Review: The Tear Collector by R.M. Romero

The Tear Collector
R.M. Romero
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published October 14, 2025

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About The Tear Collector

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.

My Review

With her signature darkly whimsical writing, Romero introduces readers to a small island populated with survivors of a catastrophic flood. They subsist on items that wash up on the shore, scavenging for signs of life before the flood. The island community has a very rigid heirarchy, with a rich man at the top. He kidnaps any residents who become the Sorrowful, people who lose hope and grow animal-like characteristics. It’s a desperate way to live, and one that no one challenges until Olivia and her plane crashland on the island.

Olivia’s presence changes everything. Suddenly, someone voices the injustice and asks the difficult questions out loud. Someone offers the islanders hope, the thing they most desperately need and are most afraid to grasp.

I really enjoyed the reminder of how important hope is. Earlier in the story, the islanders are scared of remembering the past and feeling sad. They worry that if they think of sad things, they’ll lose hope. But, of course, they come to discover that sometimes remembering the sad things gives them reasons to hope for the future. I liked that the story explored that nuance a bit.

At one point Olivia needs a new engine for her plane. She and another character carry one from a car over to the plane to install it. I don’t think that would work in real life, but I was content to suspend my disbelief.

Throughout the book, I kept asking myself whether the story was stigmatizing depression. It clearly isn’t the author’s intent, and the difference between grief and depression doesn’t really come up in the story. That might have been something interesting to explore or to include in a note at the end.

All in all, I think readers who enjoy standalone fantasy about siblings will love this one. Give this to fans of The Firebird Song by Arnée Flores.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
People who lose hope transform by growing extra limbs, fur, wings, antlers, etc.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. One character enslaves others and imprisons them in his basement.

Drug Content
An adult character drinks champagne at a party.

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