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There are currently 18 member reviews
for The Hollow Ground
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Carmen G. (Kissimmee, FL)
Hollow Ground!
Hollow Ground is impressed, moving and fill with tales of dark secrets that impacts a mining family in Pennsylvania in the 1960's.Brigid Howley the narrator tells of curses, old tales on the family that she believes is bring misfortunes to her family. Brigid wants to escape, she is scare, limited and lonely in her despairs to understand the past and how it affects her family and the people around her. I would recommend everyone to read it.
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Norma R. (Secaucus, NJ)
Damaging Secrets
The Hollow Ground is an engrossing tale of a mining family in 1960s Pennsylvania. The narrator is young Brigid Howley. Her family feels that they have been cursed and blame all their misfortunes on it. Brigid's parents have trouble keeping jobs and move in with her grandparents. The family keeps secrets about what happened in the past and this creates much pain and suffering. Brigida lives in fear of everyone in the small town and she feels isolated and unloved. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. The novel showed how burying secrets can rip a family apart.
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Liz D. (Northbrook, IL)
Hollow Ground
Set against the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania, Hollow Ground explores relationships between and among multigenerational family members, as told through the lens of the daughter, Brigid. She has problems finding a sense of permanence and home.
Author Natalie Harnett introduces us to life in the coal region and the family, then turns and twists the plot along the way, revealing unpredictable long kept family
secrets.
Despite the unusual dark setting and dysfunctional family relationships, I really enjoyed a fast-paced read, full of complex characters and an attention-grabbing plot.
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Emily G. (Clear Lake, MN)
Compelling narrator
I was intrigued by the setting of this novel--a city on top of a coal mine fire--but from the first few lines of The Hollow Ground, I was captivated by the young narrator's voice. She's a clever girl who is learning about the troubles in her family while trying to discover who she is. Harnett tells a not-unusual coming-of-age story cleverly by allowing the terrain, the gaping holes and fire slowly consuming the town, to parallel the story-line. Harnett tells a layered story with a series of vivid characters. Well worth the time for readers who enjoy character driven fiction.
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Loralee B. (Madison, WI)
The Hollow Ground
I liked this book even though it took a while to get into it. The characters are well written though they made me angry at their ignorance and lack of compassion. It was interesting to see how names showed Brigid's emotions: those she loved had nicer sounding names like "Daddy" and "Auntie" while those less kindly had short hard names like "Ma" and "Gram". You could feel their character by how Brigid identified them. The history was vivid and the story of a young girl's strength reminded me of the characters in "The Orphan Train".
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MBD
Inspiring
Really enjoyed this novel. I was drawn into story immediately. I actually cared about characters so much that I looked up more information about the coal mine fires. I would read this author again. A true test is reading without being distracted by husband channel surfing. This novel passed. Thank you BookBrowse
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Carol B. (Orland Park, IL)
Life Near The Mines
I asked to review this book because I had never read a book on the lives of those who lived and worked near the mines. What a tragic story. The author did a very good job with the character developments and in her description of the difficult way of life. This family so dysfunctional that you only hoped there would be a little happiness at the end. Yet the young daughter, Brigid, proved to be a very intelligent young lady and tried so hard to save the family she so loved. A very hard life.
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