A tribute to a plethora of different authors including Patricia Highsmith and Daphne du Maurier, Tangerine is a gritty story of obsession and paranoia. When Alice’s old roommate Lucy unexpectedly turns up at her flat in Morocco, they soon slip back into their old ways - which isn’t necessarily a healthy relationship. Then Alice’s husband goes missing and Alice begins questioning everything.

I liked the idea of such a gritty tale unfolding under the stifling Moroccan sun, mirroring the stifling relationship between Alice and Lucy, but that’s pretty much all that’s evoked of Tangier. The unrelenting sun and its effect on Alice, other than that it could have been set anywhere.

Reading this on the back of In the Dream House, in which Carmen Maria Machado unpicks the depiction of queer women in film and literature, it’s hard to know what to make of cruel and cold Lucy. Machado points out that queer women in arts should be allowed the full scope of their humanity, which includes, crucially to the Dream House, cruelty, even though the ‘evil lesbian’ stereotype is vastly overdone.

BUT I am a sucker for female relationships, whether they are healthy, obsessive, dysfunctional or more than platonic, so this book ticked that box for me. I also enjoyed the way Mangan built up the tension throughout the book, as the chapters start out much longer, delving into Alice and Lucy’s history before becoming shorter as we barrel towards the conclusion, still flipping between both women. The prologue and epilogue were so well done, I went back and read the prologue again once I finished and was very impressed!

Despite its shortcomings, I still enjoyed this one and would recommend it if you enjoy unreliable narrators!