Overall rating and opinion of "Ironbark Hill" by Jennie Linnane

[Libs_Books]

I really enjoyed it and thought the writing was really good - although maybe, just occasionally, the author should have made less use of a thesaurus. I liked the ending, but not so keen on the Epilogue - maybe that's better discussed elsewhere. Overall rating? Well, since I'm not obliged to commit one way or the other, I'll go for 2.5 out of 4.

[kennedibmth]

I thought this book was pretty good! I liked most of the characters, especially Natalie, however I really did not like the ending. I would recommend this book for other people to read.

[KasieMiehlke]

I really enjoyed this book. I found it to read similar to Their Eyes Were Watching God .

[Heidi Finger]

Reading the reviews and comments of the book I am excited to get reading. I just downloaded it and will read it this week.

[Bomisope]

We can relay the story about life struggle at a young age that makes the story more readable reason why I like the book hope to get it free.

I totally agree with you, the book portrays daily struggles and I definitely recommend it to other readers

[steviexlouise]

After reading peoples comments, I think this book would definitely hit home a little hard! I have always been a 'mini mum' to my siblings, but now I realize that I was playing the role of the father, a friend and a sister wrapped in one. I feel like I would have a close connection to the girl Natalie in the fact that she has almost had to grow old to quickly and miss out on elements of an innocent childhood. I might of read this if it wasn't for the fact that I am extremely emotional and a sympathetic person, because I know that this book would ignite my feelings of sadness, hurt and anger of my own life, as well as Natalie's...

[Kibet Hillary]

I would recommend it to others definitely. The whole theme is practical even in the current time. This is because unlike some other genres that may appeal to a specific group of people, this one can be read by all.

[literarycat]

I thought the book was decent but not good enough to be a book of the month. I liked the character of Natalie in how strong she was but I didn't really care for the turnout of the book. Natalie was the only character that I truly cared about. I don't think I'll recommend this book to anyone.

I agree. It was a good story, and I enjoyed it enough. But there were times when I struggled to get into it. I am glad i kept with it and finished reading it because it is inspirational.

[read2u]

I am actually doing my second review on this book. I totally like it and all the characters are interesting to me. Highly recommended.

[cpru68]

I could hardly put this book down. Once I got started reading it, I wanted to keep on going because the author kept laying down a slight cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. There was an overall dark shadow and the tension level was high in this one. I never felt like Natalie was going to move on. She changes what she can inside of her living conditions which are extremely limited, but she also has such a protective nature in regard to her mother and siblings that it makes it difficult for her to move on with her own life. I appreciated that the author wrote in a way that the reader could put two and two together..such as the sexual affair..she kept it simple. Also, the abuse scenes were brutal as described so much so that I found myself so ANGRY with Natalie's mom for not defending her from the stepfather. I would recommend this book to older teens on up.

[Jackie99]

I thought this was a great book. She's a wonderful writer and really excellent at getting into the head of Nathalie. I thought the author portrayed so well Nathalie's inner dialogue, especially when she was in the library cleaning early on in the book and she was moving around Bruce and paying attention to his moods and nuances. It's not easy to portray so clearly how observant a character is in her head and then keep her behaviour true to her character. It is so true that we often notice so much more in our heads than we ever express through our body language or verbally.

[AlexisMersino]

I just finished reading Ironbark Hill and I enjoyed the story! It was very different for me and the genres that I usually choose, but I'm now happy that I stepped out of my comfort zone. Honestly, in the beginning it was a bit sluggish for me and I was worried that I wasn't going to like the book. I stuck it out though and it ended up paying off. It was a rewarding read and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

I think my favorite aspect was our main character. Natalie is fierce and relateable. Having a strong, female, main character is one of my favorite attributes to a book and Natalie definitely was that. I liked the diverse characters with very different personalities and how Natalie reacted to each of them. She was so loving towards her mother and siblings but absolutely hated Alex (understandably). I thought it was admirable that she was kind to Shirely even though the younger girl irritated me at times and could be very cruel. I think this really showed Natalie's maturity and made me admire her even more.

[CheyenneR]

I really enjoyed this book. It isn't my typical genre but I decided to just check it out and I'm really glad that I did. I think my favorite part was towards the end when Natalie is describing her trip with her mother and brother. I just really enjoyed the fact that they were all happy because those three really deserved to be. My least favorite part was when Shirley purposefully helped to get Natalie beat by her stepfather. Shirley comes across as a terrible kid but she had a few moments where she almost got redemption. I would definitely recommend this book to other people.

[Helenepatt17]

I found the cover unappealing and diverting my attempts to read. I've been a little too busy, and never got a chance to read it, but I feel that the cover deterred me a little bit more than my schedule. I may have been more motivated to set time aside if the cover hadn't seemed so droll.

[Emmanae]

This book for sure had me stepping out of my genre comfort zone, but I was glad to.
Natalie is a pretty relatable character. She's shy and quiet but is buzzing with life. She doesn't see the beauty everyone else see's in her at first, but as the year progresses, she begins to see herself as the beautiful young woman she is.
The ending of the story was kind of expected. (I won't say anymore...spoilers)
The author really captures the scenery very well. I felt that I was standing there in the story with the characters.
Overall, it was a good book. I probably wouldn't read it again, just because it didn't resonate very strongly with me. I would, however, recommend it to others to read because it was pretty good.

I agree with so much of this. For me it was painfully relatable, though, to the point where I don’t know if I could recommend it to others because it would feel like it was me opening up to them.