13-year-old Leni Allbright is moved to the wilds of Alaska when her former POW father inherits land in The Great Alone from another soldier of the Vietnam War who didn't make it back home. There are a thousand ways to die in Alaska and Leni quickly learns that her family is woefully unprepared for the wildness they have thrown themselves into. Add into that the tension and fear that stems from her father Ernt's vicious PTSD and his paranoid ideas and life in Alaska just became a potentially deadly endeavor.

Oh my goodness. This book tore my heart out, put it back together, then smashed it into pieces...and repeat. There is so much pain and destruction, drama & tension in this one book...but it is OH SO GOOD. The writing is incredibly rich and descriptive (though admittedly sometimes slightly repetitive). The characters leap off the page and become so real. I could physically feel the tension and emotions in the dialogue.

I found Leni's mother, Cora, to be an incredibly hard-to-like character. Sometimes these are the best characters in a narrative. Her flaws were realistic and raw. She is constructed very well under the circumstances of a battered woman, but sometimes her selfishness and lack of comprehension of the danger she placed her child in make me want to slap her.

I appreciated the author's willingness to make bad things happen to good characters, to put them in harsh situations from which they don't always emerge unscathed. The pain and challenge of these circumstances made the reading feel more realistic and led me to become increasingly invested in the characters and their narrative.

I loved this so much. There will be much more Kristin Hannah in my reading future.