SHUT THE DOOR

"To Mom, Dad, and Adam, for being the family upon which this book is based—just kidding." With this tongue-in-cheek dedication, 16-year-old Marquit displays a sense of humor that her blunt, melodramatic profile of a dysfunctional family otherwise mostly lacks. When restless head of the family Harry flies off on a business trip to Cleveland ("For once he felt free. And he loved this feeling"), his wife, Beatrice, is consumed by her need for him and comforts herself by robotically cooking his favorite meals ("Guess what? I'm making brisket tonight"). In the meantime, she neglects 16-year-old Lilli and 17-year-old Vivian—a bad move, because sexpot Lilli develops a crush on a college boy and a nasty habit of cutting herself, while awkward Vivian abruptly gets dyed, pierced and tattooed, and cultivates an eating disorder. It's to Marquit's credit that she makes an effort to get inside the heads of all four of her characters, and her breathy, italics-heavy narration and dark subject matter occasionally echo Joyce Carol Oates. Still, there's an emotional flatness to the story of Harry's eventual fling and Bea's nervous breakdown, and Lilli and Vivian's misadventures are only slightly more convincing. Marquit is at least as talented as fellow precocious teen author Nick Donell, but like Twelve , this is more youthful feat than fully fledged fiction. (Jan. 5)