Review from Amanda McLeod

I was thrilled to wake up to a thoughtful review from Amanda McLeod today. Here's a taster and the link to the full review:

Review – ‘Crossing the Lines’ by Amanda Huggins

Amanda Huggins is a writer with an eye for the details in the everyday that bring a story to life (see my reviews of All Our Squandered Beauty and Scratched Enamel Heart). In her novella Crossing the Lines, we follow Mollie as her mother Ella drags her from her home on the New Jersey shore to a farm a thousand miles away, on the promises of a man. 

From the beginning, Mollie is distrustful of Sherman; there’s something in his eyes that gives him away. As the story unfolds it becomes evident that Ella is also conscious that Sherman was not the man she hoped, but expectation and humiliation force her hand and she goes ahead with the move to the farm knowing it puts both her and Mollie in danger. As dreams unravel and Sherman’s nature becomes fully apparent, Mollie realises that if she doesn’t save herself, no one else will. 

There’s a diverse cast of characters here, quite disparate but all joined to the narrative by their interactions with Mollie, no matter how fleeting. The messages in these interactions follow two main streams. The first is that kindness heals, offering a kind of catharsis that allows people to release their pain and move forward. The second is that the vulnerable, over and over, are let down by those who are meant to keep them safe and that cycle is difficult to break. Mollie is let down by almost all the adults in her life; Ella’s own issues with abandonment are a precursor to her treatment of Mollie; even Sherman, a victim of childhood abuse, is able to recognise in the end but not break the pattern in his own life. (continued)

You can read the full review here

Crossing the Lines is available for preorder now from Victorina Press.