Shut the Door
A Novel
ISBN10: 0312319304
ISBN13: 9780312319304
Trade Paperback
240 Pages
$18.99
CA$26.99
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.
Reviews
Praise for Shut the Door
"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
Reviews from Goodreads
BOOK EXCERPTS
Read an Excerpt
Shut the Door
Beatrice
She 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...