Kindle Edition Audiobook Amazon Glen Sobey, Author Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Black Rose Writing ISBN-10:  1684332974 Type: Fiction Pages: 417 Copyright: June 27, 2019 ISBN-13: 9781684332977 Price: $5.99 (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… Harper Lyon’s life is spinning out of control. Sixteen years old in high school, 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. 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. 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. Can they save each other?   Excerpt Harper Lyons was unfairly expelled from a private school by her father last fall to preserve his reputation, according to Harper. Now she struggles to hide her drug use and boyfriend from her parents who believe she threatens their family and jobs. She contacts her grandfather in Alaska whom she met once ten years before and asks to live with him. Years ago he fled to the state after an embarrassing divorce and death of a daughter from drugs. Recently he has experienced episodes of disorientation and possible dementia and had considered suicide before Harper’s call. Now he believes he must help his granddaughter find a purpose in life even as his own fades. Maybe this time he can succeed though he believes he failed so miserably as a father years ago. Together, Cooper and Harper face the challenges of rural Alaska, the heartache of the past, and the question of why life must be worth living.

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Clarion Rating: 5 out of 5

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.

Reviewed by Laura Leavitt
May 13, 2019