Parents Cora and Ernt and 13 yo Leni (Lenora) move from Seattle to Alaska to a cabin on the edge of a small town. Ernt is a Vietnam vet and a drunk who physically abuses his wife. Emotional abuse of the daughter comes about from both parents, in my view.
Ultimately, this is a survival tale -- how to survive the Alaskan wild as well as survival by individuals -- such as a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, and a family living with alcoholism and physical abuse. This book details the abuse quite a bit; those parts were *not* easy for me to read (personally speaking). Honestly, the abuse pissed me off so much that I began to dislike the mother, Cora.
We do recommend this book. We enjoyed the story. However, about three-quarters into the book, it began to feel repetitive. As in, he's drinking... again. They're scared... again. She's forgiving him...again. Etc. The author knows how to set scenes and create interesting characters. We just wish she would've tightened this story by about 100 pages (it's 438 pages). We both began feeling frustrated with how long it was, and began wishing for it to end. For this reason, we deducted a star -- it gets 4 stars out of 5.
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