Scratched Enamel Heart - Review by Allison Symes

ALLISON'S REVIEW OF SOME OF THE STORIES IN SCRATCHED ENAMEL HEART

"I loved the variety of stories here. Amanda Huggins captures details so well, you can see the things she wants you to see, hear the things she wants you to hear. Her use of all the senses in her stories is wonderful. When she describes food being eaten, it is as if you were there watching the food being eaten! This is hard to pull off well. All of the stories will move you and make you wonder what you would do if you were this character faced with this situation. Huggins creates a miniature world with every story, and you are drawn in, almost hypnotically.


I also love the selection of specific details. For example when referring to a box, it is a cherrywood box. Little things like that add richness to a story and there is plenty of that here to savour and enjoy.


I liked the mixture of story lengths too. Some of my favourites were:-

Light Box. I loved the fact that the awful stepmother doesn't get away with it, and the way the father engineered his own escape. Heartwarming. Excellent characterisation.
Violet, Flint, and The Softest Blue. Liked the portrayal of Phoebe, who takes in more than I think even she realises.
Listing. A great flash piece.
Pretty. Made me shudder - as it should do.
Strong, Not Rough.  I've always loved stories where the underdog wins out. This is a good example of that.
Red. Boy did this one stir the emotions. Would love to know what happened to the characters beyond the end of the story, but that's always a sign of a cracking story.
For Sale. Deeply moving. Glad it ended the way it did!
No Doubt. A wonderfully moving description of real love and anticipated grief. Although he returns she knows one day she'll lose him and dreads the thought. A celebration of mature love I think. I like that. It's not something I've come across that often in fiction and I think it easy to forget older people love too. I also like love stories based on real emotion developed over years - not the superficial, glamorous type that fades and vanishes as people get older. So this story, as you can tell, had real resonance for me."

 

Allison writes for Chandler's Ford Today, and is the authour of the flash fiction  collection From Light to Dark and Back Again (Chapeltown Books)