5⭐️
THE BALLROOM by Anna Hope takes us to an asylum at the edge of Yorkshire moors in Ireland in the year 1911. The author is a master at the craft of writing a beautiful descriptive heartbreaking story that pulls the reader in to see the fields and the borderline of trees just over there and empathize with John and Ella and feel their panic and helplessness to be institutionalized even though they do not have a mental disorder. I loved John, Ella and her avid book reading friend, Clem and wanted them to have a healthy and happy outcome.
The men and women in the asylum were segregated and only got together on Friday evenings to listen to music and dance in the ballroom. They looked forward to these two hours of normalcy and over time love blossomed between John and Ella. Suddenly the Friday nights at the ballroom were stopped to punish the patients.
I initially liked the kind doctor Charles who tried to make things better for the patients, until he 'snapped' and became evil.
I highly recommend this beautifully well written unforgettable story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House and McClelland & Stewart for an ARC of The Ballroom by Anna Hope.

The Ballroom, by Anna Hope, is a story inspired by the author's great-grandfather and a real-life asylum.
An extremely compelling novel about mental illness and how it was dealt with in the early 1900's.
Told from three different perspectives Ella Fay, a young factory worker, John Mulligan, a despondent Irishman and their doctor Charles Fuller find their lives connected and put under intensifying anxiety as the line between sanity and insanity increasingly becomes more disconcerted.
A love story evolves when the men and women come together once a week, for a dance, in the Ballroom. Ella and John meet, grow close and dream of escape.
The treatment of mental patients is focused on and shows great empathy for all who have suffered in the past from lack of compassion and knowledge.
Superb writing style and a poignant, captivating story!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an arc of this novel.