When the World Sinks and Memories Turn Deadly: Enter "The Tear Collector"
- Kim Bartosch
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
Something dark is lurking after the end of the world… and it might be closer than you think.
✨ I’m thrilled to be featuring The Tear Collector by R. M. Romero, a haunting and heartfelt middle-grade fantasy coming October 14, 2025, from Little, Brown and Company — and I’m joining this magical tour thanks to Toppling Stacks Tours!
📖 In this post-apocalyptic world drowned by climate catastrophe, siblings Malka and Ezra cling to survival on the last known scrap of land. But when Ezra falls ill with the Sorrow—a terrifying condition that turns grief into monstrous transformation—Malka must race against memory and myth to save him. And when a mysterious outsider crashes into their isolated existence with a spark of hope, everything Malka thought she knew begins to unravel…
💔 Monsters, memory, and a rising tide of truth — The Tear Collector promises a powerful blend of fantasy and eco-awareness, crafted for young readers but sure to stir older hearts too.
🌱 With lyrical prose and a poignant message about climate anxiety, family, and the weight of memory, this one is at the top of my fall reading list!
📌 Keep an eye out for my full review coming soon, but if you love:
🌊 Dark middle grade fantasy
🧬 Sci-fi meets folklore
💔 Stories about siblings & survival
📚 Climate fiction with heart
…then this one might be your next favorite. Preorder now and get ready for a hauntingly beautiful adventure. I know I'm looking forward to reading this one.
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Publishing date: October 14, 2025
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Synopsis:
This darkly fantastical climate change tale explores hope, memory, and what really makes a monster—set after the end of the world.
Climate change culminated in the Flood, an enormous wave that wiped out entire countries. Malka and her younger brother Ezra survived and now live with Dr. Jonas Hollman on the Island, the only piece of land left on Earth. Scavenging useful things from the shoreline under the watchful eye of the Island’s sinister leader Mr. Gray, Malka and her family get by. Barely.
But an illness called the Sorrow is changing people into monsters when their memories of the Mainland grow too sad…and Ezra is the latest to get sick. Desperate not to lose her brother, Malka throws herself into helping “Uncle” Jonas with his research to find a cure.
Then her family’s dismal lives are turned upside down by the mysterious Olivia, who crashes a plane on the beach. More people are out there, she says. The world isn’t lost forever. To save Ezra and the other Islanders, Malka will have to uncover the secrets of her flooded world—and the lies even the people she loves have told her about the true nature of the Sorrow.
R.M. Romero tackles our fear and anxiety surrounding climate change and weaves it through with hope in this beautifully told adventure that will resonate with readers young and old.
Content Warning: child endangerment, kidnapping, natural disaster
R. M. Romero (she/they) is a Jewish Latina and internationally bestselling author of fairy tales for children and adults. She lives in Miami Beach with her cat, Robin Goodfellow, and spends her summers helping to maintain Jewish cemeteries in Europe. Her work has been named an Indie Next Pick, a Jewish National Book Award Finalist, a two time Sydney Taylor Notable Book, a Carnegie Award nominee, a Best Book the Year by Kirkus, BCCB, Bank Street College of Education, SLJ, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library, and received multiple starred reviews.
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