What do readers think of Serena by Ron Rash? Write your own review.

This book has all the elements that I enjoy in a work of fiction. It is a unique, colorful, story that is believably set in the mountains surrounding Ashville, North Carolina during the Great Depression. It is filled with interesting, well-developed characters and page-turning suspense.

The ending is brilliantly executed.

I heartily recommend this book for book clubs and lovers of well-written, literary historical fiction.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Beautifully written, a story of murderous greed set against a backdrop of timber farms in the Smoky Mountains, in what is now a national park. I highly recommend ths novel- it was hard to put down.

Few authors have the ability to put evil on paper but Ron Rash has accomplished just that. This taut, dark story puts faces on evil in the persons of husband and wife, Serena and Pemberton. In this compelling read you are reluctantly, yet curiously, pulled into their aura. With great skill, Ron Rash writes of the forces of good and evil - light and dark and keeps forcing the reader to recognize the destructive forces at work. And not just human destruction, but the destruction of acres and acres of timberland that serves as a backdrop to further the ambitious desires of these two people. To them, life is disposable at any cost and lumber more valuable than gold. Serena is capable of murder without a blink of an eye - as long as it serves her malicious need.
This book is sometimes hard to read - but I always came back to it - and so will you. Brilliantly done!

Serena is a compelling novel about the power of a determined woman. It's an interesting read and one in which the reader is able to see how often people turn a blind eye to their loved one's actions. The novel is well-written and the characters are developed well over the course of the novel.

Serena takes place during the Depression in the western mountains of North Carolina. Serena and George Pemberton are newlyweds obsessed with each other and with creating a lumber dynasty. Rachel is a young, poor country girl who was seduced by George before he went to Boston and met Serena. What follows is a story of greed, selfishness, and destruction. Excellent writing. My only complaint: I felt the book was not long enough and detailed enough to do justice to the huge storyline and the many colorful characters; therefore, it was good, not great.

The Depression is looming as rich Mr. Pemberton travels to his North Carolina lumber camp with his new bride, Serena. Both are fully aware that upon arrival they will encounter the father of a young, sixteen year old who is carrying Pemberton's child. A fight ensues after which the young girl is not only unwed but an orphan. The remaining 350 pages of Serena are as predictable as the first ten. All attempts at creating believable characters and situations are half-hearted and one-sided. Serena is a mundane book that could have been better.

As a somewhat “over the hill” reader, I enjoyed Serena. I have some letters written by my grandfather describing his life in a logging camp during the Depression. Ron Rash’s description of the harshness of the times was much the same as those described by my Grandfather and it made me sympathize with the loggers and dislike the Pemberton’s even more. Serena’s greed and ruthlessness was the focus of the story, but the lives of her victims were what made the book such a page-turner. The irony in the final pages when the pearl-handled knife that we read about early in the book, showed up in the ending of the story was a brilliant twist to a gruesome tale.

I have recommended this book to our book club. I think it will generate some lively discussion. I’m sure there will be some varied opinions about Galloway’s complete subservience to Serena. What made him a tool for her unconscionable behavior puzzled me throughout the book. I thought the author was successful in creating fictional tale that, was also a glimpse into the lives and times of those who lived during a very difficult period in our nation.

In this novel, Serena and George Pemberton are portrayed as ruthless, scheming and greedy timber barons who willingly discard human life and the environment in their pursuit of wealth.

Set in the Appalachian mountains during the Great Depression when labor was cheap and more than willing to endure any hardship for a job, Serena and George strip the land as fast as they can to squeeze every ounce of profit from it. No obstacle was insurmountable. Serena was not your typical women of the day…in the end, even she surpassed George in her single-minded heartlessness. I would have liked to have had more of Serena's history to understand her better, but it didn't detract from the novel. The author's eye for detail gave the reader a grim picture of what life was like for the common man during the depressed times.

Overall, this novel certainly had me running through a gamut of emotions from being shocked and appalled to hopeful and gratified and to me, that's what made it such a good book.