Orangeboy: Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children, winner of the YA Book Prize

Reviews

Mrs R Hammond

I hope the prize-givers pay attention. I loved Marlon (middle name: Isaac Asimov), especially the heart-in-throat opening chapters, and his uncompromising, all-seeing, best friend Tish, who is such a star turn, she deserves to be the hero of her own book. This is a debut to watch.

Candy Gourlay

It is also a clear-eyed (and yet loving) portrait of London's sharper edges: caring families living in stressful urban conditions, where it doesn't take much to be sucked into an underworld in which violence is on a loop. Phenomenal writing & devilish detail. Patrice Lawrence’s debut YA is a gripping & terrifying tale of drugs & gangs & an underworld that’s near impossible to escape once fallen into. A frightening situation that escalates towards a heart-thumping finale.

The world Patrice Lawrence paints is many shades of grey, unflinching towards the racial realities of London, but leavened with caring, intelligence and hope. A strong debut that paints an often uncomfortable picture of the wrong choices, misguided codes of honour, and unutterably bad, bad luck that can lead a young person down the darkest, wriggliest wormhole.