Review of Scratched Enamel Heart by Juliette van der Molen

Here's a taster of Juliette van der Molen's generous review of my latest short story collection, Scratched Enamel Heart. You can read the full review here

Book Review: Scratched Enamel Heart by Amanda Huggins

Scratched Enamel Heart, by Amanda Huggins, is a collection of short stories that takes the reader on a physical and unforgettable emotional journey. This second collection is full of twists and turns and each story gives us the opportunity to reflect on our own travels and how they have shape human existence.

Flight Mode: The Possibility of Escape

“Mollie watched it change colour from blush to the darkest ink, and wondered if Daddy and Angel were watching the same piece of sky five states east.”

-Red, Amanda Huggins, Scratched Enamel Heart

Throughout this collection of stories we are treated to the slow build of carefully crafted characters who jump off the page and into our hearts. Mollie was one of these characters for me. In the story “Red”, Mollie and her mother are living with an abusive stepfather and surviving life on a dusty red farm called “Oakridge”.
Huggins describes the red dust as transforming into a thick paste in the rain, the kind that ‘stained your skin like henna.’ This foreshadows the trauma held deep in the centre of this story. Because abuse is often like that dust that clings to everything and stains the deepest parts of the human psyche.
Still, there is so much hope. Though the author does not get deeply into the details of abuse (this isn’t necessary and perhaps is the best way to handle it), we are told enough to read with an urgency that hopes for Mollie’s escape. What I found to be so poignant from the quote above, is that even in the midst of an ugly life, Mollie is able to look at the sky and notice the beauty in it. As someone that has experienced long term abuse, I know it was moments like these that padded the resilience of my heart and reminded me that there are better things out there. Her longing for her brother and father is especially felt in this moment and it points to her understanding of the wider world and the possibilities it could contain.