Scan barcode
A review by nickoliver
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I’m honestly proud of finally reading this one. It’s always been on my Goodreads TBR, but it’s never been a priority. Partly because I barely pick up historical fiction, and partly because it was almost 500 pages and that was intimidating. So the fact that I suddenly got into the mood to read this and actually did it? *pats himself on the shoulder* It did take me a while to finish it, both because it was fairly slow-paced and also just due to my depression having been really bad.
I was interested in this story particularly because of its time and place. The 1970s weren't an unknown time period for me to have as a setting, but Alaska in the 1970s? Or Alaska in general, even? I was really excited to read more about that time in history, especially the way Hannah portrayed the post-Vietnam War atmosphere in the US.
I have to say I loved Alaska in this book, but it did leave me with some questions. It made it seem like no one in Alaska has electricity or plumbing or wants to be a part of civilization, but ... surely, there are bigger cities up there? So did Leni just talk about her experience in that remote part of the state she was in and it just sounded like she was talking about all of Alaska, or was Alaska truly like this back in the 70s? Because Alaska is huge, and the way it was described made it seem fairly homogeneous, as if it was all the same untameable wilderness.
(Though I loved it that I was pretty much shown and explained why the majority of Alaskans are Republicans. Literally everybody in this book sans Leni, Mr. Walker, and Large Marge (and possibly Leni’s mother, but not sure about that one) would’ve voted for Trump.)
The plot itself made me very nervous at first, because I had no idea where it was going to go. Like, with The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, I knew that it was going to be about WWII, and I could adjust my expectations (and waterworks) accordingly. But here, I didn’t know where the plot would take me, because all I knew going into it was that it was about a Vietnam veteran who wasn’t easy to be around and who took his wife and daughter to live in the isolated wilderness of Alaska, which worsened his condition.
And when I tell you it was painful. It was really hard to read, because the characters made me go through a very emotional rollercoaster. I was constantly extremely angry at Leni’s parents, but at the same time, I felt like I couldn’t really criticise them? For one, her dad was a POW and was dealing with untreated PTSD, so many issues he had made perfect sense. For example, I understood why he wanted to keep his family apart from the rest of the world (he believed WWIII was right around the corner), or why he didn’t do well with enclosed spaces and nothing to do. Secondly, I also understood why Leni’s mother didn’t leave him, despite the fact that being without him would’ve made her and Leni’s life so much easier. Because Leni’s father had sought Cora out when she was a literal child - I think sixteen or seventeen? - and he was twenty-five. So she was obviously taken advantage of. And of course, it isn't always easy to leave an abusive relationship, especially if you, like Cora, still have great memories of the good, pre-war times, and I didn't want to stand there and criticise Cora for staying by Ernt's side.
Also, Hannah did an amazing job at writing a toxic, unhealthy relationship. The way Leni’s parents weren’t good for each other, yet weren’t able to actually leave the other one? The way Leni suffered from it? Absolutely heartbreaking, but very well done. I also have to say I did really appreciate that at no point in the book did Hannah try to make it seem like what they had was something you’d want for yourself.
Nevertheless, I often found myself being angry, especially at Leni’s father and especially the further into the book I got. While I started out feeling slightly sympathetic towards him, that feeling started to vanish more and more. The way he acted in their town, as if he’d been a part of it his whole life and everyone would share his feelings and opinions; the way he hated Tom Walker just because he was richer (but not rich in the way he kept saying); the way he made Leni’s life harder just because she had the audacity to love Tom Walker’s son; the way he hit his wife and excused it by saying his “love for her was just too big”; the way he never even tried to be better and just kept making excuses for his behaviour. Leni and her mother had to live in constant fear, and the most heartbreaking part of that was the fact that Leni’s father thought he was protecting his family from the rest of the world, when in reality, the only one they needed to be protected from was him.
Leni’s mother was also infuriating. Like I said, I get that she was too young when she got with him, and that their love was poisonous and toxic, but she kept putting her love for her husband before the safety of her daughter - hell, before everything concerning her daughter. And she never put her daughter first until the moment her father hit her for the first time. Like, I’m glad she finally put her foot down! But why not until this late? Leni could’ve used her help years earlier.
The romance in this book was, in a word, absolutely heartbreaking. Leni and Matthew met when she started school in Alaska, so when she was thirteen. They were just friends at first, and I really adored them together a lot. Their love story was filled with a lot of tragedies and they didn't have it easy, and many of the things that happened left me almost in disbelief. I was really invested in their story after a certain point and couldn't stop reading.
I do have to admit that there were some scenes that made me angry at Leni - she acted really stupid in the face of love sometimes (for example, kept sneaking out to meet Matthew when her dad wasn’t home instead of waiting until college and risking her literal life) -, but at the end of the day, that was probably realistic. She was a teenager with hormones, after all.
Then, quickly the few negative things that made me not give it 5 stars in the end.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Black rep in the book. There were some racists, and the Black woman in this book, Large Marge (who was also kind of the stereotypical strong woman who wasn’t to be weak and intimidated), was never defended against or said anything about it. The racist thing that was being said wasn't even addressed, and I have to admit, it was hard sometimes to believe in the town's sense of community when I knew how some of them thought about Black people.
There were also quite a few Native Americans in the book, and I did like them, even if their description sometimes felt a bit clumsy. I just wished there would’ve been more talk about colonization and what happened to those Natives, though I guess it’s probably realistic that they didn’t mention that. I mean, Americans barely learn about that in school now, never mind back in the 70s at a school with less than ten students.
I also read some reviews that criticised the way Hannah handled Vietnam vets. It kind of fed into this stereotype of veterans with PTSD always being violent and lashing out at their families, without there being much depth into the psyche of it. Like, it’s not like it was a book about a POW who genuinely tried to overcome his trauma; he just festered in it. And I can see how that could be frustrating to read, especially if you or a loved one is a vet. Personally, I didn’t mind it, mostly because I feel like it was realistic? And vets are often treated horribly in terms of their PTSD, so it didn’t feel that frustrating that Leni’s father was never seen in therapy or something.
This book did definitely kind of put me into the mood to read more historical fiction, and also more of Kristin Hannah! I might also re-read “The Nightingale” one day. We’ll see. Overall, this book was very emotionally charged and certainly packed a punch.
I was interested in this story particularly because of its time and place. The 1970s weren't an unknown time period for me to have as a setting, but Alaska in the 1970s? Or Alaska in general, even? I was really excited to read more about that time in history, especially the way Hannah portrayed the post-Vietnam War atmosphere in the US.
I have to say I loved Alaska in this book, but it did leave me with some questions. It made it seem like no one in Alaska has electricity or plumbing or wants to be a part of civilization, but ... surely, there are bigger cities up there? So did Leni just talk about her experience in that remote part of the state she was in and it just sounded like she was talking about all of Alaska, or was Alaska truly like this back in the 70s? Because Alaska is huge, and the way it was described made it seem fairly homogeneous, as if it was all the same untameable wilderness.
(Though I loved it that I was pretty much shown and explained why the majority of Alaskans are Republicans. Literally everybody in this book sans Leni, Mr. Walker, and Large Marge (and possibly Leni’s mother, but not sure about that one) would’ve voted for Trump.)
The plot itself made me very nervous at first, because I had no idea where it was going to go. Like, with The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, I knew that it was going to be about WWII, and I could adjust my expectations (and waterworks) accordingly. But here, I didn’t know where the plot would take me, because all I knew going into it was that it was about a Vietnam veteran who wasn’t easy to be around and who took his wife and daughter to live in the isolated wilderness of Alaska, which worsened his condition.
And when I tell you it was painful. It was really hard to read, because the characters made me go through a very emotional rollercoaster. I was constantly extremely angry at Leni’s parents, but at the same time, I felt like I couldn’t really criticise them? For one, her dad was a POW and was dealing with untreated PTSD, so many issues he had made perfect sense. For example, I understood why he wanted to keep his family apart from the rest of the world (he believed WWIII was right around the corner), or why he didn’t do well with enclosed spaces and nothing to do. Secondly, I also understood why Leni’s mother didn’t leave him, despite the fact that being without him would’ve made her and Leni’s life so much easier. Because Leni’s father had sought Cora out when she was a literal child - I think sixteen or seventeen? - and he was twenty-five. So she was obviously taken advantage of. And of course, it isn't always easy to leave an abusive relationship, especially if you, like Cora, still have great memories of the good, pre-war times, and I didn't want to stand there and criticise Cora for staying by Ernt's side.
Also, Hannah did an amazing job at writing a toxic, unhealthy relationship. The way Leni’s parents weren’t good for each other, yet weren’t able to actually leave the other one? The way Leni suffered from it? Absolutely heartbreaking, but very well done. I also have to say I did really appreciate that at no point in the book did Hannah try to make it seem like what they had was something you’d want for yourself.
Nevertheless, I often found myself being angry, especially at Leni’s father and especially the further into the book I got. While I started out feeling slightly sympathetic towards him, that feeling started to vanish more and more. The way he acted in their town, as if he’d been a part of it his whole life and everyone would share his feelings and opinions; the way he hated Tom Walker just because he was richer (but not rich in the way he kept saying); the way he made Leni’s life harder just because she had the audacity to love Tom Walker’s son; the way he hit his wife and excused it by saying his “love for her was just too big”; the way he never even tried to be better and just kept making excuses for his behaviour. Leni and her mother had to live in constant fear, and the most heartbreaking part of that was the fact that Leni’s father thought he was protecting his family from the rest of the world, when in reality, the only one they needed to be protected from was him.
Leni’s mother was also infuriating. Like I said, I get that she was too young when she got with him, and that their love was poisonous and toxic, but she kept putting her love for her husband before the safety of her daughter - hell, before everything concerning her daughter. And she never put her daughter first
The romance in this book was, in a word, absolutely heartbreaking. Leni and Matthew met when she started school in Alaska, so when she was thirteen. They were just friends at first, and I really adored them together a lot. Their love story was filled with a lot of tragedies and they didn't have it easy, and many of the things that happened left me almost in disbelief. I was really invested in their story after a certain point and couldn't stop reading.
I do have to admit that there were some scenes that made me angry at Leni - she acted really stupid in the face of love sometimes (for example, kept sneaking out to meet Matthew when her dad wasn’t home instead of waiting until college and risking her literal life) -, but at the end of the day, that was probably realistic. She was a teenager with hormones, after all.
Then, quickly the few negative things that made me not give it 5 stars in the end.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Black rep in the book. There were some racists, and the Black woman in this book, Large Marge (who was also kind of the stereotypical strong woman who wasn’t to be weak and intimidated), was never defended against or said anything about it. The racist thing that was being said wasn't even addressed, and I have to admit, it was hard sometimes to believe in the town's sense of community when I knew how some of them thought about Black people.
There were also quite a few Native Americans in the book, and I did like them, even if their description sometimes felt a bit clumsy. I just wished there would’ve been more talk about colonization and what happened to those Natives, though I guess it’s probably realistic that they didn’t mention that. I mean, Americans barely learn about that in school now, never mind back in the 70s at a school with less than ten students.
I also read some reviews that criticised the way Hannah handled Vietnam vets. It kind of fed into this stereotype of veterans with PTSD always being violent and lashing out at their families, without there being much depth into the psyche of it. Like, it’s not like it was a book about a POW who genuinely tried to overcome his trauma; he just festered in it. And I can see how that could be frustrating to read, especially if you or a loved one is a vet. Personally, I didn’t mind it, mostly because I feel like it was realistic? And vets are often treated horribly in terms of their PTSD, so it didn’t feel that frustrating that Leni’s father was never seen in therapy or something.
This book did definitely kind of put me into the mood to read more historical fiction, and also more of Kristin Hannah! I might also re-read “The Nightingale” one day. We’ll see. Overall, this book was very emotionally charged and certainly packed a punch.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Confinement, Gun violence, and Death
Minor: Pregnancy, Car accident, Death of parent, and Racism