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" THE PLOT: Lucy Clark is one messed-up chick. Not only has the 29-year-old been in and out of drug rehab since high school, her well-to-do mother is addicted to crack, her socially awkward half-sister is dabbling in Christian fundamentalism, and her disease-specialist father, who hanged himself, created a lethal virus that was stolen by terrorists. Oh, and the love of her life just married her oldest friend . . . Any chance Lucy will emerge intact?  LEA (FEATURES EDITOR): I thought this book was unreadable\u2014the narrative was confusing and pretentious. And I think Maazel tried soooo hard to be edgy that by page 50 I was itching for Lucy to overdose. The fact that her Upper East Side mom was using crack--that to me is a perfect example of Maazel trying too hard. My mom doesn&amp;#039;t do coke, she does crack! Crack is also whack as a plot device.  LAUREN (ARTICLES EDITOR): And why the theme of reincarnation? Every other chapter, Maazel would introduce these random Viking characters who spoke in broken English and who were supposed to be Lucy&amp;#039;s ancestors. It was overwrought and unnecessary. It did nothing for the main story, which is dealing with addiction, heartbreak, a crazy mother, a weird sister, a mass epidemic\u2014all of which I kind of liked.  JESSICA (SENIOR EDITOR): Well, if you just skip those chapters, it was a quirky read. I liked the writing\u2014she has a distinct voice and rhythm, and there was funny stuff in there! That Lucy called the family&amp;#039;s cook by whatever dish she served last, like Jumbo Prawn; and the line, &amp;quot;Every gathering has a guest who thinks she can&amp;#039;t possibly outstay her welcome.&amp;quot; That&amp;#039;s me!  YAEL (ASSOCIATE EDITOR): I agree. And I liked how Lucy was this unsympathetic, narcissistic druggie who can&amp;#039;t get over herself while the whole world may be coming to an end. That worked for me. LAUREN: I liked Lucy&amp;#039;s geeky grasp of all the science stuff--how she would start spewing this random information about avian flu, West Nile, and St. Louis encephalitis that she learned from her dad.  LEA: Right. Actually, it seems like women going full science nerd is the new literary thing. You have Rivka Galchen&amp;#039;s Atmospheric Disturbances and Marisha Pessl&amp;#039;s Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Very different books, but why are women suddenly writing about chemistry and meteorology? I guess another cool thing about the book is how it&amp;#039;s not just for women, per se. Men might get into the sci-fi aspect. But the most resonant thing for me was this longing for her ex. JESSICA: Yes. Her relationship with him totally reminded me of how we idealize old relationships\u2014like the way she&amp;#039;d create a crazy dialogue with him in her head. And I liked it when Maazel wrote, &amp;quot;Moving on is a horrible process.&amp;quot; Because it&amp;#039;s true. It sucks sometimes. And that was kind of what the whole book was about. SHOULD YOU READ IT?LAUREN: NOYAEL: YESJESSICA: YESLEA: NO \u00BB To read our full conversation, get more book reviews, and to add your thoughts, visit Marie Claire&amp;#039;s Book Club. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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