2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

Morocco, here we come!
I plan to start reading this book tomorrow!
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Tangerine as we read.

yay! I'll be starting Tuesday or Wednesday

Decided doing this on audio would be easiest for me this month - starting today!

I'm just into chapter 3 so (view spoiler)[ I've heard the Alice narrative and the beginning of the Lucy narrative. I immediately feel for and recognize Alice - I've experienced trauma and mental health issues (I'm all good now) and her anxiety and other symptoms are super familiar. Poor girl. She's a hot mess. (hide spoiler)] I feel like the author has done such a good job establishing their personalities in such a short time so far.

I've barely has time to listen lately! Only reason I'm kind of looking forward to work conference this week is the round trip car ride to listen without being interrupted lol

I'm at 9% and oooooo Lucy sounds psychotic. I'm predicting (view spoiler)[ that Alice and Lucy were lovers, Alice collapsed under family shame and pressure for being gay, left Lucy to find a man, Lucy turned into psycho stalker and got violent. It seems like their memories of 'The Incident,' whatever it is, are going to be so different. (hide spoiler)]

Lindsay, that is some prediction!

I finished Chapter 3 earlier so I'd like to agree with you both that the characters are well developed. I briefly re-checked the Table of Contents and feel relief that the insufferable John won't get his own POV chapters, haha.
So my thoughts at the end of Ch 3...
(view spoiler)[*Alice seems very anxious. Does it seem that she suffers from panic attacks?
*Lucy's surprise appearance: I was astonished that Lucy would just show up, suitcase in hand, at Alice's doorstep. Lucy is bold, emotionally detached about death, yet seemingly attached to Alice. She's got her eye on John--she's not going to let him get away with his usual manipulative, bossiness toward Alice (I hope).
*At Dean's, Alice recalls their Bennington days and calls Lucy her white knight, wondering if she'd conjured Lucy's appearance. Does that make John the evil dragon?
*Looking forward to learning about "The Incident." Alice mentions something about Lucy being gone when Alice "regained consciousness." Was she assaulted? *bites fingernails in anticipation (hide spoiler)]

Do you call Lucy a psycho stalker, Lindsay, because she showed up without an invitation? Or have I missed subtle signals?

I've read to the end of Chapter 8, which is marked as 54%.
Here are a few scattered impressions.

Chapter 4: Lucy
(view spoiler)[Lucy spots John feeling up another worman at Dean's bar, but decides to hold the info from Alice until later. Is she going for maximum dramatic impact or something?
On meeting Joseph at the cafe, why does she introduce herself as "Alice"? Just because she doesn't trust him yet? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 5: Alice
(view spoiler)[That thing with the charm bracelet that had belonged to Alice's mother. Was Lucy seriously messing with her or is Alice delusional?
I'm not sure I can believe either narrator at this point... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 6: Lucy
(view spoiler)[Lucy is really going out on a limb, stealing John's photo from a picture frame in Alice's flat. She seems almost glad to discover John being flagrantly unfaithful with his "girlfriend." How will John confront her?
Lucy seems rather sane and lucid in the chapters she narrates, but Alice has begun depicting Lucy as somewhat sinister and very controlling. Which is the truth?
We the readers are led to question the trustworthiness of Youssef/Joseph even though neither Lucy, Alice, nor John are remotely trustworthy, haha. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 7: Alice
(view spoiler)[Alice initially believes that Lucy caused the accident and I also--influenced by Alice's paranoia, briefly wondered if Lucy had messed with the brakes on Tom's car.
When Lucy takes Alice to the Hafa Bar, who was the woman who stumbled and fell, turning an "insistent gaze" on Alice? John's lover or some random stranger? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 8: Lucy
(view spoiler)[After learning the truth from Lucy about her role in the accident, how could Alice ever trust Lucy again?! How could Alice even think of calling Lucy her "white knight"?
And yeah, I'm finally fully on board about Lucy being a "psycho stalker".... (hide spoiler)]

I finished Tangerine two nights ago--I couldn't put it down.
Here are the some I took while reading, followed by general remarks.

Chapter 11: Alice
(view spoiler)[Alice has a dream about that fatal car accident in Vermont, but finds John lying bleeding in the snow, rather than Tom. Not a great portent for the outcome of Lucy's walk with John the night before.
A man with a scarred eyebrow comes looking for John, claiming to be John's coworker "from the office." So, John actually has a job of some sort? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 13: Alice
(view spoiler)[I'm shocked to hear from Lucy that Alice pushed that woman at Café Hafa who turned out to be, unsurprisingly, Sabine. However, when had Alice ever had the chance to actually meet Sabine before?
Did Lucy push Sabine, making Sabine think that Alice was the one who pushed her?
And, yes, I'm still nursing my multiple personality theory, which sometimes doesn't work for me. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 17: Alice
(view spoiler)[Maude seems to think that Alice was to blame for that accident in Vermont. Alice repeatedly remembers Maude having pledged to "take care of everything."
I'm dismayed by how quickly Maude takes to Sophie Turner, dismissing anything Alice has to say about Lucy.
Here's where my "they're separate people" idea doesn't work--how could Sophie/Alice have met Maude in New York? (hide spoiler)]

Ch 19: Alice
(view spoiler)[When Alice viisits Youssef in prison, he mentions having a scar on his face. I immediately thought of John's coworker who visited Alice about John not showing up for work, then remembered that Alice would recognize him. Haha, so much for that suspicion.
But who was that nameless colleague of John's anyway? A false lead?
Alice think about Lucy, describing her as "her unfiltered self, the rawness which nobody would ever see; she tells herself she will never be rid of Lucy." So, Alice/Lucy/Sophie are one person?
This would explain why Maude would prefer to trust capable-seeming Sophie over sad, unhinged Alice--but I'm still stuck on Sophie's encounter with Maude in NY (Alice was already in Tangiers). (hide spoiler)]

General remarks after having finished the book
(view spoiler)[I read "Woman in the Window" last July and deeply disliked the book and its protagonist. I have been thinking why, then, I felt so attached to Alice. Perhaps it's because I resented Lucy's controlling aggressiveness and wanted somehow for Alice to emerge victorious--you know, the meek shall inherit the earth and all that?
Perhaps Alice being subsumed by Lucy does represent a victory of some sorts? Maybe I'd hoped Alice could become somewhat more self-assertive but not as psycho (hah, Lindsay called it) as Lucy.
Nonetheless, the multiple personalities idea seemed inconsistently implemented somehow. If they were the same person, why didn't Youssef immediately recognize Alice/Lucy in prison? Haha, I really enjoyed thinking through this novel! (hide spoiler)]

I struggled with how I felt about the ending and look forward to hearing what you both think.

Kristin

about Part I
I agree that there are tantalizing clues scattered here and there to support the idea that (view spoiler)[Lucy exists in Alice's imagination and then that possibility falls through for me at other times. My only exposure to multiple personality disorder has been, I'm embarrassed to admit, in fiction so I guess my own "knowledge" is more of a sieve than a reference, lol.
That episode with Lucy's dog was horrific. Didn't the mother say that the dog was Lucy's and thus Lucy's responsibility? What mother would do that to a small child? Or the story may be, as you suppose, possibly a fabrication.
And yes, definitely, about the book making us suspicious readers. Is there anyone we can completely trust? (hide spoiler)]

I am starting this book this weekend (Here in Canada it is our "long weekend" as Monday is a holiday (Victoria Day). To all you Americans, enjoy your holiday NEXT weekend! Happy reading!

Lucy and Alice....opposites attract! John. Ugh. I am 30% done and so many questions. I feel like this is one of those novels where the plot does not fully develop until well into the book. The characters are so well defined though.

Just finished chapter 5.....Lucy is definitely taking on a psychotic persona...or is Alice’s mental health on shaky ground?

oshizu wrote: "Lindsay, that is some prediction!

I finished Chapter 3 earlier so I'd like to agree with you both that the characters are well developed. I briefly re-checked the Table of Contents and feel relie..."

I was thinking both because (view spoiler)[ she showed up without any sort of warning but how did she know where Alice was? They hadn't talked in so long, how did she keep track of her? Moroccan independence was finalized in 1956 so this is probably set in early '50s. No cells phones or social media. Also, just the way Lucy talks about her - super obsessive and possessive. (hide spoiler)]

Ugh I'm not going to be able to finish this before June. Sorry ladies. This was a bad month for audio books for me but I didn't want to switch to print because I'm actually really enjoying the audio. But we have company this weekend from Friday to Monday and it's just been crazy busy.

Also I got engaged last night so I'm a little discombobulated and preoccupied :D :D :D

Thank you Kristen! I'm extremely happy and excited :)

This novel ended up being very different than what I thought.
(view spoiler)[ I was so convinced until near the end, when Aunt Maude comes to Tangiers, that Alice had a multiple personality disorder. I have seen this clinically in my practice as a pharmacist- but in the end I was convinced that Lucy was just a psycho stalker. I don't think I have read a novel before where the stalker was a female stalking another female. But she was more than a stalker- she was obsessed with Alice, and it seems that her objective was to destroy not only her competition (Tom, John) but also Alice herself when Lucy realized she could not control her/have her. I found Lucy's ability to continually find solutions very creepy. The author did an amazing job of linking various aspects of this story together in a way that made sense, yet left me guessing! (hide spoiler)]

This was my first buddy read- thank you everyone for all of your great comments/theories!!!! I will be doing another buddy read again soon!

Yes, Kelly, I agree this was a fun buddy read!
Lindsay, once you're done with the book, I'd like to hear how you imagine everyone's lives go after the book ends. :D

And congratulations on your engagement!