The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah - Book Thoughts Vol 4

I am sitting here and writing this review of The Great Alone as I've just finished it. And wow that was one hell of a read! 

So to start it off, I gave it 4/5 stars and have really enjoyed it and here is why.

It was a really fast read but a dramatic and frustrating at times. Still an amazing one nonetheless.

This book follows Leni Albright through her childhood mostly moving with her parents Cora and Ernt from Seattle to Alaska. She witnesses the fierce and stormy love of her parents. They leave to face the unknown and harsh life of Alaska. 

So basically after reading it, you’d be torn into never stepping a foot in Alaska and moving there all at once. The frightening wilderness of it will draw you into it.

Okay now, that frightening wilderness is not just the Alaska part but the whole Albright family story. In a way the story grips you so firmly, you start to take everything personal.

This book made me happy at times but mostly kept me on toes of what will happen next. It makes you root for characters and angry at other ones! 

"This was a beginning, he thought; a beginning in the middle, something unexpected and beautiful."

It also gives out so many shapes of love, some that water with growth, others that tear apart and break a life. then again they are captivating in every way.  

But one thing about it is the easy way Kristin Hannah gets you attached to the plot. Her writing was smooth and the feelings are expressed in the most beautiful ways. This is the second book I've read by her that I've loved (“The Nightingale” is a masterpiece!) and really looking forward to reading more novels by her.

A Collection of Quotes 

"And the books! She’s never seen so many. They whispered to her of unexplored worlds and unmet friends and she realized that she wasn’t alone in this new world. Her friends were here, spine out, waiting for her as they always had."

 "When we sit around the dinner table, we try to knit our lives together, dropped stitches and all. Maybe that’s what love is."

 "Leni heard her mother start to cry, and somehow that made it worse, as if her tears watered his ugliness, made it grow."

"She hadn’t known until now how love could erupt into existence like the big bang theory and change everything in you and everything in the world."