Den Plot des Buches fand ich gut. In einer nicht allzufernen Zukunft müssen die Menschen in den südlichen USA mit den Folgen des Klimawandels leben - Überschwemmungen in Florida, Dürre in Kalifornien. Im Grunde versucht man weiterzumachen wie vorher auch, aber es wird zunehmend schwieriger, wenn Straßen stets überschwmmt sind und Häuser brennen.
Das fand ich eine sehr gute Basis der Geschichte. Weniger gelungen sind die Personen. Die Geschichte beginnt mit Cat, die im Grunde stets betrunken ist und sich als Haustier eine Tigerpython kauft. Von anderen (Ehemann, Bruder) wird Cat als intelligent beschrieben, aber ihr Leben ist eigentlich völlig sinnentleert und der Kauf der Schlange unbedacht und dumm. Natürlich kann man an ihr die menschliche Entfremdung zur Natur aufzeigen, aber muss sie dazu immer betrunken sein und auch so dümmlich? Ihr Charakter ist mir unklar. Ähnlich ist es aber auch mit ihrem Bruder, Cooper. Der ist Doktorand, arbeitet mit Insekten, wird aber nach der Katastrophe, die ihm wiederfährt irgendwie zu einem verantwortungslosen Frauenvernascher, was vom Typ her überhaupt nicht passt. Ihrer beider Vater Frank ist völlig konturlos und die Mutter Ottilie versucht immer das Richtige zu tun, scheitert aber zunehmend an der unberechenbaren Umwelt.
Also, Fazit: Es liest sich einfach, wenn ich auch immer wieder Probleme hatte, mich zum Weiterlesen aufzuraffen. Die Personen sind nicht ausgereift. Da kenne ich von Boyle viel besseres, das liest sich wie eine Fingerübung. Das Thema ist wichtig und interessant gelöst. Also für mich ein mittelgutes Buch mit Tendenz nach oben, daher 3,5 Punkte. ( )

Deteriorating climate not so much as a backdrop, but as a lingering, intensifying process that starts off as a bunch of anomalies and ends with California resembling Saudi-Arabia, killing a lot of bugs and affecting a lot of people as it goes.
But the focus is telling the stories of the members of one family as this process steps it up a notch, predicting, not accepting, trying to adapt to - or ignore - the changes. In the end, it doesn't even matter, as it is all too late anyway.
Oddly, the book ends on a note of optimism and hopefulness - that seems to come from nowhere, really. I guess it makes sense, since "Blue Skies" is, despite its insights and good research, not an analysis on real climate change, but a work of fiction. Probably the hope is meant as purely fictional too.
Very nicely done: Splitting the plot between Miami and California as settings for very different characters as well as weather phenomena.

Only a really good author could make me really like this book about some of the most self-centered, shallow, unlikeable people. The opening chapter has a young woman buying a python so she can wear "like jewelry" around her shoulders. She is engaged to a representative for a rum company. They live on the beach in Florida. Her mother and brother still live in California where it is so hot and never rains. The brother is an insect expert who is very fearful of the future of the earth.

The characters drink a lot of wine, think they are doing their part to help the world (such as by eating insects) but they are actually so removed from any kind of real awareness of the needs of others.

Cat, the young woman, becomes pregnant, she and her fiancee marry and have twins. One of the most horrifying scenes in the book involves the snake and one of the twins.

The chapters are short, the writing is excellent, and the story pulled me in. ( )

This one meandered a bit more than many of his books, but not much more so than the ones that don't have a driving plot or goal. It's a sermon baked into a slice-of-life type of book and it was easy to see where things would go when babies are introduced into a very large snake's environment. What I didn't understand was why charges were dropped. I expected it to be in order to not have an acquittal or mistrial so they could charge her again with more evidence to bring a conviction, but no further action was taken. Weird. Not weird was Todd's running away. In a book full of basically idiots and assholes, he was the worst. ( )

Good, but not great. If Carl Hiaasen and Tom Wolfe had a baby in novel form. There is a levity and absurdty to the characters and events that make it easily digestible, and Boyle is able to create a viable look at intensified climate change and how it changes the course and patterns of daily life. It is satisfying, but not memorable. ( )