Review – Toffee by Sarah Crossan

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Toffee by Sarah Crossan. A book I cannot recommend enough and a story that will stay with me for a long long time!

Synopsis:

I am not who I say I am.
Marla isn’t who she thinks she is.

I am a girl trying to forget.
Marla is a woman trying to remember. 

Allison has run away from home and with nowhere to live finds herself hiding out in the shed of what she thinks is an abandoned house. But the house isn’t empty. An elderly woman named Marla, with dementia, lives there – and she mistakes Allison for an old friend from her past called Toffee.

Allison is used to hiding who she really is, and trying to be what other people want her to be. And so, Toffee is who she becomes. After all, it means she has a place to stay. There are worse places she could be.

But as their bond grows, and Allison discovers how much Marla needs a real friend, she begins to ask herself -where is home? What is a family? And most importantly, who am I, really?

My Review:

I didn’t know what I was expecting when I started Toffee but I did not expect to feel such raw emotions after finished reading it.

What a breath-taking and utterly moving story. It is written in verse and tells the story of Allison, who has run away from home because of domestic abuse. Her path collided with Marla who has dementia and mistaken Allison as Toffee, a friend of hers from the past. From there, an unexpected friendship forms between them. Two lonely hearts find comfort and solace in each other. While it is heartwarming to see the bond between them strengthen, I cannot hide my sadness still while reading it. Two souls equally haunted by the memories, one is trying to remember while the other is desperately trying to forget.

Sarah Crossan has a way with words. They are succinct but piercing. They are visceral and profoundly powerful. It is an effortlessly emotional and poetic portray of brutal violence, mother’s love and most of all the resilience of human heart and spirit. The structure of the storytelling is unique and not like anything I have read before. The proses are beautiful and lyrical. It is an absolutely stunning piece of writing.

Toffee is indeed one of my favourite reads this year. It touches my heart deeply. I adore this book so much and cannot recommend it enough!

Thank you so much Emily and Bloomsbury for gifting me this beautiful copy to review. Toffee is out now on all platforms.

Blog Tour

Make sure you also check out what others are saying about Toffee as part of the tour!