Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - The Great Alone

This a great book. And a long book like this comes with a lengthy review! Despite its length, though, it’s a quick read. I found myself unable to put it down for very long, which is saying something because I’m a slow reader. Now, for my thoughts on the story...

The novel takes place in the 1970s, but you need not worry about unfamiliar settings and references because Hannah makes the world around the Allbright family both richly detailed and extremely accessible.

The main character, Leni, is beautifully written. It’s so rare for an author to get a child/teen’s voice right, but Hannah nails it. Leni is thoughtful, intelligent, and sensitive; she’s a whole person. And we see her struggle and grow up in a turbulent family within a small community in a remote part of Alaska.

Though this story features many forms of abuse and domestic violence, Hannah uses a sensitive hand in the writing of it. It is believable and heart-breaking to watch Leni and her mother, Cora, both suffer at the hands of Ernt, their father and husband respectively. I love that the rest of the townsfolk stand up to Ernt and call out his behavior. I’m so used to media that features only hand-wringing bystanders. I love seeing people fighting back on behalf of Leni and Cora.

The (too many) twists of fate in the last third are terribly hard to read, partly because they’re so excruciating and partly because they require a lot of suspended disbelief. I would argue that the events in the last third take the plot outside the realm of what I see as plausible, especially considering the first two-thirds is written like a “slice of life” story.

I believe that making

Matthew and Leni fall off the cliff and making Matthew completely brain-dead after finally successfully escaping Ernt

was overkill. The

pregnancy

plot line did not need to be exacerbated by

Matthew’s accident when the pregnancy is huge enough as it is

. Also, while I’m happy that

Cora kills Ernt, which Leni helps cover up,

it is more than my suspended disbelief can handle. And don’t get me started on

Leni’s confession scene at the police station

. I almost said, “Oh, brother” out loud. Like, come on...

My rating on the first 66.6% of the book is 4 out of 5, but it just goes off the rails in the final 33.3%. These out-there events that feel forced/crammed in is what ultimately made me decide to rate this novel a 3.5 out of 5.

It’s a weird book, but it’s packed with action and heartache in a captivating, soap opera kind of way. You can’t help but feel for the characters, even if some of the events are quite farfetched. I can’t help but want what is best Leni, and that is my litmus test for what makes for a good book.

Content Warnings

ashlyncherie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This might be the best book I’ve ever read up to this point in my life. And I’ve never been so destroyed. But I don’t know if I could ever read it again because of how much it destroyed me. The one thing I did not like was when

Lenny got manipulated into confessing!! Like she should have known and I felt the whole plot point was unnecessary.

but despite that, I can’t give it less than 5 stars.

Content Warnings