A review by sde
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is a hard one to rate. The setting in Alaska was amazing and not one you read often. It was not romanticized, and I was not surprised when I read the acknowledgements at the end that the author's family has run a lodge in Alaska for years. On the other hand, it was one horrible thing after another, and not all of it caused by the landscape. I found myself feeling almost panicked as I anticipated the next mistake and wrong decision the characters made. But that did keep me reading, and quickly! I switched back and forth between the print and the audiobook, depending on what I was doing. The audiobook eased the depressing quality somewhat because you could more easily hear the joy and awe too. But with the print, I could skim over the most awful parts. Some of the side characters were flat, but the author did a decent job at explaining the complicated feelings of being in an abusive family and whey "just leave" isn't so emotionally easy.
I was a little kid during the time when much of this book takes place. It was fun to read about things that I kind of remember, but I wasn't old enough to be totally steeped in. Also, I knew that women couldn't get credit in their own name for a long time, but I didn't realize it was as recently as the mid-1970s. Talked to some older people, and they said yes, that was definitely the way it was, and one of them recounted a story of swearing at the Sears salesman because she was the one working while her husband was in school. Some of the reviews are saying this isn't realistic, and why didn't the father get counseling and why didn't people help the mother more. This reviewers must be young. Those opportunities weren't readily available and that's just how things were done in the day. It was good to reflect on how much progress we have made because sometimes it doesn't feel that way.
I have only read one other book by Kristin Hannah, The Winter Garden, which I didn't like much at all. I wasn't planning on reading anything else by her, but my book group picked this one. I enjoyed this one much more, maybe because of the setting, so I am now open to reading more of her work.
I was a little kid during the time when much of this book takes place. It was fun to read about things that I kind of remember, but I wasn't old enough to be totally steeped in. Also, I knew that women couldn't get credit in their own name for a long time, but I didn't realize it was as recently as the mid-1970s. Talked to some older people, and they said yes, that was definitely the way it was, and one of them recounted a story of swearing at the Sears salesman because she was the one working while her husband was in school. Some of the reviews are saying this isn't realistic, and why didn't the father get counseling and why didn't people help the mother more. This reviewers must be young. Those opportunities weren't readily available and that's just how things were done in the day. It was good to reflect on how much progress we have made because sometimes it doesn't feel that way.
I have only read one other book by Kristin Hannah, The Winter Garden, which I didn't like much at all. I wasn't planning on reading anything else by her, but my book group picked this one. I enjoyed this one much more, maybe because of the setting, so I am now open to reading more of her work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail