Shut the Door

In the debut novel written by a teenager, Shut the Door, says the New York Post, is "a raw and disturbing portrayal of a suburban family."

 

In a household spiraling out of control, Lilliana and Vivian are two teenage sisters struggling to carve out their identities as young adults, taking risks and undergoing disturbing transformations that go unchallenged by their emotionally absent parents. Beatrice and Harry's marriage is disintegrating, and it no longer provides the safe harbor their daughters so desperately need. As the girls test boundaries and push limits, their silent cries for help are lost within the apathy that has crept into their family life. Harry's prolonged absence on a business trip finally provides the impetus to reevaluate family roles and relationships—and the choices made are shocking. In the vein of American Beauty, this family portrait reveals just what happens when our support system falls away and we become emotionally disconnected from the ones we love the most.

Praise

"One of the year’s edgiest books."—Teen Vogue

 

"A prismatic page-turner about the lies we tell ourselves and each other, and the inventions we cling to—all from a young scribe who's well on her way to brilliance."—Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble

 

"This precocious debut by a 17-year-old author bears unblinking witness to an ordinary family's plunge into folie a quatre . . . Spellbinding . . . Marquit skillfully interweaves recurring motifs . . . Sure to attract a Gen-Y following and further traumatize parents."—Kirkus Reviews

 

"Marquit's dark subject matter . . . echo[es] Joyce Carol Oates . . . [a] youthful feat."—Publishers Weekly

About the Author(s)

Amanda Marquit

Amanda Marquit, nineteen years old, graduated from New York City's Professional Children's School and enrolled at Brown University in the fall of 2005. Amanda began work on Shut the Door, her first novel, at age fourteen and completed it at age sixteen.

Excerpt

Shut the Door
BeatriceShe felt awkward without him there. As if her movements were newer, more different, emptier. Blind and without meaning. And she had never known about missing him before. He had always just been there, asking nothing of her but his breakfast, the paper, a cup of tea (he never drank coffee). And now he was gone.She pretended not to notice the emptiness. The silence.

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