I was really torn throughout the book, finding myself either thoroughly engrossed, or hurriedly skimming over entire pages just to get to something interesting.
The premise is fascinating - a young Appalachian housewife discovers a colony of countless millions of monarch butterflies nesting in the forest above her house. They should be in Mexico, riding out the colder months in a decidedly milder climate, but instead, they have made their winter home in the mountains of Tennessee.
Soon, Dellarobia Turnbow is an international figure and the butterflies themselves attract unwanted publicity and strife within her family - specifically between her and her husband Cub.
A scientist appears, Dr. Ovid Byron, an expert in the field of monarch butterflies wishing to study the phenomenon. Soon Dellarobia is caught up in the plight of the fragile creatures and begins to draw comparisons between them and her own life.
Kingsolver obviously had a very specific message she wished to convey through her book. Mostly climate change and its effect on our environment. Because of this, the text could get a bit preachy, and those were the parts that lost my interest. Most readers would have gotten the gist just seeing the story unfold through Dellarobia's eyes, but Kingsolver used her trusty scientist as an environmental bullhorn a few too many times and the results left me feeling talked down to and a bit patronized in many parts.
On the whole, Flight Behavior was earnest and full of heart, and I'll be revisiting Kingsolver in The Poisonwood Bible, of which I've heard countless wonderful things.
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