What readers think of The Great Alone, plus links to write your own review.

This can best be described as ChickLit meets Adventure with a hearty dose of Melodrama. It is a good story—the kind that keeps you turning pages to find out what happens. And if you enjoy books with riveting plots, this one is for you. But that's about all it has. The characters—and some are quite colorful—are far too one-dimensional. The bad guys are really bad. And the good guys are really good. And there is not much in between.

Written by Kristin Hannah, this is the story of 13-year-old Leni who moves in 1974 (in an old VW bus of all things) to the uncivilized wilds of Alaska with her parents, Cora and Ernt. Cora is a loving mother, who thinks of Leni as her best friend. Ernt is a former Vietnam POW, who has nightmares and rages of anger that he takes out on his wife with his fists. This is the classic story of danger, and even in the middle of winter in godforsaken Alaska the real danger can be inside the cabin—not out.

While most of the plot is predictable, there are a few unexpected twists and turns that save the book from being totally banal. Still, this is hardly great literature.

I so looked forward to this new book by Kristin Hannah because her previous title was so rewarding and satisfying. Unfortunately, this one is far from that - at least for me. The repetition in this book is unbelievable - how could an editor have allowed this to pass? In addition, many of the events in the book are simply too far-fetched to actually occur under the circumstances. Too much happens in too short a time or space. There are brief segments where the prose literally sings, and once I arrived at that point I took a deep breath and hoped I had passed the worst - only to be disappointed again and again. The publishing house fell far short on this one, I feel. Either that or I am asking myself who really wrote Kristin Hannah's great World War II novel of a short time ago.

It could have been shorter -repetitious descriptive sentences of beauty and harshness of Alaska cancelled itself out. I could not care for the characters and wasn't that the purpose of the book? to be involved with the characters? Otherwise it's a travel guide.