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A review by ecrummy
Serena by Ron Rash
3.0
I'm not sure how this book appeared on my list of "to reads" but it was there, and I read it.
Set in the 30s, the book follows newlyweds Serena and George as they build their timber empire in North Carolina. Serena is our focal point - she is capable, brilliant, ruthless, driven, and...well, just plain evil. Her husband is also these things, but to a lesser extent. He's quite willing to follow her lead, until she wants harm to befall on his illegitimate son. And I think we all know how that went for him.
I wasn't too keen on this one. Serena's aloofness bothered me quite a bit - if she loved her husband as much as she stated, shouldn't she have let her guard down around him? But she spoke as dispassionately towards him as she did everyone else, so she really just seemed like some passionless, ethereal being. But she apparently wasn't, and loved him very much. This disconnect was maybe the point, but for me it was hard to get into her character, and thus the story. I was quite happy when George started unraveling, because, finally, SOMEONE was reacting to SOMETHING.
I can see why people enjoyed it, but the detached writing made it hard for me to get into. Happy to move on to something else.
As an aside, I should have counted the number of times the author used "coupled." Egregious.
Set in the 30s, the book follows newlyweds Serena and George as they build their timber empire in North Carolina. Serena is our focal point - she is capable, brilliant, ruthless, driven, and...well, just plain evil. Her husband is also these things, but to a lesser extent. He's quite willing to follow her lead, until she wants harm to befall on his illegitimate son. And I think we all know how that went for him.
I wasn't too keen on this one. Serena's aloofness bothered me quite a bit - if she loved her husband as much as she stated, shouldn't she have let her guard down around him? But she spoke as dispassionately towards him as she did everyone else, so she really just seemed like some passionless, ethereal being. But she apparently wasn't, and loved him very much. This disconnect was maybe the point, but for me it was hard to get into her character, and thus the story. I was quite happy when George started unraveling, because, finally, SOMEONE was reacting to SOMETHING.
I can see why people enjoyed it, but the detached writing made it hard for me to get into. Happy to move on to something else.
As an aside, I should have counted the number of times the author used "coupled." Egregious.