanks to
NetGalley for the ARC.

An utterly transporting debut novel about the unexpected relationship between an artist and the 130-year-old woman she cares for—two of the last people living in a flooded San Francisco of the future, the home neither is ready to leave. “An astonishing work of art…This is the kind of book that changes you, that leaves you seeing more vividly, and living more fully, in its wake.” Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans knows she should go. Years of rain have drowned the city and almost everyone else has fled. Her mother was carried away in a storm surge and ever since, Bo has been alone. She is stalled: an artist unable to make art, a daughter unable to give up the hope that her mother may still be alive. Half-heartedly, she allows her cousin to plan for her escape but as the departure day approaches, she finds a note slipped under her door from Mia, an elderly woman who lives in her building and wants to hire Bo to be her caregiver. Suddenly, Bo has a reason to stay. Mia can be prickly, and yet still she and Bo forge a connection deeper than any Bo has had with a client. Mia shares stories of her life that pull Bo back toward art, toward the practice she thought she’d abandoned. Listening to Mia, allowing her memories to become entangled with Bo’s own, she’s struck by how much history will be lost as the city gives way to water. Then Mia’s health turns, and Bo determines to honor their disappearing world and this woman who’s brought her back to it, a project that teaches her the lessons that matter most: how to care, how to be present, how to commemorate a life and a place, soon to be lost forever.

A really beautiful debut reminiscent of Rmily St John Mandel, about so much more than the end of the world. Awake in a Floating City is a novel about art and memory, about grief and found family, about what love looks like when nothing else is left. Slow burning, prosaically beautiful, I thoroughly enjoyed.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2025 so believe me when I say I’m bereft this didn’t land for me.

Based on the hype and blurb, I was expecting a climate dystopia; but instead, the primary focus of this book is Bo’s relationship with art and her building a large art installation.

The world-building was so skint. The story takes place in a flooded San Francisco. We can assume this happened as a result of climate breakdown but it’s not explored. Somehow the folks living in this flooded city are able to get money, have rental agreements, send and receive mail, require passports, participate in capitalism… It reads like this is an isolated pocket and the rest of the world has just kept on truckin’. I was distracted by the fact that the pull of the tides and water flooding the bottom three storeys of the apartment blocks wasn’t a more urgent problem than a throwaway sentence mention at 85%.

I couldn’t connect with Bo. Nothing she did made sense to me and I didn’t understand her motivations or actions. She wasn’t a strong character, she was uncommunicative, and infuriatingly passive — I moved from not caring about her to actively disliking her by the end.

The writing style didn’t work for me either. The pace was super slow with info dumps about history, tangential characters, and backstory that it didn’t flow as a cohesive narrative for this reader. The storytelling was heavy on exposition (told largely in Bo’s thoughts) and I struggled to be invested in Bo and Mia’s family histories because I couldn’t connect with them as characters.

If you’re looking for rich dystopian world-building, climate thrills, or sci-fi elements, this might not be the read for you. If you like slow-paced, kinda claustrophobic stories with art as its focus, you might have a better time than I did.

⚠️ Content advisories for this story: detailed description of dying and death of an elderly person.