Mary Modern

This imaginative near-future, genre-bending debut novel borrows its premise from the iconic work of a less modern Mary—Mary Shelley. After discovering she's infertile, 28-year-old biogenetics researcher Lucy Morrigan concocts in her secret basement laboratory a fetal cocktail using her grandmother's DNA (from a blood-spotted apron found in the attic). Within three months, Lucy's dangerously huge with the clone of grandmother Mary, and her boss and friend, Megan (who is not an ob-gyn but was once married to one) performs a C-section. They place the clone in a mechanical womb in Lucy's basement, and in six months, an indignant 22-year-old version of Lucy's grandmother emerges. Mary's last memories are of 1929, but she adjusts to modern life quickly. She's bright, vivacious and flirtatious, and is portrayed with significantly more empathy and detail than any of the other characters. Despite an obvious and mutual attraction to Lucy's boyfriend, Mary asks Lucy to clone her husband, Teddy. But Mary isn't the only one looking for Lucy's help—a deranged preacher threatens to expose her unless she clones Jesus. DeAngelis combines a neogothic exploration of a moral-ethical morass with a quirky clone love story; the result is sometimes unwieldy but frequently titillating. (July)