THIS BOOK! OH MAN! I'm writing this review days after reading this book and this book is still with me. I can't stop thinking about it. It was EPIC! Now, for me, the beginning of this book was a little slow, but it soon picked up the pace and I was lost in Leni's journey. I loved the way Kristin describes Leni's trip from Seattle to Alaska and what she and her family found when they arrived in this new land. I felt like I was there and could picture it so well. I held my breath and watched as Leni grew up in Alaska. Some were great and others had me so mad! Kristin definitely gave me ALL the FEELS in this read and I couldn't pull myself away. This was such a captivating read and left me with my first book hangover of 2018. I can't tell you quickly enough to GO ONE-CLICK THIS BOOK! This is a journey by a young girl, who has to grow up in a unique way, and how her environment makes her into a strong woman. You'll laugh and cry with her and cheer her on. I was totally blown away by this book. Please, do yourself a favor and don't miss this amazing story.

Ernt Allbright returns from Vietnam and a stint as a POW a changed man. When he learns that an army buddy who was killed has given him land and a house in Alaska, he moves his family there. His wife and daughter hope that the move is what will help him get away from the memories that have scarred him and changed him.

I very much enjoyed this book. I think it gave a very realistic view of survival in Alaska. It also showed the difficult situation that an abusive relationship is. It is not as black and white as we on the outside think sometimes, especially in the 70's when women did not have as many rights and power. I will highly recommend this to others!

The Great Alone, Hannah captures life in Alaska in the 1970s. The Allbrights, Ernt, Cora and Leni, set out for their new adventure in their VW, with little supplies to make it during the harsh winter. Ernt suffers from PSTD long before it was diagnosed. Cora shield their daughter, Leni from the reality of what is going on but living in close quarters, the truth comes out about her family.

This book really put the reader in the setting of Alaska with all of its beauty and dangers, both physical and psychological. It tells the story of Leni and her codependent parents and their move to Alaska in the 1970's to get away from the crowded lower 48. The long winters exacerbate her father's PTSD and make him more abusive of Leni and her mother. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for his honest review.

Leni’s father has returned from Vietnam and is having trouble adjusting to civilian life after being a POW. They continue to move and try different situations, but nothing seems to work for very long. When Leni is thirteen years old, her father inherits a piece of land in Alaska and he promises this is their last move. He wants to live off the grid and assures Leni and her mother that this is the solution to all of their troubles. But when the first endless night continues, they discover that the nightmares have returned. With the help of the locals, they devise a temporary solution, but are the Allbrights ready to live in the Alaskan wilderness? How will a woman and girl survive with such an unstable man?

The Great Alone is a stand-alone novel that starts out in 1974 and continues for many years. This is an epic story that is not meant to be read quickly or in one sitting. Hannah has created characters that have hidden depth and readers will quickly take the side of these strong and unforgettable women. There are times that the story jumps a large span of months and years, but in the end, this adds to the feeling of being lost in the wilderness. A good read that will be enjoyed by many, but not for readers who want something light and easy.

An interesting look at many issues such as PTSD, chemical dependency, domestic violence, living in the wilderness, Traumatic Brain Injury, and much more. It’s told through the eyes of the daughter as she grows from 13 years old to 25 years old. Many twists and turns towards the end that keep you turning the pages. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This is the story of a young family, a Vietnam veteran and POW, his dreamer wife, and their practical child Leni. When Leni’s father inherits land up in Alaska, his father views it as a fresh start for the family. Before she knows it, they are on their way to Alaska in their new VW bus.

Leni falls in love with the beauty of their little community and the wonderful people living there, but when the dark winters begin to press in, she sees a change in her father, and not a good one. Was moving here a terrible mistake?

For fans of Kristin Hannah, it’s been a long wait for a new book. After the intense popularity of The Nightingale, the next book was more anticipated. The Great Alone was absolutely worth the wait. Filled with hope, love, pain, and fear, this book grips you from the first page, and doesn’t let go. I couldn’t put this book down and found myself reading way past my bedtime.

This book covers some very important topics: abuse, PTSD, and the way they affect more than just the victim. This story shows exactly how far out the effects reach. Lives are forever changed, and in the 1970’s, the laws and knowledge were definitely not up to where they needed to be. Thankfully, times have changes and I hope a lot of this wouldn’t be able to happen now days.

I found this incredibly well written, as all Kristin Hannah books are. The writing was vivid and well detailed. I could hear the water, see the mountains and lakes, feel the fear and pain, the love and joy. I felt as if I was truly there, fighting the winters and waiting for spring.

I loved these characters. Leni was strong and really smart, Matthew was loyal and caring, Mama was really trying the best she could, and I had love how protective Mr. Walker and Large Marge were. The way everyone came together in this wonderful community was heartwarming and inspiring.

This book was wonderful from the first page to the very last; I loved every second of it. I would recommend this book to anyone.

*I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher. A positive review was not required. All opinions are my own.*

The thing I like the most about Kristin Hannah’s book are the deep character dives and how you get so close to the main characters as you explore their world, story and feelings. This book was no exception. I loved the survival aspects. Growing up my sisters and I called that type of book saving up for winter books. I was so delighted by the description of the general store and was like I feel like I am reading a Laura Ingalls book and then Leni thought the same thing. I loved this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2103317946?type=review#rating_147854507

Net Galley ARC. Lots of four- and five-star reviews already up, so it might just be me, but I felt this could have been a great book but wasn't. Three stars. The characters felt pigeonholed to me (Dad, the drifter, the Nam vet, the good guy but hard to live with); Leni, the good girl; Mom, the long-suffering, will-do-anything-for-Dad wife. Even Alaska and its harsh nature became a cliche, especially, I think, for those who've lived there. After plodding through the first half--the book is 450 pages and too long--the pace picks up, and it all felt as though Hannah's editors were telling her, Wrap it up.

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.

Those of you not familiar with Kristin Hannah should become acquainted with one of the great authors of our time. She cranks out best sellers constantly and I haven’t come across a clinker yet. “The Great Alone” is one of her best, full of relationships that resonate and locations that are beautifully recreated.

The story is a strong one about life that seems so promising, then evolves into distressing confrontation, and finally gets reestablished as a time of hope and discovery. Sure, that’s not a new concept, but Hannah juggles it into one that has fresh eyes.

Set in Alaska in the early 1970s, a father, mother, and teen-age daughter arrives in a decrepit town of has-beens, wanna-bes, and never-weres. Escalating bad times drives them there and the father, who suffers from PTSD, seems to descend deeper into the visions of his violent past. The rough community near Homer, with struggles of its own, is not a good fit for this family and the father starts to exhibit an increasing violent temper that flares into periodic vicious physical abuse on his wife that eventually extends to his daughter.

The tiny town generates friendships on its own terms and feuds can build quickly. The father gets crossways with the town icon and his hatred grows as he senses some hidden feelings between his wife and the patron. Along the way the daughter develops a love for the rich guy’s son resulting in an unfortunate pregnancy. Both the wife and daughter receive horrific beatings.

Hannah does a great job of building this conflict with credible circumstances and realistic characters. The crackling dialogue keeps the reader involved with the emerging story, sparking almost fanatical attention. It takes something like a family emergency to get the reader to put the book away. My only less-than-favorable comment involves the way the two women handle a crucial situation. In my opinion it is not realistically contrived and unnecessary steps are taken to resolve it. But it is Hannah’s story and done the way she envisioned it.

This is a great reading club selection with countless opportunities for serious discussions. Don’t miss it.