Did some skimming... ( )

Serena is one of the best books I've ever read. Rash created a clear and fascinating world with the Pembertons and the folks that surround them. I really enjoyed how Rash let the story get told through the eyes of the workers and the way they told us things we wouldn't find out otherwise. The superstition of the mountain people was thick and almost a character itself. The women of the book had their own strength and ethereal strangeness that overshadowed the men. Even Serena, antagonist through and through, made me envious at times.

After the first chapters of character introduction and world building, I was sucked in. A thoroughly enjoyable, exciting and intense read. ( )

I would give it 3.5/5 stars. It was good but it didn't get really good until the very end. It was a little difficult to keep track of all the characters. ( )

Ron Rash is an exquisite writer. The ONLY problem I had with this was the darkness prevailing throughout the book. Whatever light tried to shine on the story was killed. Again, Rash is an excellent writer. This type of story not what I care to read. I prefer his short stories. ( )

I’m glad I did not read any blurbs or reviews before reading this book. It is definitely a book that needs to be gone into blind. For that exact reason, I cannot really discuss the novel in any detail without giving away too much information. It is a novel that builds gradually a psychological profile of Serena Pemberton without really telling us much about her at all. When the internal workings of a character are very important to the novel, most authors will tell you a lot about what that character is thinking or what has happened to them in the past to bring them to this place. Ron Rash does not do that. He just shows us what Serena says and does and nothing more is needed.

It is a chilling story. I wondered in the beginning why Serena was such a flat cardboard character (stilted and cold) when it was obvious that Rash could draw very complete and complex characters by his treatment of others in the novel (Rachel was full-blown, complex and interesting to me from the beginning). Sarena was not only inaccessible, but unredeeming, and that puzzled me until the story reached a point where it became very clear that Rash wanted and needed her to be seen that way.

I finished the novel with very mixed feelings. I enjoyed reading the novel, but I did not think it had anything lofty or meaningful to say. I tend to like books in which the characters, good and bad, are people I might expect to find in my own world. I would not ever expect to meet anyone like Serena, nor, for that matter, like Pemberton or Galloway. This extremity keeps this from being a strong book for me, a fun read but not a favorite. I can believe that this would be a huge success for some readers, but it breaks somewhere in the middle for me.

Finally, I must say that Rash has a comfortable writing style and knows how to move a story at a pleasing pace. I loved his descriptions and felt immersed in his environment. I would not hesitate to read another of his novels and feel sure that in his hands another story might captivate me completely.
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