Wow. What a tale Kristin Hannah has spun. It was so bleak, yet I couldn’t stop reading it. I’ve ordered several copies for my library and am likely to order more as demand is already high. I like that I can recommend this title to so many patrons: readers of drama, history, survival, and women’s lit. The appeal is very widespread! Thank you so much for allowing me to read The Great Alone.

ScrappyMags 3-word review: Escape to Alaska?

Genre: Chic-Lit/contemporary fiction (my 6th Hannah book I've read)

Shortest summary ever: It's the 1970's and 13 year-old Lenora “Leni” Allbright is suddenly uprooted to Alaska by her Vietnam vet dad and can’t-leave-the-man-I-love mom after inheriting a plot of land in the lush, beautiful wilderness. Hoping her father will “get better”, she acquiesces, but life is hard in Alaska and Leni’s days are full of chores, constantly prepping for winter, and worrying as her father slowly worsens when days grow shorter and shorter and a long, cold winter settles around them. Amidst the cold terrain, friendship and love flourish - a special friend named Matthew provides Leni with what she desperately needs - someone to talk to. Neighbors care for her and pitch in to help the Allbrights. However, the demons battled by her father won't simply die and her mother’s love for him seem to push Leni’s life in directions she never sees coming...

What’s good under the hood: Alaska. I think there might be a part in all of us that thinks - What if I LEFT, went to Alaska and disappeared and lived in a cabin. Or maybe that's just me? I adored that flight-from-the-every-day fantasy aspect alive in this book. As a child we had 5 acres in rural Northern Michigan. No TV, phone, or bathroom. And I loved every second of it. I’m sold on Alaska (to visit ... I’m not cut out for mountain life) and felt is was almost a character in the story - an entity given breadth and life. That and the town - the people, the LIFE was by far the best part of this book.

What’s bad or made me mad: I will fervently admit that I am and forever will find it difficult to understand women who refuse to leave abusive husbands, particularly when they have children and particularly when they are offered multiple ways to escape. I found some of the book predictable but that was okay, made up for with wonderful writing.

Recommend to:

Hannah fans will give this an easy 5.
It's great chic-lit (not really my jam right now, but I can acknowledge it's a wonderful addition to the genre)
If you're in the mood for love, Alaska, passion, ruggedness, small town life, etc..

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and for many Googlings of the Alaskan wilderness.

Thank you for sharing this book with me. Very descriptive book that was well written by this beloved author. I was taken by the landscape and the feelings and tragedies the characters were depicted as going through. It was an insightful journey to what I imagine is still a hard life in Alaska and for those suffering with PTSD. I think the story was a bit slow and predictable to give it a higher rating.

If you read The Nightingale and loved it, know that this is a completely different book but one you will most likely love as well. While this story combines a lot of themes, coming of age, survival, abusive relationships, enduring love, what I liked most about it was how the Alaskan setting was a character in its own right. The descriptions of the wilderness were beautiful and this story would not have been half as harrowing if it weren’t for the setting. I’ll be recommending this to anyone looking for a good love story, a good adventure story or just a good, fast book to love.

Wow.

Kristin Hannah packs a punch with The Great Alone. Set primarily in Alaska in the 70's, Hannah introduces us to the Allbright family - Ernt, Cora, and Leni. Ernt has returned from Vietnam and is suffering from PTSD (an unknown diagnosis in the seventies). Struggling to return to regular American life, Ernt moves his family to Alaska, completely unprepared for the harshness of the landscape and winter, and the sense of community they discover there. We follow the Allbright family on an incredible journey of self discovery and sorrow.

An emotional novel, Hannah does a beautiful job of developing three-dimensional and meaningful characters. She uses the landscape of Alaska to shape her characters and provide a sense of home. Themes of abuse, home, and family fluidly run throughout the novel. This is also a page turner - I could not wait to get to it every day. I have recommended it to many friends, and I look forward to delving further into Hannah's works.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this novel in exchange for review.

The Great Alone is the best book I've read in a long time. And although it's January 11 today, I will be hard pressed to find a better book the rest of the year. Every once in a while, a book comes along that just sweeps you off your feet. As you read, it folds you into the world of the book and you feel as though you are experiencing it all first-hand. 
The Great Alone is THAT book. 
As I read it, I was living in Alaska with Leni, Ernt, Cora, Tom, Matthew, and the rest of them. I lived through an Alaskan winter. I struggled and hunkered down and came out the other side. So what if it just took two days and I experienced it from my couch? In my defense, we did have a pretty impressive cold snap here in the Midwest. 

The Great Alone is set in the 70's and tells the story of Leni, her mother Cora and her father Ernt, a rescued POW with real issues. Yet despite all of that, and always hoping he will change, they follow him all the way to the great alone, rural Alaska, and stupid loved him and the wilderness too much to leave either. The story is real and tragic and heartbreaking and heartwarming and just amazing!

It releases February 6, 2018 so there is time to preorder it so that you can have it delivered to your door on the release date. It's that good! In this day and age, I don't buy a ton of books, but this one warrants a purchase. People will be talking, just wait and see!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's for an e-galley in exchange for my honest review. I won't be forgetting this book anytime soon!

Kristin Hannah is back with The Great Alone, her first book since 2015’s hit, The Nightingale. Set in 1970s Alaska, The Great Alone is my second Hannah book. I read The Nightingale, and while I enjoyed it, I couldn’t help but wonder what all the fuss was about. I gave it 4 stars – to me, it was slightly better than average, but it wasn’t thebestbookI’deverread. Regardless, the synopsis for The Great Alone intrigued me enough to pick it up, and since I’d liked The Nightingale, I figured I was in for a pretty good read.

And as it turned out, I did enjoy The Great Alone, but it took a REALLY long time to get there. Like….half the book long time. I’ll be honest and admit to nearly abandoning it after I’d read roughly 100 pages. But, I kept going, and eventually fell into the rhythm of the story.

Unlike The Nightingale, The Great Alone is a rather….slow?...story. It’s much more about the characters than it is about any kind of story. In general, The Great Alone is like watching through the window as the Allbright family moves to Alaska and then learns how to survive there. The tension comes, surprisingly, not from Alaska, but from the abuse Leni and her mother suffer at the hands of her father. For me, that was kind of a turn off…I would much rather have read about them fighting off bears than fighting off an abusive father with PTSD.

And that was another thing that bugged me – the characters, Ernt in particular, lacked the depth necessary to care about them. Everything felt like it was on the surface, and that I was supposed to take Leni’s love for her mother at face value just because Kristin Hannah told me it was there. I also loathed the all-consuming descriptions of love both Leni and her mother had for their men. I think Hannah was trying to show the conflicting emotions abuse survivors go through, but to me, it just felt overdramatic.

What I did like, though, were the glimpses we got of life in Alaska, and the pioneer spirit exhibited by the townspeople of Kaneq. The interactions Leni has with Large Marge, Tom, and the rest of the crew really drives home the idea that family isn’t always blood. That, I think, is The Great Alone’s biggest strength – it shows that even when you think you’re alone and helpless, there are people around you who want to help.

Well, unless you’re an abusive husband, that is.

The book is narrated by the family's very insightful daughter beginning when she was 13 years old and continuing into her 20s.. It is primarily set in an off the grid outpost in Alaska. I really enjoy novels where I can learn about someplace new (or old) and how people live in different cultures and environments. Great complex characters in this story. As soon as you think you understand them, you learn more and see they are all very multi-dimensional. There are many difficult topics woven throughout the novel and I thought they were handled extremely well. Great read on a cold day in front of a warm fireplace.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an early release of this book in trade for an honest review.

I knew it would be difficult to follow up the success of Nightingale but Kristin Hannah did it. The Great Alone tells the story of the Allbright family who move to Alaska in 1974. Ernt Allbright is a Vietnam vet with a darkside who decides to move his family to Alaska in the hopes that it will save them. Leni and her mother Cora agree and hope for the best. Their life there is not easy but it turns them into survivors. It becomes their home. In a way, Alaska does save them.

Like Nightingale, I couldn't put this down. The descriptions of Alaska and the wildness of it make it feels as if you are there. It made me want to go to Alaska. Hannah is able to tell a complicated story of love, loss, and resiliency so beautifully that you get lost in it. The love between a mother and child, and the lasting bond between two people who are truly, madly in love can never be broken or fade. While Leni's parents had a dysfunctional love affair, they were in the end, in love. Leni comes to learn that you don't forget your first love and that love will never leave you, but sometimes you must leave it.

It also shines a light on an important problem that many returning soldiers face. How do you come home after living through war, reconcile with your family and return to life? Is there ever hope for someone who is so broken? Can you love someone enough to save them?

I have now read 3 of Hannah's novels. The one common thread seems to be strong women, who survive at all costs. This story certainly has that and more. I highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC for Review.

Another amazing read by Kristin Hannah. Her books always just soothe the soul. They give you a little something you didn’t even know you needed! Pick a comfy spot, grab a warm tea and get lost in this story. After reading this I definitely want to make my way to Alaska one day!

Loved this story! I was sucked in from the start and tried reading slowly so it wouldn't end. I didn’t want to let go of these characters. It is a novel filled with deep, complex characters, adventure, heartbreak, gritty, hard truths of life and love. I was already a fan of Kristin Hannah, but I feel this is one of her best.

“In Alaska, you can make one mistake. One. The second will kill you.”

A solid 4.5 stars. For many readers, they first fell in love with Kristin Hannah by reading The Nightingale. I encourage you to avoid the temptation to compare the two. They are distinctly different novels. What remains consistent is a strong, well-paced story with engaging characters.

The story is told in three parts, 1984, 1978 and 1986, on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. The brutal landscape of Alaska is certainly a character all its own. Hannah does a remarkable job of not only conveying the scenery of the wilds of Alaska, but also the dangers of living on the land, off the grid.

This is a story about survival – mental and physical survival. Themes of abuse, community, and love and the impact of choices are woven throughout. I was engrossed by this book and while I had a hard time putting it down, I also wanted to savor the experience.

This was one of my favorite books of the past few months. I truly felt the loneliness and helplessness of the characters situations. My heart broke at certain scenes, but I always kept hope for the best. It was truly a well-written novel that I will remember and recommend for quite some time.

I almost quit reading, even though I loved the characters (except a few!) and the beautiful descriptions of Alaska. I just couldn't take much more for poor Cora. But I'm so happy I did, it's a great heartwarming and heartbreaking story!

Wow. Not since ... oh wait... not since the last Kristin Hannah book I read... have I been so tempted to cheat and peek at the last page of the book. Really, I'm a real adult now, I don't do that to myself any more, but oh.... the temptation. Another outstanding book that tackles some tough subjects. There were times I held my breath, times I couldn't read fast enough, sections I read repeatedly, just to savor the visuals.

The Great Alone was full of drama, pulling on the heartstrings in nearly every way. The storyline was full of ups and downs for sure, and hit close to home for me in more ways than one. I found the novel very well-written and obviously well researched. Hannah's ability to put the reader IN Alaska, feeling the environment, hearing the sounds, appreciating the wildness, was amazing. Parts of the plot felt rushed and undeveloped, and parts felt overly drawn out, leaving me wondering why so much effort was spent in places.

It was difficult to put this book down, especially in the last few chapters. But these same chapters felt rushed and incomplete by the time I finished the novel. For this reason, I would rate it 3 1/2 stars.

When I reached the Afterword, I wasn't the least bit surprised to read about the author's personal connection to Alaska, and I also wondered how much the parents in the novel were similar to the author's. This is a fairly easy read. I'm not sure if this book will be marketed as YA or adult, but I'm certain teens and adults will enjoy this book. If I were reviewing this as YA, I could see recommending this book for YA lit classes because it will interest both genders. For adults, I'm thinking fans of Lifetime will be most involved with this family drama.

Kristin Hannah follows her brilliant The Nightingale with The Great Alone and it is a worthy but very different successor.

The Allbright family is struggling due to Ernt's volatile anger resulting from his Vietnam experiences. In an effort to leave the past behind, they pack up and move to a remote village near Homer, AK. They are truly an example of "you don't know what you don't know", as they occupy their cabin and used their rapidly dwindling meager funds to get set up for the approaching winter. The grass is never greener on the other side and their problems follow them into their new life.

This quote describes 17-year-old daughter, Leni, as she tries to make a safe place for herself:
"If you knew me , you wouldn’t be surprised at all that I start my college essay off with a quote from Tolkien. Books are the mile markers of my life. Some people have family photos or home movies to record their past. I’ve got books. Characters. For as long I can remember, books have been my safe place . I read about places I can barely imagine and lose myself in journeys to foreign lands to save girls who didn’t know they were really princesses."

Full of harrowing experiences (trigger warning) and lots of warm and endearing characters. You have to jump in and take the journey to learn what happens in this family drama.

Loved everything about it - great characters, story line and location. Looking forward to recommend it to our customers.

The Great Alone, a remarkable family drama, is the latest novel from Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale. In 1974, thirteen-year old Leni Allbright’s father has just returned to the U.S. after six torturous years as a Vietnam POW. Ernt inherits a small cabin in off-the-grid Alaska, and moves his wife Cora and daughter there for a fresh start. But the Allbright family is woefully unprepared for the upcoming Alaskan winter, and the months of darkness reveal a darkness within Ernt. Leni, for her part, embraces life in tiny Kaneq, attending a one-room schoolhouse and finding a friend in Matthew Walker, a third-generation Alaskan. Hannah lovingly unspools the years, interweaving Leni’s coming-of-age with her parents’ passionate but violent marriage. Several fraught survival scenes remind readers of the many ways to perish in Alaska, but finding out what happens to the inimitable Leni (and her beloved mother Cora) is what truly keeps those pages turning. Readers will hate to see this crossover novel come to an end!