Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

234 reviews

izzy_v's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

The only thing preventing me from giving this book 5 stars was how much I disliked reading the numerous DV scenes, however I at least felt they were necessary for the plot. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was simultaneously heartbreaking and beautiful, tragic and hopeful. The story forces you to feel a broad spectrum of emotions deeply, leaving you feeling raw at the end but in a good way. I would recommend this book, but advise folks to check the trigger warnings first! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

jcqln112's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Gore, Murder, and War

Minor: Pregnancy

sweetteaandfiction's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The Great Alone by @kristinhannahauthor painted a terrifyingly realistic story of growing up in a home where the background noise to your life is domestic violence and the word outside your door is just as harsh and unforgiving as the world inside.

For me, it was a very slow build to an ending that had me in tears cheering for the FMC and the love of her life. 

PROS: 
🧊The book did an amazing job of painting the beauty and harshness of the Alaskan wilderness in the 70’s. 
🩵Large Marge is my all time favorite surrogate literary Auntie
🧊Found Family 
🩵The Walkers 
🧊The ending was *chef’s kiss* 

CONS: 
🩵The book does deal with DV. While this can be a heavy topic, I felt it was handled very well. 
🧊Conspiracy theorist bs is so exhausting 
🩵Old, close minded white men being the worst 
🧊The whole building a fence thing made me irrationally angry 
🩵I understand that I will never understand what it is like to have a parent or someone close to me with the sort of PTSD our FMC’s Dad has. However, I do think at times everyone was too quick to forgive his behavior because of the PTSD. The point where his behavior was too much came long before any intervention. 

🪚🪚🪚 out of five ice fishing holes in the middle of a lake in the dead of winter for these Alaskan homesteaders 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, Terminal illness, and Grief

ladymelane's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, and Domestic abuse

aliciaallen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Cancer and Grief

jesophie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Blood, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Pregnancy and War

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sabrina_rawr's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Cancer and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy

mariposa_ca's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, and Vomit

kirstym25's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Pregnancy, and War