These events took place in an old coal mine area in Pennsylvania; where living among burning groundwas a very hard life.A very sad story of a very dysfunctional family. The love was there, but different family members couldn't feel it for all the hurt they had endured in their childhood. Favoring one child over the other and the wife not understanding why she was placed in an orphanage, lead to great sorrow.

Set in the 1960s Pennsylvania coal-mining country, The Hollow Ground focuses on the turbulent adolescent years of Brigid who is born into a wholly dysfunctional Black Irish Catholic family believed to be “cursed” by a priest decades ago during a Molly Maguire incident involving her grandfather. Brigid struggles with normalcy despite her family’s impoverished state which causes them to move frequently and live in cramped conditions sometimes with equally destitute relatives. It is through her eye...

I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.I've seen that this has been compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, and the comparison is apt in that both novels feature young girls dealing with very adult issues. This is also an example of a book with a young narrator that's not being marketed as YA (though if TKaM were published today, it probably would be; and of course it is frequently read in junior high school English classes).The "hollow ground" of the title refers both to the physical --

This was my second time reading this book & I loved it so much that I'm bumping up my previous 4-star rating to 5 stars. This book really hit home for me, so let me talk about that first. Natalie Harnett absolutely nailed the setting. For those of you who don't know, I am central Pennsylvanian, born & raised. The coal mine fires that inspired this novel are actually a couple hours northeast from here, but the area I reside in is absolutely steeped in railroading & coal mining history. So, althou...

I picked up this book from Audible purely because of the setting and the fact that I'm somewhat fascinated by Centralia, Pa, which is what I thought it was based on. It's creepy, and I love the whole "ghost town" aspect of it, and the fact that it's been the basis for horror settings like Silent Hill just makes me even more fascinated by it. But I've never been there. I've lived in the Anthracite Coal region of Pennsylvania since 2004, and have visited some of the historical sites of that indust...

"The Hollow Ground" is unremittingly dark, but the eleven-year-old narrator tells her story with unremitting hope. Perhaps it's the naive hope of a child, but the book manages to stay out of the abyss. Adrian and her family live in a Pennsylvania mining town that is being gnawed at by fires in the coal mine that it sits upon. The fires are both geographical and emotional as the family faces housing peril, a powerful foil for its truly mythical dysfunction. It's a quick read, and it has seared it...

A powerful and extraordinary debut novel! THE HOLLOW GROUND dives into total dysfunction of The Howleys, a wounded family of three generations, with special focus on one special adolescent girl, Brigid, taking upon herself-- burdens of her immediate family, and those of generations past. As the characters come alive---more than the “fires of the community” are out of control; the lives of this family are raging! THE HOLLOW GROUND is inspired by real-life events in Centralia and Carbondale, Penns...

3.5 A very strong debut set in the 1960's in Pennsylvania coal country.Brigid Hawley is eleven yrs old, a girl that has had to grow up fast, due to the impoverished circumstances of her parents and their dysfunctional lives. When the underground fires consume her aunt's house where her family was living they move into the house of her grandmother and grandfather. Her mother does not get along with the grandmother and her father is far from the family favorite. It is here that things rapidly disi...

Historically, the book was interesting, but after while it just seemed to drag. I just wanted the author to get on with it.I had a hard time grasping the concept of "the curse", it just seemed too pre-1960. I would like to believe that we were better educated in that time period. I can't EVER recall my grandparents or even great grandparents regaling stories of supernatural, ghosts, or anything. Maybe they were just too practical?I also found it hard to believe that Brigid's mother had a revolvi...

This is a lovely book, although a heartbreaking story. What I loved most about it is that it is a story of over-mined Appalachian coal mines, left to roil and burn beneath the earth when the coal boom ends. This is not a story we've heard about very often, so in that way, it is original and educational. I definitely learned more about the area, its inhabitants, and its history of mining from reading the book. I'm not the biggest fan of "child narration," however, and this is told from the perspe...

"The Hollow Ground" is literature in the true sense of the word and its young heroine, Brigid Howley, is the most compelling lead I've seen since Scout Finch. Within the pages of this novel you'll find drama, mystery, murder, but so much more than that - writing comparable to the greats, Eugene O'Neill and his ilk.The novel takes place in the early 1960s when the coal mine fires of Pennsylvania were raging. A backdrop of sulfur and smoke sets the scene for the Howleys, a "cursed" Irish family if...

This is a book for young adults ONLY. It is childish. It is about preteens and their attraction to the opposite sex. Are you going to want to listen to sentences such as the following?"God, isn't he to die for?! I think I will let him feel me up."There is very little about the burning anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania. I had trouble with the author's choice of words. Not once, but continually. Have you heard of "roly-poly hills"?! Does an eleven-year-old speak of a boyfriend's "private parts...

The beginning of the book was a two and by the end it was a four! I think I'll give it three stars all around.

Set in the 1960's rural Pennsylvania. This story is focused on the viewpoint of eleven year old Brigid. Her story starts off as her family lives with her aunt after her dad had been hurt in a mining accident years ago and has had a tough time with working. Jobs seem against his drinking and gambling so it's easier for him to just let his wife do the working for the family. The whole area is in a coal mining zone and fires have erupted underground. Her aunt is killing by the fires and the

The Hollow Ground by Natalie S. Harnett is a narrative told from the perspective of a young pre-teen girl living in the midst of devastating Pennsylvania coal mine fires. The novel is inspired by real events in the the 1960’s, and interestingly, some of those same fires still burn today.This novel is a fictional piece but gives the reader a real appreciation of history and what the miners, their families, and the towns experienced. Our main character is Brigid who is, for her time, a precocious

Reader Beware: This engaging story will pull and twist your emotions: anger, frustration, heart-wrenching grief, and at some points relief. Brigid, the narrator, is the voice of reason throughout this tale of a dysfunctional family’s journey to some kind of normality and peace. One general theme in the story comes when Harnett writes, “I had the awful feeling that for the rest of our lives home was something we’d always be wanting,” and the reader understands that longing. It’s that search for o...

This was not an easy book to get through. In just over 300 pages you watch a family fall apart while their homes and the ground they walk on crumble and burn. Brigid starts the book as a hopeful child, but after losing her home and aunt to the raging coal fires she starts down the path to become a jaded and angry teenager. There are many tough subjects addressed in this book, so caution to those sensitive to alcoholism, child molestation, and child abandonment. I thought the writing was very goo...

The Hollow Ground: A NovelBy: Natalie S. HarnettWhat I knew about this book before I read it...Do you remember reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn? That's what this book reminded me of...a young girl narrating the story of her poor damaged family as they live and endure a fire burning under their towns.My thoughts after reading this book...Just the thought of these underground fires was scary and frightening...but to this family it was a way of life. Brigid's father says...we walk on fire and water...

We walk on fire or air, so Daddy liked to say.This novel grabbed me with that first line and didn't let go. I knew that there were coal mine fires that burned for decades, but I never knew how it effected the families living around, and worse, over those fires. I didn't know that people continued to live in unbelievable conditions because they had few options.This is a dark tale. It is not especially violent or cruel, but darkness prevails. The family thinks it is cursed, but most of the charact...

This story, though fiction, is based on real life events of Carbondale and Centralia where coal mine fires burned for years, destroying lives of residents and changing the earth on which they lived. The main character is Brigid Howley, an eleven year old girl, living with her father, mother and little brother. Circumstances occur that force Brigid's family to move in with her Father's parents. The book is a story of survival and suffering, therein it is a dark story and though Brigid remains opt...