That’s the thing. The book takes the worst case scenario for EVERY character. Every single character, even Leni, is the least of the best possibilities. He shook his head, exhaled a stream of blue-gray smoke. “I just want . . . more, I guess. Not a job. A life. I want to walk down the street and not have to worry about being called a baby killer. I want . . .” He sighed. Smiled. “Don’t worry. It’ll all be okay. We’ll be okay.” Marge shows up, bringing along Natalie Watkins and Geneva Walker, to help make the place live-able. The need a greenhouse and a food storage area (cache) at least. They get to work, and Marge tells them they need to learn how to shoot as well.

This state, this place, is like no other. It is beauty and horror; savior and destroyer. Here, where survival is a choice that must be made over and over, in the wildest place in America, on the edge of civilization, where water in all its forms can kill you, you learn who you are........You learn what you will do to survive. That lesson, that revelation, as my mother once told me about love, is Alaska's great and terrible gift. Those who come for beauty alone, or for some imaginary life, or those who seek safety, will fail. In the vast expanse of this unpredictable wilderness, you will either become your best self and flourish, or you will run away, screaming, from the dark and the cold and the hardship. There is no middle ground, no safe place; not here, in the Great Alone." Matthew and Leni's relationship continues to grow. Matthew asks her to apply to college with him. Leni is worried about leaving her mother alone with Ernst. Leni and Matthew kiss. When Ernst finally finds out about them and realizes Cora has known what was going on, he beats up Cora. A girl was like a kite; without her mother's strong, steady hold on the string, she might just flat away, be lost somewhere among the clouds."

BookBrowse Review

All in all, I absolutely loved this book and I now have to read everything this author has ever written. Cora declines to press charges so Ernst goes home. Months later, Matthew still isn't better. He's moved into a care facility in anchorage. Leni declines to leave for college, since she is waiting for him. Leni finds out she's pregnant. Leni tells Ernt and he starts to hit her. Cora shoots him. Then Dad got drafted and went off to Vietnam and got shot down and captured. Without him, Mama fell apart; that was when Leni first understood her mother’s fragility. They drifted for a while, she and Mama, moved from job to job and town to town until they finally found a home in a commune in Oregon. There, they tended beehives and made lavender sachets to sell at the farmers’ market and protested the war. Mama changed her personality just enough to fit in. Absolutely riveting!...Read this book." —Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, Director of the University of Miami Holocaust Teacher Institute While everyone warned Leni how dangerous Alaska was, it turned out the biggest danger was in her own home. Ernt is abusive to Cora but he always swears that he’ll never happen again and he’ll quit drinking, which he never does. Ernt clearly has PTSD but is there something else at play there?

Looking for The Great Alonebook club questions for your next reading group meeting? Here are 18 thought-provoking discussion questions to get you guys going! When Ernt tried to beat Leni when she said she was pregnant, something in Cora finally snapped and she then shot and killed Ernt. Why do you think it took that moment for her to do something? Leni takes MJ to Alaska. She tells the officer about the murder, who coaxes her to tell the full truth, implying that it'll be okay. After Leni admits to helping to get rid of the body, he arrests her. However, at the trail, Large Marge is there and Tom Walker has helped pull some strings to get the state to drop the charges. What do you think of the character of Cora at this point? Do you think she was a good mother to Leni?

Media Reviews

After that and all the way home, he said nothing, which should have been better than yelling, but it wasn't. Yelling was like a bomb in the corner: you saw it, watched the fuse burn, and you knew when it would explode and you needed to run for cover. Not speaking was a killer somewhere in your house with a gun when you were sleeping." Alaska, 1974. Ernt Allbright came home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes the impulsive decision to move his wife and daughter north where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier. Look, I’m not gonna lie here. I don’t even know how to put into words what I just read and the 8000 emotions still going through my body. This is the first book I have read by this author and I had no idea what to expect although I had heard she had many great books. It just happened that this book was the one chosen by my book club, and man what a powerful book and story told in a unique, poignant, beautiful, emotional way.