This was my first Kristin Hannah novel and I was not disappointed. This book was haunting and beautiful. Lennie's story is like those of so many others who face the traumas of abuse and dealing with a family member with post traumatic stress. I love her ability to still have hope even after all the things she went through. This novel for me was about the power of the human spirit and the unmovable force of love.

This is not your ordinary book. This is a saga that tells the (long) tale of Leni, whose nomadic family ended up woefully unprepared homesteaders in Alaska.
Kristin Hannah just has a way with words. Her writing style is easy to get lost in (in a good way) and I found it hard to put this book down. You’re riding a roller coaster through this whole book. You climb to the top and zip, wide eyed and perhaps screaming, to the bottom and ride until it evens out and you start breathing again. Then you see that you’re only halfway through the book, so you settle in for another loop-de-loop (or four). This book just keeps going.
While her descriptions of the land and scenery were good, I LOVE when an author provides details that allow me to search Google images so I can get an even better picture. I definitely recommend this book.

I was given an egalley for an honest opinion. Go read this book.

Clearly another hit for Kristin Hannah. The Alaskan setting establishes a perfect background for many plot twists and turns of unexpected drama in the 1070's. I can't imagine the story to take place anywhere else. Love, survival, bravery, and a bit of crazy were the driving forces for the small town living during the winter time.

The beautifully constructed town of dysfunctional characters created an unusual yet rare community who supported each other through some severe times. When the Allbright family is given land in Alaska, they feel like it is a saving grace for Leni's father who has PTSD from Vietnam and can't handle life anymore. The raw emotions that each character felt and lived with left me in turmoil throughout the book.

This is a must read!

Kristen Hannah’s newest family epic was riveting. Alaska is a place totally foreign to most Americans. I was completely engrossed in this family’s will to survive the wilderness and their own secrets. At the heart of it is a love story that spans generations. I just did not want the story to end.

As if growing up isn't hard enough, try doing it with a father just back from Vietnam who can't keep a job and has moments of violence. New opportunities arise in Alaska, so begins the story of Leni, follow her and her family through the tough wilderness, will they survive Alaska, will they survive each other?

I was personally drawn to Kristin Hannah’s new book The Great Alone because it is set in the most beautiful place I have ever seen, Alaska. It is a novel of beauty and fear, love and heartbreak. The beautiful setting is also the source of some of the fear but not the worst of it.

Leni Albright is 13 when her dad decides to move their family to Alaska in 1974. He is a VietNam vet and POW and feels he needs the space and a new start. The family dynamic – they have moved around a lot inspired by the father’s big plans – reminded me some of the one portrayed in The Glass Castle.

Two kinds of folks move to Alaska, the book suggests, “People running to something and people running away from something.” This place can be “a Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next” to quote a character called Large Marge. But the epigraph (I love a good epigraph!) foreshadows there are more challenges to come for the Albrights beyond the long winters and hungry bears:

“Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.” – Jean Jacques Rousseau

The town they move to is extremely remote. It has one general store and of course a tavern. I always love a good literary tavern!

To her left was a saloon called the Kicking Moose. The building was a charred, blackened husk; clearly the victim of a fire. Through the dirty glass window, she saw patrons inside. People drinking at ten A.M. on a Thursday in a burned out shell of a building.

To my dismay a reader doesn’t get inside the Kicking Moose much, but its description here is telling of the condition of this town at the family’s arrival. The Albrights arrive completely unprepared for life here, but they find a close-knit community, and Leni ends up feeling she belongs somewhere for the first time. The community portrayed is some of the beauty that I found in this book.

Although the Albright’s own cabin “looked like something an old, toothless hermit would live in” it is next to the sea and their own private cove and beach. Their first view of this:

“At this late afternoon hour, the peninsula and sea seemed to glow from within, like a land enchanted in a fairy tale. The colors were more vibrant than she’d ever seen before. Waves lapping the pebbled shore left a sparking residue. On the opposite shore, the mountains were a lush, deep purple at their bases and stark white at their peaks.”

But this is only the beginning of their adventure, and the beauty and fear that I alluded to above.

The book also makes many other good literature references. As he announces they are moving to Alaska, Leni’s dad hands her Call of the Wild. And the book’s title is taken from Robert Service 1907 poem called “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” that also speaks to the beauty of Alaska:

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear;
With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold,
A helf-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold;
While high overhead, green, yellow, and red, the North Lights swept in bars? —
Then you’ve a hunch what the music meant . . . hunger and night and the stars.

If you’re looking for a solid read to finish out our own winter, I highly recommend this one. I also recommend this for book clubs because it is the type of book that leaves you wanting to discuss it with others.

Electrifying!

I was totally immersed in Hannah's novel right from the start. A superb story of a young girl's childhood with two broken, dysfunctional parents played out in the depths of Alaska in the early 1970's.
Leni Allbright is thirteen when her ex Vietnam Vet POW father decides to take them to Alaska.
My heart bleeds for the whole family caught in the vortex of the damage that war plays on the survivors--if the emotional and mental anguish can even be called that. As Leni so eloquently and sadly states, 'One thing every child of a POW knew was how easily people could be broken. Leni still wore the shiny silver POW bracelet in memory of a captain who hadn’t come home to his family.'
Leni and her mother Cora are swept up into Ernt's latest grand plan. They will go to Alaska to take up the offer of a property in what surely must be the 'last frontier'--the wilderness of the far north where survival is not guaranteed and where life is a continual effort to stock up for the long winters broken by the vast amazing summers. The palate Hannah employs to paint the landscape is mesmerizing. The human state she portrays is relentless and stark, compassionate and revealing all at once. Ernt, Cora and Leni will come face to face with their own strengths and failings and the leaching away of Ernt's self control.
Leni is forged into a person who is 'Alaska -tough'.
The portrayal of the locals, a mixed bag of people, from the off-grid survivalists, to those who have been challenged by and met the demanding way of life, to those who have just plain fallen in love with this untamed wilderness, all ring true.
A mesmerizing novel of survival, loss and harsh truths. The story surrounds you and absorbs you. It displays a raw and powerful story force that has the pull of legend. A tale that eats into your heart and gives pause for reflection on a multiple of levels. To my mind the title, The Great Alone, plays on both the mental states of the central players and the challenge of the vastness and wildness of Alaska.

A NetGalley ARC

I loved this story of a family fighting to stay together. Leni,the 13 daughter of Ernt and Cora, is searching for herself, and hopes this most recent move to Alaska will be their last. The beauty of the surroundings and a new friendship her hopeful that her life is finally earth down. But the solitude of her world is fraught with danger, from without and within.

Leni Allbright and her mother live at the mercy of her post-Vietnam war father, Ernt, who has serious PTSD. Set in the 1970s, the book follows the family in their move to remote Alaska after Ernt inherits land and a ramshackle cabin. Convinced that Alaska will make everything better, the family sets off posthaste for the northern frontier. Ernt, though, has demons that are impossible to overcome and drinking doesn’t help. He abuses his wife when he’s in a dark mood. Alaska has lots of dark, challenging times with the long, dark winters. That sets him off at even more regular intervals. Leni doesn’t know a different life, but as she grows through her teenage years, she is pretty sure that her family’s lifestyle is not to be emulated. Ernt kicks into survivalist mode with the help of like-minded neighbors in Alaska.
The bright spots of this book are Alaskan neighbor, Large Marge, along with the one room schoolhouse where Leni can escape sure the days. The school, though, is short on other teens as only 3 attend there. Matthew Walker becomes a pal for Leni and eventually ends up as her love interest.
This was a page-turner book with blackness on so many pages. The reader roots for Leni to escape the madness that is her home. Her mother is not blind to the abuse, but she is tangled in the cycles of her husband’s abuse; sure that he really loves them.

It's hard to believe this is my first Kristin Hannah read! The Alaskan setting is definitely what intrigued me about this book, and I was not disappointed! This book was beautifully written--the author did a fantastic job describing what Alaska looked like and felt like. I felt the gloom and stress of the upcoming winter, the brightness of the endless summer days, and the depression of the cold and dark winter. I adored Leni as a character. I became so attached to her throughout the book. I also loved Cora (Mama) and the wonderful people of Kaneq--especially the Walkers and Large Marge (a delightful character!).

This was such an emotional read--you will feel a wide range of emotions: happiness, sadness, love, rage, frustration. It is at times hard an uncomfortable to read but completely worth continuing to read. The book deals with issues of post-Vietnam America and PTSD, among other serious issues. It will put you through an emotional roller coaster, but you can't put it down. I read the last half of the 400+ page book in less than 24 hours because I was so invested in Leni and Cora their life in Alaska. I can't stop thinking about this book and know it will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend this book!

I loved this book. The story was different and took place in Alaska, in the 70's. It's a story of a family. A troubled family. The father is a Vietnam Vet, suffering from PTSD. His wife is trying to keep her family together and their teenage daughter wants to protect her mother. They both love this man. He decides that what they need to do is move to Alaska and live off the land. Things would be better in Alaska. I don't want to give anymore away. It's a story that you need to read for yourself.

3.5 stars. It’s hard for me to sum up this book in a short review. It is an interesting story and Hannah writes beautifully. She certainly brought the hardships, struggles and beauty of living in the Alaskan wilderness to life, along with an interesting cast of characters. The flawed, broken father; the sad, abused mother, the confused, miserable teenager; the other sad, lonely teenager; the drunken, survivalist neighbor; the well-to-do, oh-so-decent citizen; the larger than life, big-hearted black friend. Whew! As another reviewer put it, it was all so melodramatic! A bit over the top in tugging at the heartstrings. One bad thing happening after another. Some readers will absolutely love this book and I, well, thought it was good enough.

“Sergeant Allbright –
You are a hard man to find. I am Earl Harlan.
My son, Bo, wrote many letters home about his friendship with you. I thank you for that.
In his last letter, he told me that if anything happened to him in that piece of shit place [Vietnam], he wanted you to have his land up here in Alaska.
It isn’t much. Forty acres with a cabin that needs fixing. But a hardworking man can lives off the land up here, away from the crazies and the hippies and the mess in the lower Forty-Eight. . . . . . . .”

Ernt Allbright, unlike his friend, Bo, did return to his family after years in a Vietnamese POW camp; scarred in so many ways. He returned to countrymen projecting their hatred of the war on the emotionally and physically damaged Vietnam War veterans. Vets returned to families that became fearful of their soldier experiencing frightening “depression, guilt, flashbacks, nightmares, mood swings, angry outbursts, anxiety, and paranoia..”

Ernt and Cora Allbright along with their daughter, Leni (Lenora) represent a family struggling to make a postwar life together; and failing miserably. The happy go-lucky Ernt failed to return from Vietnam. In his stead, a surly, distempered shell of his former self arrived. Unable to tame his demons, Ernt has developed a chronic history of unemployment and alcohol abuse. But these failings are not the worst of his new personality traits. When something triggers his inner demons, Cora, adept at hiding the abuse from Leni, becomes his punching bag. Much like other abusive marriages, a sweet honeymoon and serial apologies diminishes the beatings. The cycle repeats itself over and over; exacerbated by the dark of night.

For Ernt, Earl Harlan’s letter and offer of a remote refuge seems like the perfect answer to all his troubles; a promise of brighter future. A place where he can make a life without interference of any kind. A place he is sure that he can be free of those things that make him fly off the handle.
“Think of it,” Dad said, lifted out of his seat by enthusiasm. “A house that’s ours. That we own. . . We have dreamed of it for years, Cora. Live a simpler life away from all the bullshit down here. We could be free.”

With little regard for the ambivalent feelings of his wife and child, Ernt packs the family into their beat-up VW bus, hoists a flag -Alaska Or Bust – and heads to what he sees as nirvana. A family about as prepared for the harsh subsistence life as a cub scout leading an Everest excursion.

Arriving in Alaska and dumbstruck by the vastness and the beauty, the family stops at Large Marge Birdsall’s Trading Post/General Store looking for directions to their new home. Ernt announces proudly that they are going to be living full time on the island at Bo Harlan’s old place! It doesn’t take long for Large Marge, a former big city attorney, to spot blatant ineptitude and an ample slice of arrogance as well as two women not excited about living in Alaska.

Marge is also aware that Bo Harlan’s run-down one room shack is “on a piece of land that couldn’t be accessed by water at low tide, on [the Kenai] peninsula with only a handful of people and hundreds of wild animals, in a climate harsh enough to kill you.”

The isolation and the catastrophic condition of the land and buildings move the locals to provide advice and help; they know the Allbrights have a slim to none chance of surviving the fast approaching winter. In time and with guidance from new friends, Cora and Leni take to the subsidence lifestyle like a duck to water. Ernt, on the other hand resents the interference and his anger feeds his paranoia and violent nature. As Ernt reaches a new boiling point he discovers that Bo Harlan’s father and brothers are survivalists preparing for a nuclear rapture. Earl and Ernt form a dark friendship that threatens the lives of everyone on the island.

Back at the homestead, Cora finds that living in a one room shack won’t allow her to hide Ernt’s beatings. The truth of her parent’s marriage is exposed and promises only to get worse as the perpetual dark of winter drives Ernt to new heights of meanness. And it does..

“Leni looked at her mother’s beaten, bruised face, the rag turning red with her blood.
You’re saying it’s your fault?
You’re too young to understand. He didn’t mean to do that. He just – loves me to much sometimes.
He MEANT it.”

The island folks have a “come to Jesus” moment with Ernt that sets off a slow-motion fire storm. The years pass. Leni falls in love with a rich neighbor’s son and fumbles through adolescence in a one-room school house. Cora finds life at the extremes suits her. Ernt, away at the oil fields sends home money and returns for brief periods each year; always ready to disrupt island life. Cora and Leni face the truth that someday they are going to have to make life altering decisions. . . But not yet says, Cora. I love him.

The months he is away, life on the island seems like the nirvana he envisioned to Cora and Leni and the locals. These years are the happiest of times in the book. Right up until the day Ernt gets fired from the oil fields and arrives home to discover his rich unmarried neighbor and Large Marge sitting at his kitchen table playing cards with the girls. As he implodes, all the is good inside Ernt is sucked into a black hole and all the evil releases his Kraken.

I’ll leave what happens to your imagination. I want to make sure that all readers take time to enjoy the beauty, expansiveness and surreal extreme of Alaska. Lay back on the ground and watch the sky in multicolor. Hannah, having lived in Alaska, knows how to describe it to perfection.

I was a little disappointed that most of the characters were not fully developed; the exception being Leni. I fell in love with Large Marge and her oversized personality and big heart.

So many themes, alcoholism, untreated PTSD, domestic abuse, abortion, subsistence living, Alaska, sense of community and more. Any book club should enjoy picking the book apart!

Thanks to the publisher, St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an advanced reading copy for review.
Recommended.

4 Stars.

Alaska, 1974: This is the story of the trials and tribulations of the Allbright family. Life has not been easy for Ernt, Cora or their daughter Leni. Ernt is a POW, home from Vietnam. He is now prone to fits of anger and extreme violence. Ernt considers alcohol to be his savior – yet for his wife and daughter, it is the devil.

After coming home from the war, Ernt feels as though he doesn’t fit in anywhere and that everyone is against him. In an incredible turn of events, a home is bequeathed to Ernt in Kaneq, Alaska and he feels that it is has last chance. Wanting to make him happy and keep him calm, Cora and Leni agree. The move is one for which they are wholly unprepared. Winters are fierce, harsh and absolutely terrifying. There are only 6 hours of sunlight a day, and the conditions are dire.

The atmosphere and the wilderness however, give something to Leni Allbright that she has never had before, peace and solitude. If only it was enough. Cora is a woman who fell very hard for a man who treats her the way that no woman should ever be treated. Her family is trapped in a vicious cycle, one whose demons it seems impossible to out run, even after having reached the ends of the earth.

“The Great Alone” is a novel so full of beautiful, vivid descriptions that I could close eyes and see the land, the mountains, the water: the immense beauty that is Alaska - even though I have never been there before. The characters are captivating and rich. They made me so very anxious at times, I couldn’t help but clench my fists and hold on for dear life, yet they also made me love. “The Great Alone” is my first Kristin Hannah novel – it will not be my last.

This was Traveling Sister Read. The discussion for this book was very lively and full of emotion. I was glad to have my sisters close while read it!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Kristin Hannah for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley, Goodreads, Amazon and Twitter on 2.17.18.

New Release: 2-6-2018

The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah was provided as an ARC to me by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in return for an honest review. 

Hannah's story is set just after the Vietnam War. Leni's parents are complicated. Her mom became pregnant with Leni when she was 16 and her dad Ernst was 25. When Leni was very young Ernst was drafted into the Vietnam War. He came back 6 years later, obviously damaged, and we see a brief glimpse of their home life before a letter arrives, informing Ernst that his army buddy Bo left him his plot of land in Alaska (aka "The Great Alone") and Ernst decides this is the new beginning to end all new beginnings and moves the family north from Washington to Homer, AK. 

This book was 100% terrifying. The tension never gets below a 5 out of 10 from her dad's PTSD to the ultra-survivalist lifestyle they stumble into in Alaska. Even the never ending days of summer and unrelenting nights of winter contribute to the terror. It was kind of the author to allow them to move at just the right time so they have the entire "summer" to learn how to live through an Alaskan winter. Otherwise things would have become dire very quickly.

What adds to the suspense is that most of you who will read it live in a world where we couldn't imagine using an outhouse or having to hunt to put away meat for winter or garden to can enough preserves to make it until spring. When was the last time you saw a goat let alone milk one and know how to churn that into other things? Have you ever had to lug water from a river to boil before using it? How long could you go without power? If you pick up this book, really imagine what it would be like to have 5 months to become completely literate in living off the land and sea or be murdered by the famine or insanity that the Alaskan winter brings. Reading this book in the 70s would evoke a much different reaction than reading it today. Our current reality adds to the horror of Leni's situation.

I do not want to give away how this book ends, but if you are looking for a very fast-paced thriller that's like My Side of the Mountain on powerful steroids, go get this book right away. Hang on tight though, it's quite a ride.

In 1974, Ernt Allbright returned home after several years as a POW in Vietnam. His ordeal had transformed him; he was no longer a warm and loving husband and father. Instead, he was violent, unpredictable, and abusive; subjecting his wife Cora to beatings and terrifying his daughter Leni. Ernt was convinced the world was about to end, and when he received a letter offering him a homestead in Kenaq, Alaska, the family packed up what they had, climbed in a VW bus, and headed off to Alaska.

They were unprepared for the isolation of the homestead, and for the primitive cabin, complete with an outhouse, and yet Leni fell in love with the wild beauty of the scenery and the friendliness of the people. Though she and Cora endured the verbal and physical abuse centering from Ernt’s increasing instability, Leni learned to survive, and even thrive, in the Alaskan wilderness.

Kristin Hannah does a wonderful job of conveying the beauty and the danger the Allbright family faced; both from the scenery and setting, and from Ernt’s inner demons. There was an underlying theme of fear was constantly emphasized, ranging from the fear of the wild animals, the wilderness, their lack of preparation, and in Cora’s relationship with Ernt. I liked Leni’s adaptability and her strength and courage in facing the unknown and untested, after being uprooted yet again by her unstable father. Leni and I are the same age, and I enjoyed the trip back in time with a young woman in a completely different environment than I was used to.

I loved this book. Such heartbreak about a family twisted by domestic violence. I cried many times for the women in this book. Yet, I raised my fist for solidarity at the many women in the book. I thought that is was beautifully written and had a well thought out plot! Loved it!

This is my second book from Kristin Hannah and you can't imagine my excitement about it!I was so intrigued and excited to start it!I love the writing and the story was beautiful! The characters rocked this story, I fall in love with them!The story is slow in some parts but overall many things happening to keep your interest!Secrets, love, death, loss and joy is some of the things you'll meet in this story!I have so many feelings with The Great Alone, it's a story I would definitely re read!The setting was perfect that I felt like I was a part of the story!

If you love Kristin Hannah's writing then you are going to love this one!Captivating,emotional and beautiful story!

The Allbright family moves to Alaska in 1974 after inheriting some land. They have no idea what to expect and arrive woefully unprepared for the harsh winters. Through neighborly help and lessons, they adapt and make it through to become true Alaskans. But, there is something wrong with the father, a Vietnam veteran.

The Great Alone of the title refers to the long Alaska winters and how alone you can feel in the many hours of darkness at the top of the world. It comes from a poem by Robert Service. The story is told through the eyes of Leni, the couple’s 13-year-old daughter. Her parents, Ernt and Cora, were struggling to make ends meet in Seattle. Then, Ernt found out that a war buddy, Bo Harlan, had left him some land in Alaska. Since they would own their own place for the first time, they decided to move. They packed up and drove their old VW bus all the way to Alaska. Ernt has experienced PTSD symptoms since the war and he has horrible nightmares and does not deal with bad weather very well. As their first winter looms, the reader begins to wonder whether Ernt will be able to hold it together in the cold, dark, and harsh lengthy winter.

The novel was very enjoyable, but some parts can be upsetting. The setting is just fantastic. It doesn’t get much better than wild Alaska. The author’s descriptions of the land are detailed and make you feel like you are there. Her love of this place shines through in all the descriptive passages. Not only the land, but the people are unique as well. In Alaska, you can be who you want to be. If a man wants to marry a goose, as one character does, no one will question it. People are unique and they leave each other alone to be themselves in Alaska. Everyone helps each other to survive. It’s not a place that just anyone can survive though. Many never make it through their first winter. Thus, the big question is whether Ernt will either step up or fail miserably at this new life. How will he handle the stress of this new situation? There is the main conflict of the story.

This is part adventure and part love story and part human interest. Leni finds a friend in the only boy her age at the small school, but her father has issues with the boy’s father. The characterizations in the novel are detailed and give us plenty of insight into what motivates each character. Leni loves her parents, but wants to also have a best friend. Her mother, Cora, wants to keep the peace in her relationship and seems to really love her husband, despite his flaws. Ernt is a hard character to read. His motivations are not easy to understand and he is very conflicted. His inner demons begin to come out more and more as the story goes along.

The narrative moves along well, with no slow or boring parts. Dialog is also indicative of each character. For example, Bo’s father talks in a different dialect or accent than the others. The reader gains insight into what it takes to survive in an environment such as this. It was probably quite different in 1974 than it is today, but it’s still a very tough environment and it’s not for everyone. How these characters each handle the stresses makes for plenty of conflicts that need to be resolved. The novel is also an exploration of PTSD and its horrific effects on family life, especially in an era before it was recognized as such and treatments were available as there are nowadays. Family violence is also explored here. It’s a detailed look at what can trigger someone to go over the edge.

This novel is complex and deals with several issues. It is set in a wonderful place and the author did a great job with all aspects of the story. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about survival in Alaska, or just enjoys a good story. I guarantee this one will make you cry, shout for joy, and sometimes laugh. It is an excellent novel.

Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the eARC of this book! I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Alaska a couple of years ago, and immediately fell in love. I loved how Hannah was able to bring me right back throughout this book. I love books that really pull you into the setting, and this book really masterfully transports the reader to Alaska in the 1970s. The story of the Allbright family, the father suffering from PTSD, the mother who will do anything for him, and Leni, their daughter - coming of age in the wilds of Alaska, was hard one to read because they go through so much. It's a powerful story about the human spirit, and what we will do for those we love.