This was a tough read but for all the right reasons. It’s not a happy story in a lots of ways and yet, there are moments of rightness which lift the narrative back into the realms of optimism. However, there is also a lot in this book to make you squirm and rile you to anger. It’s a good book in that regard as it is emotionally stirring.
It is about April, a girl, an inquisitive intelligent girl who along with her four brothers, lives with her mother and father (who we later learn is her stepfather) in a caravan in a field. That’s a lot of people to fit into one small space. April, then, is often off exploring and taking time away from her family, sometimes reading but at the start of the book, she is particularly keen to visit the Tabernacle, an abandoned church, and it is here where she can store her treasures and read in peace.
Here, she meets the first of her friends, Eli, who is an American recently arrived from the U.S. and who is looking for his mother. This is the first of April’s friendships which would be deemed inappropriate by society as a whole – I mean, what kind of men befriend young girls purely for companionship?
However, it is with Eli and later, Harold, the Toffee Man of the title, that April is able to blossom and find safe company where she is appreciated for who she is and what she brings in terms of her helpfulness and her curiosity.
It’s hard not to warm to April, the story being told from her point of view most of the time and you get a real sense of her character from the narrative that Quinn creates. She has a scientific love for the moon which continues throughout the book, and is almost as powerful as the love that she has for her mum.
But April is not treated very well by her family and when you read it, you feel like she is becoming lost, as she is under appreciated and generally seen as a nuisance who needs calming for the trouble she brings. For the reader, this only serves to reinforce the fact that we want April to stay strong beyond the trials presented to her and to extend beyond the narrowness of her life into greatness, possibly as a moon detective.
A challenging read but worth it.
Rachel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Scuffed Granny 