Orangeboy

Winner of the YA Book Prize

All that noise was fighting with the music and the music was fighting with itself. It was the usual crappy mashup, The Beatles mixed with Frank Sinatra mixed with Michael Jackson. But underneath was a bass beat, thump, thump, thump, like my heart.

Not cool enough, not clever enough, not street enough for anyone to notice me.

I was the kid people looked straight through. Not any more. Not since Mr Orange.

Sixteen-year-old Marlon has made his mum a promise - he'll never follow his big brother, Andre, down the wrong path. So far, it's been easy, but when a date ends in tragedy, Marlon finds himself hunted. They're after the mysterious Mr Orange, and they're going to use Marlon to get to him.

Marlon's out of choices - can he become the person he never wanted to be, to protect everyone he loves?

A young man has an impossible choice to make, in this powerful urban story that will challenge preconceptions and melt the hardest heart.

Orangeboy is the stunning debut from London-based author Patrice Lawrence who finds that music often seeps into her writing and shares her writing space with a cat called Stormageddon.

‘What a book! Such a gripping, gritty storyline, with such wonderful, believable characters. Loved it.’ — Tanya Landman

Read an exclusive interview for Waterstones with Patrice Lawrence where the author talks about life for children in care, her love of Hackney and how, when it comes to writers of colour, the publishing industry still has a long way to go.

Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017 for Older Fiction

Winner of the Bookseller YA Book Prize 2017

Shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award 2016

• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• ISBN: 9781444927207
• Number of pages: 448
• Weight: 360g
• Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 34 mm