Tourists may think life on an island off the coast of Maine is quaint, but Charlotte knows better. She’s tired of her island prison (it has a real name, but she calls it “Bleak”), and she’s sure that a life in the great anywhere-else is heaps better than one that revolves around catching a ferry to the mainland. She even has the perfect solution: boarding school.

But who will take care of the siblets? Will clinically crazy Mom or organic-obsessed Dad be able to hold things together without her there? And is Charlotte ready to leave love-of-her-life Noah behind?

Susan Carlton has created a remarkably vivid, strong character in Charlotte; her intelligence, charm, and bitingly sarcastic wit are sure to win over anyone who has ever wanted more than Bleak.

"Teens bored with their humdrum surroundings and on the hunt for something (or someplace) better will be drawn to this debut novel. It's the week before boarding school applications are due, and 16-year-old Charlotte must decide whether to stay on the island off the coast of Maine with her dysfunctional family (she shoulders the responsibility for her preschool-age siblings) or to broaden her horizons. Charlotte's stream-of-consciousness responses to the applications' essay questions reveal her desires, frustrations and fears. For example, 'Who is your favorite literary character?' leads to a rant about how Charlotte's unstable mother named her three children after Charlotte's Web; how Charlotte's best friend, who has just hooked up with Charlotte's lifelong boyfriend, ought to have been named Templeton, the rat; a complaint about her Scrabble-obsessed dad who has 'shtupped' the preschool teacher; and a comparison of herself with Charlotte the spider ('love words' and 'not instantly likeable' are traits they share). Charlotte is right about not being instantly likeable: as people keep telling her, she's condescending and snarky, and she hurts her boyfriend by hiding from him her thoughts about boarding school. Although her diatribes often sound arch or overly clever, they evoke a realistic picture of a girl who yearns for independence but secretly fears letting go of the familiar. The rest of the characters seem somewhat two-dimensional, but readers might be too consumed with Charlotte's ongoing drama — that is, their own drama writ very large — to mind. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

SUSAN CARLTON, a magazine editor and writer, has spent her share of winters in Maine. This is her first novel.