Mary Modern

By: Camille DeAngelis

Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Mara Demay Lawler, Eric Conger

Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

A modern, heartwarming twist on Mary Shelley's classic, this compelling debut novel weaves an old-fashioned love story with modern science and leaves us wanting more.

Lucy Morrigan, a young genetic researcher, lives with her boyfriend, Gray, in her crumbling family mansion. Surrounded by four generations of clothes, photographs, furniture, and other remnants of past lives, they are strangely out of touch with the modern world - except in the basement, where Lucy works in the high-tech lab she inherited from her father. Frustrated by her unsuccessful attempts to win tenure and bear a child, she takes drastic measures to achieve both: she uses a bloodstained scrap of apron found in the attic to successfully clone her grandmother.

Naturally, Lucy is hoping for a baby. Instead, she brings to life 22-year-old Mary. Alive in a home that is no longer her own, amid reminders of a life she has lived but doesn't remember, Mary is trapped in the strangest sort of déjà vu, and Lucy must face the truth about love, longing, and the ties that bind.

©2007 Camille Marjorie DeAngelis (P)2007 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Lucy's story of love and ambition will appeal not only to fans of gothic romance but also to book groups, whose discussions of bioethics, social responsibility, personal freedom, and the biological nature of memory will last into the wee hours." ( Booklist)

Could have been great, but...

The story idea was marvelous, the characterizations were superb. The descriptions were compelling. The dialogue was such that you wanted to join the conversations. The narration was one of the best I've heard in a long time.

I truly believe that this book could have made the NYT Bestseller List; if not for a single mistake. Sadly, this book has a fatal flaw that disrupted the flow of the story so markedly that what might have been great was made mediocre.

The author could not resist political jabs at George Bush. The first time she referred to "Dubya" I was so distracted, I forgot what was happening and had to rewind at a crucial point in the plot.

By the third time, I found myself wondering more about why her editor would have allowed it than what was going to happen to the characters. I actually turned off my iPod to consider the question at a time when I should have been resisting the urge to fast forward to see what was going to happen next.

It was such a needless mistake. I can't imagine why she did not use a fictitious name for the Bush character, or why the author, editor, and publisher would all risk alienating more than fifty percent of their audience in order to make a political point. This is, after all, fiction.

It would have been a simple matter to add five years to the dating - which would allow readers of all political persuasions to insert the evil politico of their choice to become the presidential character.

If there had only been a few instances, it might not have been so bad, but by the time I hit part two, they had become so frequent, I began watching for them.

Readers who share the author's political view will be just as distracted from the storyline as those who are diametrically opposed to it, as I can attest.

I would say that the story is worth reading in spite of the political diatribes built in to it.

However, be prepared to be distracted.

Enjoyable

I really enjoyed the premise of the book. It was an interesting take on an old concept. I felt like there was a lot of story development and the wrap up was murky. It was not stellar but definitely an enjoyable story.

Very imaginative

This book was very engaging with its imaginative story line. I felt like I was actually looking at this as a movie. The readers expressed the story so well. It was science fiction, with an emotional modern day drama. However, some of the scientific accounting was a little over done. Overall, I enjoyed this book.

was okay....

The reason I picked this book is because Jenna Lamia is one of the narrators and again she has done an awesome job. She really amazes me with her range of voices for characters. As far as the book, I almost didn't finish it after the first hour listening. It just wasn't holding my interest. There is too much extra information that isn't needed for the story to flow. All in all I did listen to the whole book and found the story something to think about after it was over but the story is just okay.

This book is a modern spin on the 'Frankenstein'..

....story and I felt it worked pretty well. I think I would have enjoyed this book even more if I had read the book rather than listened to it. There were a few things that didn't quite make sense and were hard to imagine such as repeating chromozone names over and over and speaking different science terms in the background. The characters were enjoyable and I especially liked Mary and felt for her in her confusion and struggle to make a new life for herself. The ending has a surprise that I didn't even see coming and put a unique spin on things......it was a pretty good read.

Disappointment

The idea behind this novel is fascinating, but the writing stopped me cold. The scenes and characters felt like unfinished sketches. I would not recommend it.