Serena by Ron Rash

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I think I will let my grandmother borrow it soon because I think she would enjoy it as much as I did. I really liked how unique and complex that Rash actually made Serena; she was bold and sassy and just awesome all around. She didn't seem to let anything bother her and if anything did bother she just got rid of the problem whether that meant firing someone or killing them. With the whole murdering aspect of Serena aside, I think she is someone that I could aspire to be like, smart, independent, successful, beautiful and mysterious; those are all things that I believe many women wouldn’t mind being. I’m not entirely certain why I was attracted to her character so much but I think the thought of how much power she held over people was the most appealing to me, that and the eagle.
I really liked the way that Rash began and ended the novel, both were very unexpected and well thought out; they are perfect examples of poetic justice at its finest. Serena tells Rachel Harmon to sell the pearl handled knife because it is all they she and Jacob will get from the Prembertons and it is that very knife that is plunged into Serena’s belly in the end by none other than her husband’s son, Jacob; its almost like a soap opera. Serena may have been an awesome, complex character but she deserved what she got in the end. I didn’t see why she found it necessary to kill her husband because even though he saw how evil and manipulative she was, he loved her to the very end; it is so sad when he dies and his last thoughts are only of her. Another thing I really enjoyed about the novel was how Rash gave even the most minor characters so much detail and personality and used them to tell the story from another point of view. I have always thought that reading novels or stories set in places that you are familiar with makes the story come to life so much easier; I have read many Sharyn McCrumb novels which are set in North Carolina and Tennessee as well as Stephanie Meyer and Yasmine Galenorn which are set in Washington state where I lived before moving here.