Kristin Hannah "The Great Alone" - Don't Go There!

Kristin Hannah (b US 1950) is a prolific novelist of historic, romantic adventures.  Hannah's novel "The Nightingale" ('15) was made into a feature film.  "The Great Alone" is a young adult novel, filled with adventure on the harsh & untamed Alaskan frontier.   Hannah's depiction of life on the Alaskan tundra for our young heroine Lenora, "Leni" is what's great in the novel.  The spectacular otherworldly beauty of Alaska was magical in its vast expanse, and incomparable landscape of soaring glacier filled white mountains that ran the length of the horizon.  Leni came to live in Alaska in the 1980s with her  parents Cora & Ernt.  Up until this fatal move Leni & her parents led a peripatetic lifestyle.  Ernt was a former Viet Nam POW.  Nothing seemed to work out for Leni's dad.  He was unable to sleep or hold a job.  Leni knew as a child of a PoW how fragile & easily broken people were.  Ernt was bequeathed land in Kaneq, AK from a friend who served in Viet Nam.  Cora hopes a fresh start in Kaneq will be the panacea for Ernt's deteriorating mental health and escalating, violent outbursts.  The cabin the family moves into has no electricity or running water.  Winters are long & unforgiving.  Cora seems endlessly forgiving of Ernt's brutal attacks tending to blame herself.  Leni perceives something is seriously wrong with her family &  felt like the only adult but as the child unable to confront her folks.  The family does learn to fend mostly for themselves growing their own vegetables, hunting, fishing and overcoming the harsh & severe environment.  There are other rugged settlers willing to help.  And, there's Matthew, one of 6 students in the town's makeshift one room schoolhouse.  Matthew & Leni are the same age, of the same mind & become each other's "one true thing."  Matthew is the son of Ernt's nemesis and their forbidden love must remain hidden fearing what harm Ernt would inflict on either Leni, Matthew or both.  Here's where "The Great Alone" left me out in the cold.  Their star crossed love story was obtuse.  I'm captious of glossing over issues of teen pregnancies.  The tales & means for survival in AK are enchanting.  But, the survival story of a daughter caught in the line of fire of a mentally ill, menacing parent was repugnant. .  Leni harbors numerous regrets.  If only she had broken free, asked for help - anything but remain in the purgatory of an alcoholic & abusive dad & mom who failed to shield her.  "Were you ever out in the Great Alone when the moon was awful clear."  Veering from the wild frontier into domestic abuse and an overly sentimental love story put the novel on thin ice.  "The Great Alone" becomes muddled and loses its appeal for young readers, adults or anyone.  Don't go there!