Ruthless people

I heard about Serena from a Buzzfeed list of books to read before they become movies; as a huge fan of Jennifer Lawrence I knew I’d be seeing the movie so the book climbed my “to read” list.

Set in the wilderness of North Carolina in the 1930s, Serena is the story of a wealthy married couple in the timber business who crush anyone who gets in their way. Pemberton impregnates a 17-year old girl, Rachel, before Serena joins him at the logging site but the Pembertons renounce any involvement in the child’s life.  This decision angers Rachel’s father who picks a knife fight with Pemberton, who then kills him.

Serena holds her weight at the compound, proving herself to be equal to any man and probably more ruthless; she will kill anyone who gets in her way on building an empire with her husband. When Serena suffers a miscarriage that leaves her unable to bear a legitimate heir for Pemberton she sets her murderous gaze on Rachel’s son.

The book is written from the perspective of Serena, Rachel and Pemberton (with a few other characters sprinkled in) so you get a well rounded view of the goings on. I definitely enjoyed the novel, it was well written and while the ending was a bit predictable it was only because the characters were so clearly developed that it couldn’t have ended any other way.

I’m very interested to see the film adaptation now because I can really see Jennifer Lawrence getting into the character of Serena; she is kind of a mix between Ree (from Winter’s Bone) and Rosalyn (from American Hustle). Not sure I can see Bradley Cooper as George Pemberton though, he is described as this huge, brute of a man- which is not how I see the Emu.