This novel is set in 1911 in an asylum in rural England, told from 3 alternating perspectives: Ella, a new female inmate who is sent there after breaking a window at the factory she worked in; John, who has been there for several years after drifting into a depressed itinerant life; and Charles, a doctor there who is interested in eugenics and is pretty much crazier than either Ella or John. The writing was good and the setting was vivid, but I found it to be a rather slow book that somehow became more tedious as it limped towards the end.

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 well written unforgettable story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC of The Ballroom by Anna Hope.

Well, this wasn’t the experience I had hoped for.

There’s a tiny part of me that feels this story teetered on the very edge of being something great—something memorable even—but then there’s the rational part of me that can admit, it missed the mark. Big time. This was an extremely drab and depressing story, even for me—someone who frequently dabbles in dark reads.

It was all the eerie possibilities an asylum could offer a storyline, along with the glowing reviews I’d seen from other readers, that unknowingly encouraged me to pick up The Ballroom. On some level, I thought this would be hauntingly beautiful. Captivating. Stunning. Instead, I found myself succumbing to page after page of flat and often emotionless drivel. Meaning I could only handle this book in small doses—hence the snail’s pace, one month read.

The fact that these people landed themselves in an asylum, for one ridiculous reason or another, with no idea where they’d ultimately end up, was unimaginable. Heartbreaking even. The normally segregated patients being able to congregate for a dance—in a grand ballroom, with the opposite sex, every Friday night—managed to stir up something akin to hope. Could music and dance mollify their troubles?

There’s a love story within these pages, but it’s mostly overshadowed by the unraveling of the other characters. Despite the considerable amount of time it takes for the relationship to come to fruition, their feelings still felt a little rushed and underdeveloped. I found myself questioning why they had these feelings for each other, but I never could find the answer. The letters didn’t touch me emotionally and the ballroom wasn’t as large of a part of the story as it should have been.

Other than John, I can’t say that I was enamored with any of the characters. I found Ella to be extremely dull and I struggled to connect with Clem or consider their interaction a friendship. Something about Charles initially bored me and those feelings turned to disdain when he flipped the script way too quickly and without much forethought or reasoning. In my opinion, there was more than enough room for deeper character development here. There were so many things that went unsaid for the sake of giving words to those that didn’t strengthen the power of the story.

Even after everything I've said up to this point, I still wouldn't consider this to be a horrible book. I think it’s best described as slow and mundane. The author gives a nice backstory in her acknowledgements and links the storyline to some actual history, but overall, The Ballroom failed to provide a deeper meaning for me or even a clearcut plot. Was there one? What was the point of the story? Did I somehow fail to see it because I was focusing too much on that depressing ending?

The Good
I requested this book from Netgalley on a whim. The setting sounded interesting, but other than that I didn’t think much about it. As it turned out, this was a lovely little book. Obviously the setting makes it very dark, but the prose is lovely and the story moves along without feeling forced or trite. I also found the end moving, fitting, and satisfying–something that I was worried about as the story progressed.

I also found the story of Ella’s friend Clem particularly thought provoking and touching. She was the character I connected with most and I tended to follow her through the story to see what happened next.

The Bad
A couple of things in the plot were hard for me to believe, particularly concerning Ella’s storyline. (I’ll comment further if you want, but I don’t want to put any spoilers in the review itself.) Because I was particularly interested in Clem, the sections from points of view that weren’t Ella’s sometimes dragged for me a little bit. This was probably my problem, though, and not an overall pacing problem.

The Verdict
Overall, this was a nice, thoughtful, historical fiction piece that read beautifully. Definitely go look for it if any of those things are up your alley!

Throughout history, society has found various ways to remove the unhealthy, the unwanted, the unstable, the poor, from its midst so that the rest of society could feel comfortable that these people were being "cared for" in some way and were also out of sight and not any bother to the rest. The Ballroom is set in just such a place, the Sharston Asylum, a place for men and women who have been deemed, in some way, unfit to remain among regular society. Such a feeling of sad inevitability. Glimmers of hope and potential happiness offset by cruel social theories and practices.. One should never be poor, especially in an oppressive society where obviously you earned or deserved that status and your poverty is a threat to all around you, as much a threat as mental or physical illness.

The course of the terrible English heat wave of 1911 is the course of this novel, with the weather affecting all residents of Sharston Asylum, whether they be staff or inmates; and if inmates, whether they be mentally ill or guilty of the offense of poverty, anger at injustice, being a "neurotic" or hysterical woman, etc. Modern parallels abound even if the places don't exist in quite the same way today. The primary characters, who are drawn as deep and whole beings, committed "crimes" of 1. being a depressed man who has difficulty working after the loss of a child and subsequent dissolving of a marriage; and 2. a young woman (actually still in many ways a girl) who got fed up one day of working 6 days a week, unable to even see out a window, unsupported by what family she had, who then broke a window. These are two of the inmates, consigned to be residents of the asylum until a doctor should declare them well. Most seem never to become well.

The ballroom itself is not a metaphor but a room within the asylum, a place dreaded and loved, where interactions between men and women could sometimes take place, though under very watchful eyes. So much happens in this novel, even in its quiet moments. There are all types of people here, honorable and woefully misguided, ill and healthy. I found myself thinking of the social issues of our times as I read. We have come a distance but have further to go. There is love within this story, but there is also sadness. There is also hope, sometimes met, sometimes not.

I do recommend this novel. It is the second of Hope's that I've read and is a high 4*. The first was Wake: A Novel.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Ballroom by Anna Hope was inspired by an ancestor who had been admitted to an asylum in the early 1900s and eventually died there. She did research about an asylum in England on the edge of the Yorkshire moors and between those two things, she created this story. This is a beautifully written book with incredibly believable characters. The more historical fiction I read, the more I think that our history is nothing but dark, horrifying events, that hopefully we learn from. This novel touches on the topic of Eugenics and how many countries, England being one of them, pondered the legalities of forced sterilization of people having genetic defects or undesirable traits. It also deals with the many people who were institutionalized for various reasons that should not have been. The time is 1911 and the asylum was beautifully built, relatively self-sufficient and had an exquisite ballroom which was seldom used.

The story is told from the perspective of three characters. Ella Fay was a young woman who had been admitted after breaking a window in the factory she worked in. Working from morning to night, she just wanted to see the sun. She was admitted to Shaston for “hysteria”, a common one used for women, anything out of the ordinary that your husband/father or employer thought was inappropriate. John Mulligan was an Irish man who had suffered the loss of his family. He ended up in a workhouse, then Sharston asylum because there was no other place for the city to put him. He was labelled with various things, one being laziness or intemperance. He was a good worker and was used to dig mass graves, work in the fields etc. Charles Fuller was a doctor who started off as a character that I very much liked. He tried to use music to get the patients to feel better. He started dances where the males and females actually came together instead of the segregation they live in. He was getting positive results until a trip to London. This is where the Eugenics comes in. It is very scary to read about what the beliefs were at that time. John and Ella fall meet at the dances, communicate via notes and fall in love. One night they manage to sneak out and spend the time together. These characters are so well written that you feel that you know them, are there with them and going through the same things they are experiencing. The secondary characters are just as well written. You will read details about the atrocities and lack of kindness common in asylums. You meet patients and your heart breaks for them. The romance in the story is tender yet heartfelt and the ending was amazing. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, even with a little romance thrown in.