"A fractured family, dementia and finding a place that feels like home"
Another insightful and compassionate free verse novel from the queen of this increasingly admired form, this time exploring the transformative relationship between an abused runaway teenager and an elderly lady with dementia.
Allison has grown up “stepping on eggshells” to circumvent her father’s violence. While she often wonders whether his behaviour was “all my fault”, one of his outbursts compels her to run away. With nowhere to go, she finds sanctuary in the house of an elderly woman called Marla.
Marla has dementia and thinks Allison is Toffee, her best friend from childhood. After spending some time in Marla’s company, Allison decides to “stop correcting her… I like the idea of being sweet and hard, a girl with a name for people to chew on.” Moreover, in meeting Marla, Allison has found an unlikely kindred spirit: “I am not who I say I am.
Marla isn’t who she thinks she is… Here, in this house, I am so much happier than I have ever been”.
Returning the favour, Allison enriches Marla’s life – she listens, she indulges Marla’s desire to dance - while Marla’s carer and son show no real regard for her happiness, as if she’s beyond life, which makes Allison’s attentiveness all the more heart warming. Both vulnerable, they find strength through each other.
With incredibly moving insight, Marla says of Allison’s dad, “none of it was about you. It was about him. It’s always about him. Surely you know that.”
The writing is compellingly fluid, flowing freely between Allison’s precarious present and the tragic, abusive circumstances that sent her careering down this path. While fleeting, the impact of their time together is monumental, and I felt privileged to have spent time in their company.
The astonishing new novel from the incomparable, multi-award-winning and Laureate na nOg Sarah Crossan. I am not who I say I am, and Marla isn't who she thinks she is. I am a girl trying to forget.
| Primary Genre | Young Adult Fiction |
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The astonishing new novel from the incomparable, multi-award-winning and Laureate na nOg Sarah Crossan. I am not who I say I am, and Marla isn't who she thinks she is.
Toffee features in the following genres: Young Adult Fiction, Family Drama, Books of the Month, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Fiction, Romance / Relationship Stories, Recommendations
Paperback, Hardback. Not Available.
Toffee was written by Sarah Crossan and published by Bloomsbury YA an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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