I grew up with tall tales and, living in Minnesota, especially the tales featuring characters who could fight a rattlesnake, tame a wild ox, chop down a forest singlehandedly, and eat flapjacks by the dozens. (Paul Bunyan's statues are all over the north country, along with Babe, Lucinda, and more.)
Set in the late 1920s in the forests of North Carolina, Serena arrives in camp after marrying her new husband, George Pemberton. Although Pemberton is a ruthless man himself, she quickly emerges as the most powerful character and enters into her own climb to the top, leaving no one unscarred. When Serena sets her mind on something it is bound to happen, no matter what violent and heinous acts must occur. Pemberton was good at bribery and "accidental deaths" in his climb to the top, but Serena is openly willing to crush anything in their path.
I truly enjoyed the images of Serena, eagle on her arm, riding her white horse into the forest. Throughout the book I continually was reminded of the tales I'd heard so many times about Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett and Pecos Bill. Actually this helped me enjoy the book more, since I don't usually enjoy reading the types of books where animals are tortured, innocent people are killed, and anything considered to be a threat is "taken care of", but it was pretty easy to chuckle over these, since I didn't take them that seriously.
I've been hearing rumors of a movie based on the books, with a release date of anywhere from 2012-2014. Although I understand the movie will star Jennifer Lawrence and Bradly Cooper, and much of it has been filmed, I still can't find anything solid regarding a release date in the United States. Perhaps it was released and I missed it? Not sure. Stay tuned on that one, I guess. But in the meantime, enjoy the book!
Here's a video with Ron Rash speaking about Serena.
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