The Howley family lives in Centreville, PA where there is danger of underground mine fires from the coal mines underneath. The daughter, Brigid, is the narrator of this book. Her father was injured in the mines. When a mine blows and takes the life of her aunt, they are forced to go live with her father's parents, who also live in an area that is at threat.
The Howley's believe that they have been cursed by a priest who ran afoul of the Molly Maguires, so that thought is always on their minds.
We learn of the family's past in spurts throughout the book, and there are some juicy things that are revealed.

I thought this was a book of just endless tragedies. ( )

I was gifted a copy of “The Hollow Ground” via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That in no way changes my opinion of this book or author.

“The Hollow Ground” is a very simple, heart-warming, emotional story based around Brigid and her family. They live in Pennsylvania, and are not only escaping the coal burning underneath the town and destroying homes; but what they believe to be a family curse. They blame the family curse on misfortune, but learn that only you can control how you let the situations define you.

Brigid’s family is on the low-end scale in regards to finances, and after they lose their home due to the coal fires, have no option but to move back with her grandparents. Does that mean the 5 year feud and silent treatment between her mother and grandmother will finally come to an end? Brigid’s dad is sure that once the Government gets the paperwork in order, and they are given money for the loss of their home, they can find their own housing. Until then, weird things are happening, and secrets are being revealed.

Overall, a good, solid read. I enjoyed “The Hollow Ground” more than I expected to, and for that, I thank the author.
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Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A coming of age story with characters who treat each other terribly, a family curse that can’t be lifted while people can’t come to terms with the terrible things that have happened to them. Slow pacing and a child narrator may turn some people away from this story.

Opening Sentence: We walk on fire or air, so Daddy liked to say.

The Review:

The Hollow Ground is a novel that intrigued me from its synopsis, a family that has been cursed for generations, devastating coal mine fires and a girl who tries to take it upon herself to rid the family of the curse while trying to survive these unpredictable fires. The Hollow Ground while slow kept me reading only because I wanted to know the secrets of the family and how the curse would be resolved.

Brigid Howley’s family has a curse over them. After a fight with a priest over coal mining, the Howley family has been cursed with tragedy and unhappiness. The Howley’s live in Centrereach a town where coal fires have pretty much run everyone out of town. The Howley’s have been living with Brigid’s Auntie. Her Auntie suffers one of the most terrifying death’s I think I have ever read about. It definitely has me looking at the ground more carefully. After Auntie’s death, the family has no choice but to move in with the father’s parents. Brigid’s mother swore she would never go back to that mean woman’s home ever again.

The Howley’s are quite poor. They live with whomever can take them in. Brigid’s father, Adrian, had his arm crushed in a mining accident. He tries to work but the jobs usually don’t last long as he always does something to get fired. Brigid’s mother, Delores, supports the family with her job at the mill but it doesn’t give them enough money to get a place of their own.

After Brigid discovers a dead body, the family is never the same again. Deep dark secrets start to reveal themselves one piece at a time. Delores claimed that she married into the family curse but her own past just feeds the unhappiness of the curse. The rest of the family acts strangely. Brigid slowly begins to unravel the story that she believes is happening around her. She wants to know the truth but the grown-ups just lie to her and say things that they would to little children.

Brigid Howley is the eleven/twelve year old narrator of The Hollow Ground. The narrative is a bit childish reflecting the young narrator but in many ways she is more reliable and smarter than the grown-ups around her. Brigid asks all the right questions even though she might be scared to voice them at times because of the repercussions. She is also perceptive and knows how her parents act and think around her.

As to the writing style in The Hollow Ground, I never once forgot that she was a child. Her speech and actions always showcased her age. The writer also showcased the regional dialect and poor standing of the characters. Brigid’s mother never finished school and you could tell by the way she talked. Brigid’s father was supposed pretty smart. He didn’t talk too much but when he did, he didn’t come off uneducated, just a bit childish himself. Brigid was the only one who could pull off this story because the other characters were just too mean, selfish or childish. Even though Brigid had her moments, she was the sane one in the family.

The Hollow Ground is based off of true life events, which is why Auntie’s death terrifies me so much. The story is dark, terrible and unreliable, just like the surroundings where the family live. This isn’t a feel good story unless it makes you feel better about your own family. Brigid’s coming of age story isn’t HEA but more of a “happy enough”. If anything this story just upset me more over Brigid’s own situation and how terribly her own mother treated her. You know that saying, “What goes around comes around” definitely applied to this family. One thing that did surprise me was the paranormal aspect. I didn’t really expect that but I guess supernatural/spirituality would have to come into play when you are dealing with a curse that was started by a priest.

Overall, The Hollow Ground was an alright story for me. It felt slow in places and I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going until Brigid found the dead body. I do not regret reading this story at all. I just hate when I leave a story feeling depressed about how events played out.

Notable Scene:

Beneath her hand the wedge moved to the letter H, then O, then W.

“How?” she said. “Why do you keep saying H-O-W? How what? Spirit, what are you trying to tell me? How it happened? How you got killed?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t ask it,” I said, breathing in gulps as if I desperately needed to catch my breath. As the wooden piece moved from L, then E, then Y, it felt like each letter branded a tender spot inside me and I flinched with the burn. “Don’t ask it any more,” I pleaded. “You don’t need to know.”

“L-E-Y?” she said and her tongue clucked with exasperation. “What is that? Lee? Lay? Finish the word, Spirit? L-E-Y, what?”

Again the wedge moved. This time it spelled: HOWLEY.

I whimpered, looking helplessly from the board to the mirror above the dresser. I gripped the bedspread as if I was about to fall forward into the horrible place where we were headed.

“Okay,” Marisol said, “I get How. But what is L-E-Y. Lee? Lay? Tell me.”

I didn’t dare breathe, my eyes hurt like bits of salt were in them. When Marisol turned to me, all the angles of her face tensed. “How-lee?” she said. “How-lee?” But then recognition relaxed the muscles around her eyes and she stared at me with a look of amazed horror.

FTC Advisory: St. Martin’s Griffin/Macmillan provided me with a copy of Hollow Ground. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

The Hollow Ground is an excellent debut from author Natale Harnett. I was first attracted to this book because it's supposedly loosely based on the towns of Centralia and Carbondale, two Pennsylvania towns not so far from my own, that were stricken by coal mine fires. One managed to extinguish its fire, the other one continues to burn. The two towns in the book, Centrereach and Barrendale, are about as thinly disguised versions of the real towns as you might imagine given their names. The bleak settings of these two communities on fire serves to accentuate young Brigid's story, as she moves away from the dangers of Centrereach only to find another coal fire steadily advancing upon her grandparents' house in Barrendale. The towns, the families who are broken and sickened by lives in the mines, and the superstitions of Brigid's Irish family which believes itself under a curse from a priest are all realistically and atmospherically rendered. Brigid is a sympathetic character, just a kid, upon whose shoulders is falling the responsibility to keep her family together and the one who holds the secret that could tear it apart. I'll definitely be looking forward to whatever Harnett comes up with next. ( )

"The novel has its flaws with some plotholes that seem to be there only to irk but at its heart, it is a sincere story."
read more: http://likeiamfeasting.blogspot.gr/2015/03/hollow-ground-natalie-s-harnett.html ( )