Category: Young Adult/Teen Publisher: Black Rose Writing
ISBN-10: 1684332974
Type: Fiction
Pages: 382
Copyright: June 27, 2019
ISBN-13: 9781684332977
Price: $7.99 (eBook)
A troubled teen flees to Alaska to start a new life with her grandpa, even as his fades
Their worlds are about to come crashing down…
At sixteen years old, Harper Lyon’s life is spinning out of control. She threatens her parents with suicide unless she can meet her drug-dealing boyfriend, a college student who doesn’t know she’s pregnant.
Cooper Lyons, her estranged grandfather, lives in rural Alaska with only his dog and cat for company. He has just been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, and he doesn’t plan on letting the disease run its course.
Harper needs to escape her parents and decide what to do about the baby. She and her grandpa are worlds apart, but they may be exactly what the other needs.
When Harper calls her grandfather, he welcomes the opportunity to help her and redeem his previous failure with his daughter Heather, who died from a drug overdose years ago.
Blueink Starred Review: https://www.blueinkreview.com/book-reviews/no-fences-in-alaska/
Ruin, redemption, love and forgiveness are themes that weave themselves beautifully together in Glen Sobey’s young adult novel, No Fences in Alaska.
The book centers on the lives and trials of the Lyons family, particularly Harper Lyons. Harper is the 16-year-old wild child of extremely strict parents; her father, Greg, is headmaster of a conservative Christian academy in San Antonio. She is also the granddaughter of the crazy, artistic Cooper Lyons.
When the novel starts, Harper is rebelling with drugs, sex and partying, and after a feigned suicide attempt, possible date-rape and pregnancy, she runs off to Alaska to be with her grandfather, whom she hasn’t seen for a decade. Cooper himself is fighting the onset of dementia and has been living with the regret of a daughter who died of a drug overdose and a failed marriage. As Cooper and Harper’s relationship develops, they help each other to heal and grow.
Simply put, this is a gorgeously written book. The characters are believable and well developed, and their dialogue rings true. While some plot points can seem contrived, readers will buy into them because of the characters’ believability. One of the main characters, in fact, is the setting of Alaska itself: “The trees lining the open field had recently sprouted leaves, fluttering in a rich unblemished green, lighter than the dour spruce needles nearby. For those who had endured the long winter, green-up was the most magical time of year.”
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t fit neatly into a single genre, which could impact its readership. While its perspective is slanted towards the Christian faith, it also includes profanity, premarital sex and drug use, among other divergent thematic elements.
Nevertheless, Sobey delivers an engaging read that fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone and Amy Harmon and Robyn Carr’s flawed characters seeking redemption in rugged places and small towns, will particularly enjoy.
All told, readers will find No Fences in Alaska impossible to put down.
5 Star Foreword Review: https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/no-fences-in-alaska/
A love letter to family relationships and Alaskan life, No Fences in Alaska is a gratifying young adult novel.
Glen Sobey’s young adult novel No Fences in Alaska is a coming-of-age story set against the arresting backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness.
Harper is sixteen and full of youthful rebellion. Her father’s hurtful choice to expel her from their family’s Christian school drove her to sex, drugs, and some reckless friendships. When she discovers that she’s pregnant, she decides that she cannot handle another night of yelling with her father. She calls the last person anyone expects: her father’s estranged father, Cooper.
Cooper has lived alone in Alaska for years, but he offers to take Harper in at a time when her parents are at their wit’s end. In the Alaskan wilderness, Harper and Cooper try to give each other the space and love they need to heal—Harper from the consequences of her choices, including her unplanned pregnancy, and Cooper from the symptoms of early onset dementia. In a dark turn, Harper also grapples with the negative powers of the internet and blackmail, particularly because of her cruel ex-boyfriend, Zachary. The whole family has to consider what it means to love unconditionally and figure out how to mend their relationships, many of which have been broken for years.
Harper and her father, Greg, are the story’s first core. Despite their mistakes, neither is vilified. Their choices are frustrating but understandable, including Harper blackmailing her boyfriend in order to get away from him and Greg restricting Harper’s freedom in order to keep her safe. Skillful flashbacks result in growing understanding of how things got so bad. Cooper, while he acts as somewhat saintly in Harper’s present, is also complex and flawed.
The story progresses at a satisfying rate. Every moment of despair and sorrow is connected to the potential for hope. The book’s humor is well-timed, and the prose is clear and active. Introspective scenes follow characters on their own, particularly Harper and Cooper, and add balance to the text. Details about rural, free, and unencumbered Alaskan life are textured and evocative, even Utopian at times.
An unpredictable and original spiritual thread runs throughout the story; it is faceted and nuanced, and it results in uplifting moments. Holding attention to its realistic and satisfying end, this is a resonant story.
A love letter to family relationships and Alaskan life, No Fences in Alaska is a gratifying young adult novel.
In book four of the Megan Martin series, Megan, May, and Brianna set off for a distant planet on Christmas Eve. There they find a young alien woman about to lose her life to a prehistoric animal, which they must save. This woman is much too intelli
