Tangerine (Mangan) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
It's as if Mangan couldn't decide whether to write a homage to Donna Tartt's The Secret History or a sun-drenched novel of dissolute Westerners abroad in the tradition of Patricia Highsmith and Paul Bowles, so she tried to do both. She mostly succeeds…[Mangan] knows all the notes to hit to create lush, sinister atmosphere and to prolong suspense…Tangerine [is]…a satisfying, juicy thriller.
Jennifer Reese - New York Times Book Review


The reader’s sympathy switches back and forth between Lucy and Alice as their Moroccan reunion moves inexorably toward another fatal crossroads. But caveat lector: Tangerine, like its namesake fruit, can be both bracing and bitter.
Wall Street Journal


The lying, the cunning, and the duplicity is so very mannered that it’s chilling. Rich in dread, the foreboding positively drips from every page.
Washington Post


Unbelievably tense, incredibly smart.… Mangan full-speeds up to her shocking finale, twisting the plot with reveals you never see coming.… [Her] writing is so accomplished, so full of surprises and beauty, that you’d swear she was a seasoned pro.
San Francisco Chronicle


A juicy melodrama cast against the sultry, stylish imagery of North Africa in the fifties.… [Tangerine is] endearing and even impressive in the force of its determination to conjure a life more exciting than most.… Just the ticket.
New Yorker


The amoral, manipulative presence of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley hovers over Tangerine.… An assured and atmospheric debut.
Guardian (UK)


The thriller that everyone will be talking about.… One of those sinuous, Hitchcockian tales that disorients in the best way.… Hypnotic.
Esquire


Promises to be one of the best debuts of the year.… Echoes of Gillian Flynn and Patricia Highsmith in this tightly wound, exotic story.
Entertainment Weekly


Although some of the plot developments are easy to predict, the novel is narrated persuasively in alternating chapters…, and Mangan’s portrayal of Tangier is electric.… [A] sharp novel.
Publishers Weekly


Atmospheric enough to be a movie? You bet; George Clooney's Smokehouse Pictures bought the film rights, with Scarlett Johansson set to star. No wonder this debut is getting a 200,000-copy first printing.
Library Journal


Hypnotic.… [A] deadly, Hitchcockian pas de deux plays out under an unrelenting, Camus-like African sun.… Sucks the reader in almost instantly.
Booklist


In 1956, a pair of college roommates meets again in Tangier, with terrifying results.… A vivid setting and a devious, deadly plot, though the first is a bit overdone and the second contains a few head-scratchers, including the evil-lesbian trope.
Kirkus Reviews