Tangerine

The book opens as seventh-grader Paul Fisher and his mother are packing up the house and leaving Houston for Tangerine County, Florida. As Mom does a last-minute inspection of the house, making sure nothing distasteful or embarrassing is left behind, Paul has a flashback to an earlier memory. He is riding his bike through the neighborhood when he sees a black car speeding toward him as someone hangs out of the window with a baseball bat in hand: “I heard the roar of the car closing in on me, louder and louder, like it had smelled its prey” (3). As he frantically tries to get out the way, he thinks he recognizes the person with the baseball bat; it is his brother, Erik. When he finally makes it home—safely, but barely so—he tells his Mom and Dad that Erik tried to kill him. Erik is already home, and Paul’s parents brush it aside, blaming Paul’s poor eyesight for the misapprehension.

This flashback sets the stage for the rest of the book, as Paul slowly uncovers disturbing memories, while his parents continue to look the other way. It doesn’t matter to Paul that others see him as visually impaired, because he knows better: “But I can see.