A review by alexandriapiette
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

The Great Alone is a love story. Beneath the layers of the hardship of Alaskan winters and the bitterness of an angry man who haunts a home, there is an unfathomable amount of love threaded through these pages and its characters. Lenora “Leni” Allbright, and her mother, Coraline, resonated with me deeply as a survivor of domestic violence.

Beyond this is the love of a girl for her childhood best friend, and later, a rambunctious son.

I felt their journeys captivate me in a way I haven’t felt with a novel in some time. In the second half of the plot, the chaos that unfolds leaves you dizzy and unable to pause a reading session. While the content is certainly heavy and heart-wrenching, it, ultimately, feels important to read, just as Leni describes what matters most to her and devotes her care to it all.

This is my first book by Hannah, and suffice it to say, I’ll be checking out her other works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Death of parent