Scan barcode
A review by patsypoo
Serena by Ron Rash
3.0
I loved and disliked this novel probably in equal measure.
While in life I'm all about the destination rather than the journey, when I read it's the opposite. In the case of Serena, the destination was excellent but many parts of the journey... Not so much.
I love reading horrible, greedy, selfish, nasty characters when they're done well, which these were. I also thought the writing was incredible. The descriptions were vivid and effective. It felt almost as if I'd been transported there.
The last couple of chapters were so enthralling I stayed at the gym about 20 minutes longer than I'd planned. Yes, that good!
Now on to what didn't work for me. I didn't like the flatness of a lot of the secondary characters which seemed to blend into one another.
It was also frustrating to get only glimpses of Serena's past but nothing more than that. I would've liked to have found out more about how she got to be so twisted.
Another area where I feel it fell short was how little was imparted about some of the characters' downfalls. The reader is just told that they happened and the story moves a little too swiftly on. I can sort of see why but at the same time I thought some of those characters deserved better.
I found Serena to be one of those stories you need to have some patience for. It'll be good in the end but at times I wished it had hurried up and got to the point a little faster.
While in life I'm all about the destination rather than the journey, when I read it's the opposite. In the case of Serena, the destination was excellent but many parts of the journey... Not so much.
I love reading horrible, greedy, selfish, nasty characters when they're done well, which these were. I also thought the writing was incredible. The descriptions were vivid and effective. It felt almost as if I'd been transported there.
The last couple of chapters were so enthralling I stayed at the gym about 20 minutes longer than I'd planned. Yes, that good!
Now on to what didn't work for me. I didn't like the flatness of a lot of the secondary characters which seemed to blend into one another.
It was also frustrating to get only glimpses of Serena's past but nothing more than that. I would've liked to have found out more about how she got to be so twisted.
Another area where I feel it fell short was how little was imparted about some of the characters' downfalls. The reader is just told that they happened and the story moves a little too swiftly on. I can sort of see why but at the same time I thought some of those characters deserved better.
I found Serena to be one of those stories you need to have some patience for. It'll be good in the end but at times I wished it had hurried up and got to the point a little faster.