Note: This book Review was previously published on my old site Becky in China.
Title: The Great Alone
Author: Kristin Hannah
Material source: iBooks
My Rating: 5 / 5 🌟
About the book:
It is 1974 and Ernt Allbright, a former POW in the Vietnam War is a different man. Suffering from nightmares and fits of anger that causes him lose a succession of jobs, he decides to move his young wife and daughter north, into the wilds of Alaska.
Leni, the loyal 13-year old daughter, is ever-hopeful that this move will bring about the changes her and her mother, Cora desperately want. For a time it seems that the magic of the Alaskan wilderness and the community they find are exactly what Ernt needs. Their small family are happy, working hard to learn new skill and get ready for their first winter in their new home.
However, as the winter darkness begins to settle in, it appears that whilst Alaska has the power to bring out the good in people, it also has the ability to turn men insane during its long, freezing, dark months. Ernt becomes volatile, and Leni soon realises that despite the dangers of the wilderness of which she has been warned, perhaps the greatest danger is the one inside her own home.
Caught between her new found relationship with local boy Matthew, and her parents unexplainable tumultuous love, Leni realises that somehow she and Cora need to escape. But against the backdrop of the isolating Alaskan winter, is it even possible?
My opinion:
Leni is instantly likeable, even as a teenage girl. She is a bookworm, shy, and hardworking, willing to learn everything she can about life in Alaska and all the skills she needs to survive it. Told from her point of view, at first I expected to find it difficult to read from the perspective of a teenage girl but this was unfounded. She is an easy character to like.
Cora is also likeable, though harder to understand. Through the years of Ernt’s abuse the reader wills her to leave him, but somehow are made to understand why she cannot do so. Her character is heartbreaking to read about throughout the novel and I could really see her deep love for Leni through Kristin Hannah’s brilliant writing.
Ernt is a far more complex character to understand. Whilst at no point did I actually like the man, through Leni and Cora I too willed him to change, to become the husband and father they wanted him to be. It is often difficult to read about Ernt – there are certainly some disturbing scenes involving him. Finally, just as Leni and Cora realise he is never going to change, I desperately wanted them to leave him.
This book is a fantastic read. The incredible descriptions of Alaska brought the landscape to life, and I loved reading about it. It also seemed the perfect place for everything to happen – the good parts and the terrible parts. The other characters of the book – Large Marge, Tom Walker, Matthew Walker – are all wonderfully written, their lives sewn into those of the Allbright’s, each experiencing their own wonders and tragedies just as Leni, Cora and Ernt do.
Some quotes from the book:
“Alaska isn’t about who you were when you headed this way. It’s about who you become.”
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“All this time, Dad had taught Leni how dangerous the outside world was. The truth was that the biggest danger of all was in her own home.”
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“Love doesn’t fade or die, baby girl. People tell you it does, but it doesn’t. If you love him now, you’ll love him in ten years and in forty. Differently, maybe, a faded version, but he’s part of you now. And you are part of him.”
In conclusion:
It is all so utterly compelling that I found it difficult to stop reading. I just loved it all. The plot is harrowing yet addictive and the characters are wonderful, but for me it was the setting that made this book so brilliant. Alaska, so remote and wild and dangerous, yet so beautiful and giving and the perfect place for such a brilliant novel. The characters are well developed and the story is in equal parts beautiful and terrifying.
Incredible book.
Bookish Wanders 