Tulip Touch

The story of a strange and disturbing friendship seen through the eyes of Natalie as she gets to know Tulip Pierce, a deliquent girl most others go out of their way to avoid. Nobody wants Tulip in their gang. She bunks off school, is rude to the teachers and makes herself unpopular with her classmates by telling awful lies. But none of this matters to Natalie who finds Tulip's behaviour exciting and dangerous. At first she doesn't care that other people are upset by Tulip's bizarre games but as the games become increasingly dangerous and sinister, Natalie realises that Tulip is going too far. Way too far... Tulip becomes even more destructive and after a row with Natalie she commits a terrible crime. This is a compelling story in which Anne Fine explores the dark side of a friendship bordering on obsession, and sensitively depicts one girl's gradual decline into hostility and violence.

***Reissued for the Originals series of powerful teen fiction.
*
Nobody wants Tulip in their gang.

She skives off school, cheeks the teachers and makes herself unpopular with her classmates by telling awful lies.

None of this matters to Natalie who finds Tulip exciting.

At first she doesn't care that other people are upset and unnerved by Tulip's bizarre games, but as the games become increasingly sinister and dangerous, Natalie realises that Tulip is going too far.

Much too far.

Racing, in fact, to the novel's shocking ending.

Auteur

Anne Fine read Politics and History at Warwick and then became a teacher. Her first novel was published in 1975 and today she is one of the UK's most successful children's writers. She has won many awards including two Carnegie Medals, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Prize. GOGGLE-EYES was serialised on TV and MADAME DOUBTFIRE was made into a hit Hollywood movie. Anne lives in County Durham.