Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

48 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I cried so many times. Beautifully written scenery and emotions and all of it 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Hannah shines in her vivid descriptions of the beautiful, yet harsh and sometimes unforgiving landscape of Alaska. 
Unfortunately the pace of the book seemed a little all over the place- with five hours left I was frequently checking if I was at the end yet, the author took her time wrapping up the story. 

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krandelzhofer's review

4.0
adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was very compelling, but the ending wrapped up kind of quickly and unrealistically. It was a bit of a let down after the build up through the rest of the book.

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

"She knew the difference between fact and fiction, but she couldn’t abandon her love stories. They made her feel as if women could be in control of their destinies. Even in a cruel, dark world that tested women to the very limits of their endurance, the heroines of these novels could prevail and find true love."


It's the 1970's, Leni is 13, and her family decides to move to rural Alaska for a new start.

I've been sleeping under a rock and I'm glad I gave Kristin Hannah a shot with this book because I'm now going to have to go through her backlog. This is a coming of age story, a bit of a family saga, and a romance.

This was beautifully written not just with the descriptions of life in Alaska but also with how KH captures the very complex and dark side of this family's love. It deals very heavily with domestic violence/abuse and so be warned if this is a hard topic for you to read. There is also suspense elements and other tragedies, great story pacing, and side characters. I had a hard time putting this down. And as heavy and hopeless as this story gets it also gives you an almost borderline sappy happily ever after once the reader gets to the end (the hits just keep on coming so when they stop it feels unreal).

This reminded me of Where The Crawdad's Sing with it's sense of place and the depth of emotion the author paint in the simple day to day life of Leni. 

Highly recommend and if you like audio, it is read by Julia Whelan. 

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

My first Kristin Hannah book --- this one was well written and very sad.  It's traumatic in so many ways.  Definitely will be giving other books by her a try.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Gorgeous and honest writing with high stakes and substantial consequences 

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Another amazing book by Kristin Hannah

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