After reading The Great Alone, I can confidently say that it was worth it. I didn't know what I was expecting after reading a review and inspecting the cover. The main reason I gained interest in this book was because a friend of mine had recommended it to me.

The book is about a 13 year old girl named Leni whose family hasn’t ever found a stable place to live. After Ernt, her father, comes home from Vietnam, he isn't the same. He has major drinking problems, bursts of anger, and experiences nightmares. Ernt then makes the decision to move to Alaska in hopes of becoming better: “I need a place where I can breathe again. Sometimes I feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin. Up there, the flashbacks and nightmares will stop, I know it. We need this. We can go back to the way things were before ‘Nam screwed me up.”. Cora, his wife, will do anything and go anywhere for him so they end up packing and leaving almost immediately without a second thought. But they quickly learn the intense demands required to live in such harsh conditions and about the true dangers of Alaska.

Within these first 200 pages, the pace of the book is perfect. Of course like any other book, the beginning is slow and mostly introductive, but it really picks up. A lot happens in the beginning of the book, not necessarily major action packed events, but ones that still kept me engaged. For example when they move to Alaska, they have much to do. The house they moved into was old and almost unused so they needed to make some major changes in order to survive the winter such as construct a garden, learn to hunt/shoot, chop endless amounts of firewood, etc. Also the author gave great descriptions of the beauty of Alaska and some of Leni's coming of age moments.

Unfortunately within the last 100-200 pages the pace is completely thrown out the window. The author threw problem after problem at the reader and felt like a completely separate novel from the first 200 pages. It was almost like Hannah had 5 different ideas for the ending of the book and ended up using all of them - there was no breathing room. The author emphasized the theme of growth in the beginning of the book through the perspective of “young” Leni and the issues she faces. It was mainly about trying to find comfort in a place of isolation; yet the ending contained the same types of issues and it felt as if after the 4-5 year span nothing changed. I understand a story without an ideal ending can still be effective, but I wish it would have been a little more organized.

Before this book, I had never read any pieces by Kristin Hannah. As a first impression I am really impressed with the amount of detail within the words. She can really say so much with a few words. “All this time, Dad had taught Leni how dangerous the outside world was. The truth was that the biggest danger of all was in her own home.” After you get into the book, the tension in her family continues to grow and grow which scares Cora and Leni. This little quote was a good way the author foreshadowed some of the events that happen later in the book.

Overall though, I personally enjoyed the book. I may not have liked the fast pace near the end, but overall the author did a great job sticking with a consistent style of writing which I always enjoy.