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Everything to the Sea: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 14 Jul 26Part riveting love story, part coming-of-age tale, Everything to the Sea is a breathtaking debut novel spanning years and shores after a sudden tsunami devastates the island of Hawai’i and cuts short a young couple’s budding romance—a deeply moving testament to the catastrophes love can endure.
This is how the story goes: Jane will fall in love. And then all of this will vanish.
Home for one final summer, Jane is working and saving cash for her senior year of college before she leaves her island town behind forever. At first, she doesn’t remember Kenji, but he quickly becomes someone she can’t forget: square jaw, a dimple in his cheek. A Hilo boy. To Kenji, she’s Janie, nose perpetually buried in her old high school sketchbooks. Jane tells herself it’s only a fling—one perfect, carefree summer, on her way to achieving her dream of becoming an architect and moving to the continent.
Then a tsunami sweeps their families out to sea, and their all-consuming affair breaks with the weight of grief, pulling them in opposite directions. Kenji remains in Hawai’i, bound by duty to rebuild their hometown. Jane, shattered by the loss, follows her best friend to California. For seven years, an ocean lies between them, until Jane and Kenji meet on another coast . . .
In prose that sparkles like sun on the water, Upano’s debut novel tells the unforgettable story of two young people as they come of age, fall in love, forge new families, and try to find their way back together, again and again. Everything to the Sea is a moving portrait of our ability to overcome even the most devastating tragedies, when everything else is washed away.
This is how the story goes: Jane will fall in love. And then all of this will vanish.
Home for one final summer, Jane is working and saving cash for her senior year of college before she leaves her island town behind forever. At first, she doesn’t remember Kenji, but he quickly becomes someone she can’t forget: square jaw, a dimple in his cheek. A Hilo boy. To Kenji, she’s Janie, nose perpetually buried in her old high school sketchbooks. Jane tells herself it’s only a fling—one perfect, carefree summer, on her way to achieving her dream of becoming an architect and moving to the continent.
Then a tsunami sweeps their families out to sea, and their all-consuming affair breaks with the weight of grief, pulling them in opposite directions. Kenji remains in Hawai’i, bound by duty to rebuild their hometown. Jane, shattered by the loss, follows her best friend to California. For seven years, an ocean lies between them, until Jane and Kenji meet on another coast . . .
In prose that sparkles like sun on the water, Upano’s debut novel tells the unforgettable story of two young people as they come of age, fall in love, forge new families, and try to find their way back together, again and again. Everything to the Sea is a moving portrait of our ability to overcome even the most devastating tragedies, when everything else is washed away.
352 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 14, 2026
1 person is currently reading
140 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 9, 2025
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Love can feel like a tsunami. It often begins quietly, beneath the surface, but when it reaches you, it is undeniable. It permanently alters and reshapes who you are, leaving lasting imprints and reconfiguring your internal map. It’s an astonishing display of beauty and might, unable to be controlled, but only responded to.
This is why it was such an apt analogy, and it perfectly encapsulated the relationship between Kenji and Jane. This book was really good. It took a unique angle on the “love that withstands the test of time” trope and made it feel fresh. I loved the setting, and although their behavior drove me crazy at times, I understood the push and pull nature of their enduring love. Timing is often everything in matters of the heart, and following these two through the years as they pursued and retreated felt familiar, poignant, and heartbreaking.
What a great debut from Upano. I’ll be looking forward to more from her in the future.
Love can feel like a tsunami. It often begins quietly, beneath the surface, but when it reaches you, it is undeniable. It permanently alters and reshapes who you are, leaving lasting imprints and reconfiguring your internal map. It’s an astonishing display of beauty and might, unable to be controlled, but only responded to.
This is why it was such an apt analogy, and it perfectly encapsulated the relationship between Kenji and Jane. This book was really good. It took a unique angle on the “love that withstands the test of time” trope and made it feel fresh. I loved the setting, and although their behavior drove me crazy at times, I understood the push and pull nature of their enduring love. Timing is often everything in matters of the heart, and following these two through the years as they pursued and retreated felt familiar, poignant, and heartbreaking.
What a great debut from Upano. I’ll be looking forward to more from her in the future.
October 28, 2025
this is the kind of book that reminds me why i love reading so much. i was captivated by every single page. such a beautiful story that perfectly depicts loss, grief, healing, and rebuilding everything from scratch, including yourself. this is an unforgettable love story but more than anything, a tale of the strength it takes to carry on living after so much pain. alice upano is a painter of world building and layered characters, truly an incredible storyteller. grateful that i got to read this! i will carry these characters in my heart, i cried countless times.
January 5, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this book before its release!
There are a lot of things I liked about this book, and a few things that weren’t quite up my alley. In the end it’s certainly a heart-wrenching story about a place and a people whose voices need more amplification. The writing style just wasn’t my cup of tea and some of the character development felt forced.
As a debut novel, this was a great effort and I would certainly read more of the author’s future work.
There are a lot of things I liked about this book, and a few things that weren’t quite up my alley. In the end it’s certainly a heart-wrenching story about a place and a people whose voices need more amplification. The writing style just wasn’t my cup of tea and some of the character development felt forced.
As a debut novel, this was a great effort and I would certainly read more of the author’s future work.
November 30, 2025
“Everything to the Sea” is a beautiful story about love, loss, grief, family, community, and forgiveness—a profound exploration of losing yourself and finding yourself again. This emotional and poetic book captures how people navigate the aftermath of tragedy, examining the choices we make and the hope that love and faith can lead us home to ourselves.
Thank you to Netgalley for the eArc
Thank you to Netgalley for the eArc
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December 29, 2025Everything to the Sea by Alicia Upano is a coming of age novel that spans more than a decade. Set in Hawai’i, the novel follows Jane in her last summer home from college before she graduates and sets her sights on the ‘main continent’ for her post-college life. Enter Kenji. Jane had initially planned to entertain Kenji only as a summer fling, but their relationship grew more intense as the summer days ticked away, and she convinces him to come with her when she returns to her college campus. That decision will be one that changes the course of both of their lives when a few days later they watch a tsunami sweep away their hometown. The remaining majority of the novel follows how their paths diverge and reconverge again and again in the aftermath and aftershocks of the natural disaster.
I read through this novel pretty quickly. I found Jane and Kenji’s story compelling for the most part, and was really interested to read about the island in recovery, and Kenji’s dedication to being part of the rebuilding of Hilo. The way that Kenji dealt with his survivor grief read like a realistic depiction of how this might play out. I also appreciated the nuance that Upano wrote about the aftermath of the disaster. The bureaucracy and politics following a natural disaster is in some ways worse than the natural disaster itself, and Upano did not shy away from this here. She also wrote beautifully about the way a community comes together in the after. I thought this section was some of the most interesting and strongest written of the novel.
That being said, I really did not like Jane’s character and for this reason found it very difficult to care about what happened to her. While I can forgive Jane some of her more childish behaviors in her early 20s, I found many of her unforgiveable, and further, unrealistic? If a tsunami came and washed my family into the sea, I would be on the first plane/boat/train back home to look for them. Thus, Jane’s decision to stay back at school, especially after Kenji asked her to come back with him, was confusing to me. This was the first of many selfish and self-destructive behaviors that made it difficult, at least for me, to care about Jane’s character, and her outcome(s). In nearly all her relationships she was a taker, it was as if she expected the entire world to always revolve around her. Though her character arcs a bit by the end of the novel, it was too late, I had already divested. I love a flawed/grey character but I did not find her to have many? redeeming qualities.
Despite this, I still thought Everything to the Sea was an interesting read and would recommend it!
Thank you to William Morrow and Company Publishing, Alicia Upano, and NetGalley for an e-copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.
I read through this novel pretty quickly. I found Jane and Kenji’s story compelling for the most part, and was really interested to read about the island in recovery, and Kenji’s dedication to being part of the rebuilding of Hilo. The way that Kenji dealt with his survivor grief read like a realistic depiction of how this might play out. I also appreciated the nuance that Upano wrote about the aftermath of the disaster. The bureaucracy and politics following a natural disaster is in some ways worse than the natural disaster itself, and Upano did not shy away from this here. She also wrote beautifully about the way a community comes together in the after. I thought this section was some of the most interesting and strongest written of the novel.
That being said, I really did not like Jane’s character and for this reason found it very difficult to care about what happened to her. While I can forgive Jane some of her more childish behaviors in her early 20s, I found many of her unforgiveable, and further, unrealistic? If a tsunami came and washed my family into the sea, I would be on the first plane/boat/train back home to look for them. Thus, Jane’s decision to stay back at school, especially after Kenji asked her to come back with him, was confusing to me. This was the first of many selfish and self-destructive behaviors that made it difficult, at least for me, to care about Jane’s character, and her outcome(s). In nearly all her relationships she was a taker, it was as if she expected the entire world to always revolve around her. Though her character arcs a bit by the end of the novel, it was too late, I had already divested. I love a flawed/grey character but I did not find her to have many? redeeming qualities.
Despite this, I still thought Everything to the Sea was an interesting read and would recommend it!
Thank you to William Morrow and Company Publishing, Alicia Upano, and NetGalley for an e-copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2026
“Everything to the Sea” by Alicia Upano is a well-written coming of age novel and a beautiful debut. It is a story of Hawaii and what it means to be part of its culture and its people. Jane thinks she must escape from Hilo. She wants to be bigger than a small-town Island girl. She dreams of moving to the mainland and becoming an architect. Yet, when she falls in love, it is with a Hilo boy. For Jane, Kenji represents home.
Upano does a beautiful job of introducing the reader to the culture and value of a close-knit loving community. I enjoyed the love story between Jane and Kenji, but what I will take with me is the love story between Upano and Hawaii. I fell in love with the community, the inescapable connectivity, and the desire to do right by each other, even when the path isn’t clear or easy. While much of the plot is generated by a tsunami, the novel celebrates life and the beauty of connection and giving. In the novel, Kenji creates an art exhibit focused on the subjective experience of the tsunami. He wants people to be able to experience how it felt. In a sense, this is what Alicia Upano has done in “Everything to the Sea”. We experience the natural disaster through the characters and feel it’s aftershocks in the ways they deal with the trauma. We travel with them through grief and horror, and eventually to healing and self-discovery. In the end, this is a novel about what it means to choose to live and love in this world where everything can all be swept away in an instant.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Upano does a beautiful job of introducing the reader to the culture and value of a close-knit loving community. I enjoyed the love story between Jane and Kenji, but what I will take with me is the love story between Upano and Hawaii. I fell in love with the community, the inescapable connectivity, and the desire to do right by each other, even when the path isn’t clear or easy. While much of the plot is generated by a tsunami, the novel celebrates life and the beauty of connection and giving. In the novel, Kenji creates an art exhibit focused on the subjective experience of the tsunami. He wants people to be able to experience how it felt. In a sense, this is what Alicia Upano has done in “Everything to the Sea”. We experience the natural disaster through the characters and feel it’s aftershocks in the ways they deal with the trauma. We travel with them through grief and horror, and eventually to healing and self-discovery. In the end, this is a novel about what it means to choose to live and love in this world where everything can all be swept away in an instant.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
December 7, 2025
This debut was a masterpiece.
Each page, a constant reminder: Life will always be unpredictable. No amount of prepping will save you from the pain of heartbreak and loss. Time is wasted worrying about the “right” and “wrong” choices. Love is complex; humans, even more so. Living is making mistakes, accepting the inevitable.
Throughout the novel, Jane and Kenji struggle to find meaning in their lives after a catastrophic tsunami destroys everything and everyone they love.
Their first “official” meeting as newly fresh adults was a heartwarming event. Their paths unknowingly crossed back when they were teenagers in high school, each in their own little worlds, unaware of a shared connection, until that very moment. Jane’s recollection of Kenji was amusing to read, and Kenji’s memories of her made me scream.
A perfect setup, right? What could go wrong? How could you not stick around for the drama?
Experiencing Hawaii’s landscape through their respective gazes was hauntingly beautiful. This book painted a stunning picture of its beauty and of the people who lived there.
That tsunami was a beast. The fear associated with this phenomenon isn’t unfounded; it wipes out everything in a split second—It's terrifying! Cannot imagine how these characters felt in that moment.
All in all, I loved this book! The structure felt like a K-drama (which I also love), filled with angst, drama, tragedy, romance, and HOPE—actually, this was way better. You are intimately and uncomfortably inside their heads, understanding their motives and dreams, seeing ALL their faults and ugliness. Greatly impacted my reading experience; it made the voices of these characters REAL and powerful, it made me WANT to listen, to follow them through the trauma and suffering, where eventually, they end up in a place full of peace and safety.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC. This is my honest review.
Each page, a constant reminder: Life will always be unpredictable. No amount of prepping will save you from the pain of heartbreak and loss. Time is wasted worrying about the “right” and “wrong” choices. Love is complex; humans, even more so. Living is making mistakes, accepting the inevitable.
Throughout the novel, Jane and Kenji struggle to find meaning in their lives after a catastrophic tsunami destroys everything and everyone they love.
Their first “official” meeting as newly fresh adults was a heartwarming event. Their paths unknowingly crossed back when they were teenagers in high school, each in their own little worlds, unaware of a shared connection, until that very moment. Jane’s recollection of Kenji was amusing to read, and Kenji’s memories of her made me scream.
A perfect setup, right? What could go wrong? How could you not stick around for the drama?
Experiencing Hawaii’s landscape through their respective gazes was hauntingly beautiful. This book painted a stunning picture of its beauty and of the people who lived there.
That tsunami was a beast. The fear associated with this phenomenon isn’t unfounded; it wipes out everything in a split second—It's terrifying! Cannot imagine how these characters felt in that moment.
All in all, I loved this book! The structure felt like a K-drama (which I also love), filled with angst, drama, tragedy, romance, and HOPE—actually, this was way better. You are intimately and uncomfortably inside their heads, understanding their motives and dreams, seeing ALL their faults and ugliness. Greatly impacted my reading experience; it made the voices of these characters REAL and powerful, it made me WANT to listen, to follow them through the trauma and suffering, where eventually, they end up in a place full of peace and safety.
Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC. This is my honest review.
December 2, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book! I enjoyed reading this book. Although, I’ll note that it may not be the typical hallmark movie romance that someone might want to read when they think of a romance.
This is a sad story in some ways, simply because two lovers find themselves enthralled with each other but both making mistakes and it is very much a right person, wrong time for both of them. So just when their love is boiling over and you think this is the happy ending, something ruins it and they have to start over again. Years go by in this story and the young love that you started with is not the love that lasts.
The ending makes me wonder if these two will have a second chance in another novel. But for now, they part ways to maybe see each other again in the future.
What I love about it, is that it seems so real. This felt like a story that could have happened to anyone. It feels like this could have been based on someone’s real life love story. High school sweet hearts who found each other later in life type of story. Romance novels are great but they are always so hot and heavy and you’re flying by the seat of your pants wondering how people can fall in love with just weeks of time between them. So I really appreciate seeing the other side of the possibilities within the romance world.
This is a sad story in some ways, simply because two lovers find themselves enthralled with each other but both making mistakes and it is very much a right person, wrong time for both of them. So just when their love is boiling over and you think this is the happy ending, something ruins it and they have to start over again. Years go by in this story and the young love that you started with is not the love that lasts.
The ending makes me wonder if these two will have a second chance in another novel. But for now, they part ways to maybe see each other again in the future.
What I love about it, is that it seems so real. This felt like a story that could have happened to anyone. It feels like this could have been based on someone’s real life love story. High school sweet hearts who found each other later in life type of story. Romance novels are great but they are always so hot and heavy and you’re flying by the seat of your pants wondering how people can fall in love with just weeks of time between them. So I really appreciate seeing the other side of the possibilities within the romance world.
November 14, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I enjoyed this story about Jane and Kenji and their challenging relationship that spanned close to ten years. This story focuses on their relationship and their reaction to a tsunami that hit Hilo, Hawaii while they were in Honolulu and the ensuing death and destruction and their subsequent life style in the aftermath. Kenji returns to Hilo and rebuilds his life there, while Jane refuses to return and stays in Honolulu, this lifestyle of subsequent reunions and breakups is the basis of this story with different locations and timelines. Jane and Kenji each have their own desires, ambitions , needs and trust issues. The ending is somewhat uplifting with both characters realizing their own strengths and weaknesses and coming around full circle. I appreciate the tie in to the tsunami and I enjoyed learning about some Hawaiian history and culture.
November 20, 2025
Despite the book blurb, I was unprepared for how deeply emotional and intensely felt every piece of Everything to the Sea would be.
Upano captures the nuances of the differing perspectives/approaches to life for folks who grew up in a small town and couples that with the intense and merciless reality of natural disasters. Every emotion was conveyed in the most visceral of ways, and had me near tears—and I'm not even an emotional reader! I truly felt that this was so well-crafted and beautiful, honoring the whole spectrum of what one might feel if they survived such a disaster, even the feelings we don't want to acknowledge. Definitely recommend for anyone who is looking for a book that promises hope, even when it feels like there's nothing left in the world.
Upano captures the nuances of the differing perspectives/approaches to life for folks who grew up in a small town and couples that with the intense and merciless reality of natural disasters. Every emotion was conveyed in the most visceral of ways, and had me near tears—and I'm not even an emotional reader! I truly felt that this was so well-crafted and beautiful, honoring the whole spectrum of what one might feel if they survived such a disaster, even the feelings we don't want to acknowledge. Definitely recommend for anyone who is looking for a book that promises hope, even when it feels like there's nothing left in the world.
December 9, 2025
A devastating tsunami causes the separation of Jane and Kenji for them each to deal with their grief. This was a heartwrenching then heartwarming book. It was beautifully written and atmospheric. Jane kind of drove me crazy at times, but mostly I liked her. I absolutely loved Kenji. I also had a hard time getting into the writing style, but once I did I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend this to people who are fans of literary fiction with a subplot of romance.
Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read this early. The opinion in this review is my own.
Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read this early. The opinion in this review is my own.
November 7, 2025
Beautiful and poetically written. The natural disaster (tsunami) added much to the plot and I loved the comparison to the struggles of love. I was really rooting for Jane and Kenji, both apart and together. The theme of coming of age as well as dealing with grief made this book relatable to me. The overall plot was brilliant and made for a unique story from start to finish. What a beautiful read. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
January 14, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy, I loved this book. It’s a story of love, loss and redemption. Finding yourself and your home after unimaginable tragedy. Despite the title, this story teaches us that not everything is lost to the sea after a tsunami. It follows Jane as she comes to terms with loss and destruction, finally finding herself and a purpose (and love). Beautifully written, I loved it.
October 27, 2025
4.5 ⭐️ Phenomenal but oh so painful. I cannot wait to reread this on audio
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews