I think this book should have been called tragedy in Alaska...
A family has troubles in Seattle and when the Dad inherits a house in Alaska, he moves himself, his wife young daughter there. It was culture shock moving to a place where winter is almost all year long and food is scarce. People are scarce. Unfortunately , their troubles not only follow them to Alaska, but worsen. The only thing going for this family is the people who treat them like family.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

I am a huge fan of Kristin Hanna's work ; The phenomenal Nightingale being my favorite. Until, Netgally honored my request to read her newest novel set to be published in February, 2018. The Great Alone is one of the best books I have ever read.

The story is set in the seventies with most of the story set in remote Alaska.
Leni is 13, living with her very young, loving, chain smoking mother and her volatile, unpredictable, alcoholic father, Ernt.

Ernt, serving his country in the Vietnam Nam war, was shot down over enemy territory and suffered the life of a POW for five years. When Ernt is found, he returns home to his beautiful, young wife, Cora and daughter Leni.

Ernt is not the same loving husband and doting father who left to serve the country. He has violent nightmares and temper explosions. His constant drinking makes his moods more volatile. Through a buddy in the military, Ernt inherits a run down cabin in a tiny backwoods town in Alaska. There is an outpost for buying supplies, but no running water, electricity or means of outside communication other than the postal system. The family is making a fresh start.

This is the epic story of human survival in a harsh environment of relentless dark winters that lasts for months. It also the story of a family in crisis. The writing is so articulate, the reader will feel the pain and stress of the fight for survival. Yet, for the folk who refer to themselves as Alaskan's, in this part of the Bush; this is their chosen way of life. A life they choose to live no other way.
You will fall in love with some characters and others you will fiercely detest.
To me thus was a very emotional book. Hannah has a way of evoking our emotions.

Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors. This book was another hit. I loved the setting and felt like I was right there in Alaska with them.

This was the best book I've read in a long time! The story grips you from the beginning, when Leni is 13 and about to travel to the wilderness of Alaska in the 1970s with her mother and father. Her father, a former POW and Vietnam veteran is suffering from PTSD and has inherited a piece of property on the Kenai peninsula, from a deceased war buddy. The family endures some harsh winters and primitive life while learning to survive and love the beauty and wild natural land of Alaska. Leni experiences joys, horrors and learns about the importance of love while she grows up in this small, close-knit community.
The author is so descriptive in telling of the beauty of the land that you can imagine what it is like to be there. The plot carries the reader along to a satisfying conclusion, while making you sit at the edge of your seat at times, and cry with relief and compassion for Leni. The characters are all drawn very well, even the ones that are not at the center of the story.
I could not put this book down!

Lena and the whole Allbright family is struggling financially and with her father's PTSD after his time as a POW in Vietnam. Thanks to the generosity of an army buddy, they are given land and a cabin to homestead in Alaska. This is their story. With plenty of historical references, colorful descriptions of life in the wilderness and a cast of endearing and likeable characters in their small community, this is an engrossing story of a family trying to survive physically and emotionally. The action is swift, the plot sometimes amusing, sometimes surprising, sometimes heartbreaking. Although I didn't find it as captivating as The Nightingale, I still couldn't put it down.

Not really my genre, but I understand the appeal of her work now.

I've read quite a few books by Kristin Hannah and enjoyed them immensely. I couldn't finish this one. I just didn't enjoy the characters.

Ever since thirteen-year-old Leni's father returned from Vietnam as a former POW, life has been filled with instability. When he is willed some land in Alaska from a former soldier and friend, Ernt uproots his family and heads to the Alaskan wilderness. Her family quickly realizes that they are less than prepared for life in 1970s remote Alaska, but the small, close-knit community helps them as they prepare for their first winter. What they cannot prepare for is the effects of the long, dark winter nights which intensify Ernt's alcoholism and his abuse toward Leni's mother. The book follows their lives as Leni grows through her teenage years and discovers a love of Alaska and a boy.

The setting and characters were fabulous and brought to life well, but the story was slow, dark, and somewhat predictable. People will probably love this one, but it wasn't my favorite.

Hannah is a master at creating believable characters and putting them to the test in exceptional circumstances. Her imagination knows no boundaries in The Great Alone-literally. This book provides a little bit of everything and has some current parallels that let the reader realize that history is truly cyclical. Strong female characters abound in Leni, Cora, and secondary characters. This outing by Higgins is definitely worth the time.

Combination of a coming of age novel and the novel Into the Wild. Absoulutely loved it. So different form the Nightingale. I will highly recommend it to friends and patrons., but with caution.,Nnot to expect the same type of story as the Nightingale. I am amazed at this author's ability to continue to write such wonderful stories..

Loved, loved, loved this book. Beautifully written. Amazing descriptions. Relatable characters. One of my top five most favorite books!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my review. I am a huge Kristin Hannah fan and have read all of her books, so I jumped at the chance to read The Great Alone. It is the story of Leni Allbright, a girl who's life is anything but bright. Her father is a Vietnam vet who was a prisoner of war and has returned a totally changed man. He suffers from PTSD and feels that a fresh start away from everything and everyone, will be the solace that he needs to heal from his invisible war wounds. He decides to move Leni and her mother Cora to Alaska. The move to Alaska does not bring everything the Allbright's hoped it would. They were totally unprepared for challenges that Alaska brought them, and the fragile cracks we saw in the family before the move to Alaska, turn into huge chasms after the move.

This story was completely original and very complex. The setting made, what could have been a familiar plot line, extremely intense. There was also an interesting dynamic between Cora and Leni- how living in Alaska shaped their mother-daughter bond, which led to some terrifying decisions for them. The supporting characters were also really well-written. This story grabs you from the beginning and even though you may think you know where it is heading, you don't. It is a terrific story.

Kristin Hannah never fails to amaze me another wonderful book

I love Kristin Hannah books; The Nightingale is one of my all-time favourites. I was excited to receive an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion. Warning: some may find spoilers ahead.

This book hooked me from the beginning. The writing is lovely; she describes Alaska as both bleak and beautiful. The characters are strong when needed but Cora is a little too weak for my taste. The book talks about PTSD resulting from the Vietnam war (which we all know went undiagnosed) and how that war can change a man. What I would have liked to see were more detailed flashbacks to show how Ernt was before he went away to war; as it was, I had no sympathy for him as all I knew of him was his paranoid, erratic, and violent behaviour. The short sentences describing how he 'wasn't like that before the war' really were not enough for him to be a sympathetic character or for me to have any empathy for him. Which, perhaps was the point.

Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A little bleak and difficult to read at times but no more so than some of the scenes in The Nightingale. I'm very thankful to have had the chance to read this book before publication and I can't wait for the next!

Cora, Ernt, and fourteen year old Leni are headed to the great state of Alaska to start over…again. Ernt, a former POW and Vietnam Vet, has been struggling ever since he returned from the war. Unable to keep a job, he receives some free land from a former soldier and decides they will live off the land and start anew.

However, the change of scenery does not change everything, and Ernt continues to struggle with his demons. As the years progress, Leni learns to love the Alaskan way of life, and embraces the town, its people, and a new friend in Matthew. As her dad declines, his sickness will force Leni and her mother to make difficult, life changing decisions. Decisions that will ultimately follow them and affect the rest of their lives.

This is nothing like her popular novel The Nightingale. The Great Alone is completely different, but charming, and entertaining nonetheless I really enjoyed this novel and read it in no time flat. I just cannot say enough wonderful things about this novel but one thing is for sure, I did not want it to end.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Here's your honest review.

5 stars

You've got to give credit where credit is due. There are very few books that can keep me from my sleep. In fact, I often pick up my book in the wee hours of the night in order to turn my brain off so that I can fall back to sleep. This one kept me up for two nights! The fact that it was able to keep my sleep-deprived brain captivated is testament to how occupied I was in this story. Another factor of my 5-star rating was the fact that I felt compelled to talk to my husband about the story. I rarely do that. This one had me talking about the characters on several occasions. That's something in my book.

This is a very dark story. Sure, it's set in Alaska, so the winters are especially long and dark, but the story and the sub-text are also very dark. It was sometimes difficult to know exactly where the story was headed, but that was part of the appeal. The story varied in its pace. The first part was rather slow to build and then the pace sped up, slowed down and sped up again. It kept me wondering and engaged.

In all, I enjoyed the whole experience. I loved how Hannah developed her characters and brought me into their lives.

Oh my goodness! I couldn't get this book out of my mind. The descriptions of Alaska almost made me cold, although it was almost HOT weather when I read it. You could feel how brutal, yet beautiful it is. This book deals with a very difficult subject of domestic violence. It was very troubling at times to read. yet, a topic that needs awareness. I highly recommend this book!

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah is an egalley from St. Martin’s Press received from Net Galley. It is a story of the lives of Ernt, Cora, and Leni as they escape to the “great alone” of Alaska because of Ernt’s desire to start anew in Alaska. Ernt suffered from mental trauma from returning from Vietnam War as a POW, later known as PTSD.As result of this move, abuse ensues on Cora and Leni from Ernt, but they learn to love and survive in the beautiful and harsh environmental conditions of Alaska.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and th author for allowing me to read an advanced copy in trade for an honest review.

In the 1970’s, Leni’s father (a POW in Vietnam) decides to uproot his family and move to Alaska. There, the family becomes part of a community where others help everyone. However, having nightmares, especially when the nights are long Leni’s Dad slowly becomes more violent and uncontrollable. Leni and her mother begin to worry about what they do and say around Ernt.

How will Leni’s family survive in the Great Alone?

What a well written book. I have not read too many of Hannah’s previous books, but have a ton of backlist titles on my shelf. I have never read a book of hers I did not enjoy. Can’t wait for this book to come out, so I can put it in the hands of others!

Kristen Hannah's new novel The Great Alone is a wonderful and tragic love story. Alaska is the background for most of the story and actually plays an important role in the plot. The story revolves around a war hero suffering from his experiences as a prisoner of war. Alaska is a hard place to live with fright temperatures and long months with little sunlight. the family struggles to make a happy safe home but the father's struggles with drinking and violence towards his wife lead them down a dark and destructive path.
I felt the book was well written and does have a happy ending.