Serena

American author Ron Rash’s novel Serena (2008) concerns the greedy title character's attempts to stall the government from declaring her land a national park so she can log it for her timber business. It takes place in 1930s North Carolina and became a New York Times bestseller.

At the beginning of the novel, newlyweds Serena and George Pemberton disembark from a train, arriving in a heavily wooded part of North Carolina. Almost immediately, the two get into a conflict with local man Abe Harmon who is suspicious of the newcomers. Serena eggs her husband on to kill Abe, which he does, despite Abe arriving with his pregnant daughter, Rachel. As a sort of insulting penance for the deed, George gives Rachel the knife used to kill her father, telling her she will receive nothing more from the Pembertons and so, she shouldn't try.

The Pembertons own a lumber camp in the area. Immediately upon arriving, Serena looks to assert her dominance over the men. At first, they don't trust this beautiful interloper in their community. To prove her worth, she challenges the foreman, Bilded, to a contest to see who can more accurately guess the length of a large nearby tree. When Serena's guess is right on, the men in the camp begin to view Serena in awe as, almost like a magical creature. Serena's mythical status among the men only increases after she begins a habit of riding amongst them every day on a giant Arabian horse with an eagle perched on her arm.



Meanwhile, Rachel and her newborn son Jacob struggle in poverty on her murdered father's farm. With a new baby to take care of and without a man to work the farm, Rachel is forced to sell her father's animals to pay for baby supplies. Despite being told she wouldn't receive any help from the Pembertons, George Pemberton, appearing to pity her, gives her a job at the lumber camp. In reality, however, he lusts after Rachel, and before long, they begin an affair. As a result, almost everyone in the camp hates Rachel except for an old friend of hers, Joel Vaughn.

At this time, the national park movement is beginning in earnest. When Buchanan, a representative of this movement arrives, Serena questions his loyalty to the Pembertons, urging George to kill him. George makes the murder look like a hunting accident. While McDowell, the local sheriff, believes George murdered Buchanan, he has no hard evidence to prove it. Serena carries out more murders with the help of a worker named Galloway who believes it is his destiny to serve her. Galloway's faithfulness stems from a premonition he received as a young boy that he would save a pregnant woman and then serve her for the rest of his life. After Serena becomes pregnant and loses the child, her jealousy of Rachel and Jacob increases, particularly considering how fond George is of baby Jacob. Galloway kills Dr. Cheney for suspected malpractice in the wake of the death of Serena's unborn child.

After learning of Serena's murderous intentions, Joel arranges for Rachel to escape to Seattle, Washington with the help of McDowell. For his role in Rachel's escape, Serena has McDowell fired and replaces him with a more loyal subordinate. After running out of legal remedies to stop the Pembertons and their wickedness, McDowell succeeds in burning the couple's house down, though they survive. McDowell is arrested for arson. Galloway proceeds to torture McDowell for information on Rachel's whereabouts, but McDowell stays tight-lipped. Galloway eventually kills him.



Finally, Serena begins to suspect that George had a hand in Rachel's escape, and so she instructs Galloway to feed George a sandwich laced with rat poison while the two of them are on a hunting trip. He does so and leaves George in the woods.

The book fast-forwards to the 1970s. Serena has raised Jacob as her own and experienced much success as a baroness in the timber industry. On a trip with Galloway to South America, however, Jacob apprehends the two and kills them.

The book received much critical acclaim for its highly faithful depiction of the timber business in the early twentieth century, as well as various literary inventions of the book. These include the use of the logging workers as a sort of Greek chorus commenting on the action. The book was also adapted into a 2014 film of the same name starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. The film version, however, received largely negative reviews compared to those of the book.