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Reviewed by Bernadette Longu for Readers' Favorite
In The Toffee Man and the Kingdom of Ends, L. K. Quinn has taken a controversial and sensitive subject as seen through the eyes of the child who experienced molestation by a close family member. The story revolves around April Smart, her parents, stepdad Andy and mom Hope, and her brothers, Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John. Life starts in a gipsy camp where April finds a place in which old books and newspapers are stored before going for recycling. She makes this place her own and reads the books there. Although she does not always understand what she is reading, the sound of the words comforts her. April discovers the Map of the Moon that was made for the astronauts going to the moon, which shows the Kingdom of Ends where they would land. April was 9 years old in the year 1968.
In The Toffee Man and the Kingdom of Ends, the author uses her character April with such tact and skill when describing how April reacts to what she reads, finds, and what happens to her. It is very hard for the reader when travelling on this journey with April. She tries to be very good because everyone says that she is in trouble and that what happened to her is her fault. As the story unfolds around April and she takes the reader on a journey with her through this year of her life, the reader will at times be brought to tears, and want to rant and rave at her parents, the Reverend Fisher and his sister Eunice, and feel sad when April’s only friend Harold Gardiner is accused of something he did not do. The Toffee Man, as April calls him, gives her homemade toffees and teaches her about flowers, weeds, herbs, and their medicinal properties and nutrition. The journey the reader goes on has many twists and turns, and yet the ending leaves the reader gasping. It is a book that will definitely be read more than once, as it will make the reader sit up and listen when a child starts living in a world so very different from what is around her. Thank you, L. K. Quinn, for this insight into the controversial topic of child molestation; it was fascinating to see it through April’s eyes.
