Where The Heart Should Be is a beautiful, poignant and incredibly readable book. I devoured this in a sitting, stopping once to reach for some tissues. Everyone should read this.

I love the way Sarah Crossan succeeds in creating an absorbing world, portraying intense emotions through her signature use of blank verse. This wonderful book covers an horrific period in Irish history but despite the tragedy of the time it beautifully illustrates the love between couples, families and communities.

I read this book in one sitting and loved it. There were a few things that struck me as implausible; but then I reminded myself that this is a work of fiction, not a History textbook!

Sarah Crossan is a beautiful writer, and there are some gorgeous turns of phrase in this novel. Sarah is a poet and that is obvious even when she writes prose. It was also quite the treat to read a book set during An Gorta Mór where that event was the backdrop, rather than the main feature.

Read this book if you would like to enjoy some writing by a fine writer, a story that rolls gently along, and the odd surprise.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for giving me this ebook in return for a review.

I always seek out a Sarah Crossan novel - ever since The Weight of Water I’ve been hooked on the way the writer captures immense thoughts and feelings in her cleverly crafted free verse. I don’t stop recommending One to my pupils. Especially those who struggle with the whole concept of reading: the author allows the reader a truly immersive experience but in a less exhausting way to students who experience SEN or even the dreaded ‘reading is boringitis’. Students can experience the triumph of tackling a thick book but without the fear of failure.

This book will be no different. I know I will be recommending it over and over again.

This is the story of Nell, a young girl in 1840s Ireland who, along with her family and community is facing the Great Hunger, the great potato famine that destroyed Ireland’s population by 20-25%. Ireland’s population still hasn’t risen to pre-famine numbers. She’s a domestic worker who works for the local landlord, who actually lives there - so many landlords were absentee at this time - and meets his nephew, an English man who is going to be his heir.

Johnny is a kind young man who grows in awareness of the trauma of the local people as he comes to know Nell. As do we as readers. The tension between the local Irish people and the hated (deservedly so) English is touched on here very lightly. Johnny is vulnerable if he’s seen with Nell, as neither side would approve.

There are hints of the obscenity of the English behaviour: the landlord’s dogs being better fed than his workers; the idea that there was something inferior about the Irish and the total lack of support for the starving population who could do nothing in the face of the natural disaster, the potato blight. But overall this is a human story of how these characters live through this disaster.

Nell and her family are loving and devoted to each other. Her father is a true family man who cares deeply about them, and his relationship with her mother is moving. I found this refreshing and a really different take on the traditional 19th century family.

My only criticism is that I think this subject is too big for this book! Especially the end is a little rushed and there is so much else to say. I think the style doesn’t give enough room for this subject. But as an introduction to the story of the Great Hunger which it will be to many students reading this, this is a brilliant starting point.

I can't stop thinking about this book! What an achievement, to set a story in this time of heartbreak and hardship, and yet make it a compelling love story, full of hope. The story unfolds in Ireland in the late 1840s. I loved the main characters: Ellen Quinn and her tight-knit family, her Mammy and Daddy whose love for each other is evident, though slowly whittled away by their suffering, and her sweet brother Owen. Then Johnny arrives, nephew to Lord Wicken, heir to the Big House. Ellen and Johnny circle each other slowly, their worlds overlapping in the kitchen of the Big House, or out in the lanes and down by the river - this world feels so vivid, conjured in Crossan's precise and poetic language. The focus is always on the characters, but the politics are impossible to avoid, and lightly, gradually layered in, as the pace gathers. Ellen is fierce, loveable and courageous, but she has so much to lose, and it's impossible to stop reading once the inevitable violence erupts.
As someone whose ancestors emigrated at this time, this book has given me so much to think about. I'm counting back and realising some of these experiences of hunger and hardship might've happened to my grandparents' great-grandparents, and suddenly the past doesn't feel so far away. This history is brought to life in a new and urgent way, through these memorable characters. Highly recommended.

This is a heart wrenching story of death and famine, but also of hope and love. An emotional read that leaves you angry at the injustice in the world while interweaving a story of young romance that shows love can conquer.

Sarah Crossan is my eldest daughters favourite author and so she was delighted to get the opportunity to read this book in advance of its publication.

She devoured it in one sitting and is now rereading it to , in her own words, really savour it so hopefully I will eventually get the opportunity to read it! In her own words:
---This crumbled my heart into a million pieces, what a beautifully written and respectfully detailed handling of one of the most devastating parts of our country's history. The author painted this time in Ireland with such vivid detail and devastation and I feel I have a much deeper understanding now of the Famine , much more so than anything I ever learned in school. Nell is one of the best characters I have ever read and I could not stop thinking about her and Johnny after finishing the book. A beautiful beautiful book that made me cry and made me think. Highly recommend.

5 star

Despite being part of a History which is neither far geographically nor chronologically and which directly involves Britain, the Great Hunger in Ireland is a subject seldom touched on in British published books. “Where the Heart Should Be” is illuminating on the subject but it so much more. Sarah Crossan’s verse is astonishing and supports a profound, heartbreaking and pitch perfect story, which never shies away from horrific realities of what happened, but also brings nuance to it. Conflict is seldom completely binary; there are always people caught in the middle. Represented as Venn diagram, the people finding themselves in the intersection are often family, lovers, friends, and the book depicts this acutely. The verse brings the torment and the ache of the Irish experience (the Hunger of course, but forced migration also) the fore in a way that is immersive in a way that no other form could. It is an intense reading experience, and it will linger in your heart and soul.

Another compelling and emotional story from Sarah Crossan. It is no mean feat to capture the essence of The Great Hunger with such brevity. I will be thinking of the Quinns for a long time to come.

This is so poignant and heart-breaking. Really well written. It covers the Great Famine in Ireland, bringing the horrors to life in a clear and beautiful way.

Set at the time of the Irish potato famine, this story of one family's struggle through this time is told with Crossan's usual gentle touch. Her writing really allows you to feel the pain, hunger and the resulting desperation of the characters and the compromises they have to make just to survive.
I was aware of this episode but not the political aspects which were mentioned in the course of the book. However, we are probably only given as much information as the people of the time would have known, making it a prompt for the curious to look elsewhere for in-depth historical insights.

Phenomenal.
Set in Ireland in 1846 during the famine when one million people died of hunger.
The story is told in verse and is marketed as YA but this book is for everyone.
Told through the eyes of young Nell who lives and works on the English Lord’s estate. Her family, like most of Ireland, are starving after a failed potato crop and anything worth keeping being sent off to England. Nell’s family are reliant on her meagre earnings from her work as a maid at the English Lord’s home.
And you guessed it, this is when the love interest comes in. Yes, it is the nephew of the mean and selfish English Lord.
Forbidden love, class divide, injustice. It is perfect.

Now I need to say I am not a fan of historical fiction but I am a fan of Sarah Crossan and this book was superb. In fact, this is a great way to start to learn more about this time in history.
How Sarah is able to tell such a poignant and heartfelt story with so few words is an absolute gift.

Yet another beautiful book from Sarah Crossan. I read this in one sitting, becoming quickly emotionally involved in the story. Knowing that it stems from a historical event makes it all the more poignant and angering. Just wonderful.

Sarah Crossan is the verse queen and this novel did not disappoint. I couldn’t put it down as I was desperate to find out whether there would be a happy ending in a story that was so bleak and heartbreaking. Verse novels are popular at my school so I’ll be recommending this to my students.

Another sumptuous and emotive read by Sarah Crossan, detailing a bittersweet love affair in the direst of circumstances. Ireland, 1846, Nell is working as a scullery maid in the kitchen of the Big House. The master's heir, a young Englishman called Johnny Browning comes to stay. Their would already be enough divides, but the famine setting in is set to destroy everything Nell knows and loves. Evocative, profound and all kinds of wonderful - it'll stay with me for a long time.

As usual Crossan's writing packs an emotional punch. This is a gritty, quite brutal historical tale and it is only the love story that softens the blow at all. Once the reader has accepted that it is unlikely that the relationship between the two main characters could ever have taken place and buys into the romantic narrative, the character developments and plot events are well woven into the historical context. As I believe was the intention, you are truly invested in and root for Nell, Johnny less so, and feel quite emotionally drained by the drama at the end. The verse format works well, and allows for greater accessibility for those with less reading stamina. I read this in one sitting on a train journey and didn't look up from page 1 to 400!

I've long been a huge fan of Sarah Crossan's writing, Where The Heart Should Be did not disappoint.

Filled with heart and emotion as Sarah brings us into the life of Nell as the great famine takes hold in Ireland. When Nell and the English nephew of the main landowner fall for each other, tensions rise and emotions are on a knife edge.

Fast-paced, full of atmosphere and heart thumping moments - this is a verse novel to cherish.

I've read all of Sarah Crossan's YA books and this historical verse novel will be a welcome edition to our school library. Where The Heart Should be is a strong story about heart and home set in Ireland during the Potato Famine. Nell's family are starving to death whilst the rich English landowner (Nell's employer) thinks only of his profit. When Nell falls in love with the landowner's nephew Johnny and local tensions rise to boiling point the situation becomes explosive. Crossan walks a careful line in sympathy here. Johnny's character in particular if carefully drawn so that we feel sympathy for him as a person whilst totally condemning his Uncle and the system that he is part of. A skilfully written, compelling and moving story by the Queen of verse novels.

I’m not really one for historical novels, but this one just looked incredibly interesting and I loved the beautiful love story between Nell. It really captured the time of The Great Hunger and was very thought provoking and heart wrenching. I highly recommend this to readers who love a novel based on history and also a story ruch with character development as well.

Always a big fan of Sarah Crossans novels for the YA audience. This is set in the Great famine years in Ireland in the 19th century as millions faced starvation. Nell works for a wealthy landowner who is prepared to see his tenants starve and face total destitution as their crops fail, yet he and his household continue to export oats to the British mainland, and eat like kings themselves. And then the landlord’s young British nephew and heir arrives, and as their friendship and live blossoms Nell is placed in an impossible situation.
Sarah Crossans sparse lyrical prose tells so much in so few words. Wonderful.