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btg's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Our Hideous Progeny effortlessly toes the line between artistic classic literature and truly a joy to read. Perfect for fans of Gothic, historical, character focused literature with LGBTQ+ representation exploring themes of being a woman in academia, love for one's creation, and how a life lived in pain can still be a life well lived.
Mary is a curious scientist with little patience for unjust social structures, coming to us at the beginning of the book after a year in mourning of her stillborn child. Henry, her husband, is a gambling addict with daddy issues who, frankly, personifies male privilege and has even less patience or awareness of politics than his wife, much to their detriment. Due to the death of Henry's father, the two travel back to his childhood home for the will reading and to meet Henry's sister, Maisie, who is chronically ill (in an excellent portrayal). It is here our story begins, as eventually financial difficulties, He ry's actions, the discovery of letters from Victor Frankenstein inspire Mary and Henry to attempt to bring back a pleisaur to life and restore their professional reputations.
I expected the book to be very dark as a Frankenstein retelling, and I'm delighted to say that while appropriate for spooky season, it is quite hopeful in time. The relationship between Maisie and Mary is quite cute and healthfully portrayed (which is helpful with balance, as Henry is truly a jerk).
Enjoy Our Hideous Progeny if you'd like to dip your toe into Gothic literature but still want happier endings and romance. This will not please readers looking for action packed or grimdark work --it's ultimately a book about living and hope, even as it's difficult to hold it.
Mary is a curious scientist with little patience for unjust social structures, coming to us at the beginning of the book after a year in mourning of her stillborn child. Henry, her husband, is a gambling addict with daddy issues who, frankly, personifies male privilege and has even less patience or awareness of politics than his wife, much to their detriment. Due to the death of Henry's father, the two travel back to his childhood home for the will reading and to meet Henry's sister, Maisie, who is chronically ill (in an excellent portrayal). It is here our story begins, as eventually financial difficulties, He ry's actions, the discovery of letters from Victor Frankenstein inspire Mary and Henry to attempt to bring back a pleisaur to life and restore their professional reputations.
I expected the book to be very dark as a Frankenstein retelling, and I'm delighted to say that while appropriate for spooky season, it is quite hopeful in time. The relationship between Maisie and Mary is quite cute and healthfully portrayed (which is helpful with balance, as Henry is truly a jerk).
Enjoy Our Hideous Progeny if you'd like to dip your toe into Gothic literature but still want happier endings and romance. This will not please readers looking for action packed or grimdark work --it's ultimately a book about living and hope, even as it's difficult to hold it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness and Sexism
Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship
nerdy_reader_9571's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Homophobia
eleanora's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Addiction, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
nadiaxm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Sexism, and Sexual assault
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, and Homophobia
aplpaca's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Racism, and Sexism
Moderate: Homophobia
klbreyfogle's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was a wonderful read! Pretty dark, at times (both content-wise and thematically) but it was fun to read a queer woman in STEM Frankenstein spin-off and I appreciated the writing style. Lots of of-the-time misogyny and homophobia that can be rough, but I liked the ending (a happy ending imo) and personally choose to believe that the monster made its way back to Scotland and lives on as the Loch Ness Monster
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism
skywhales's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
WHOO oh all sorts of feelings about this one man.
this came on the heels of the first book i dnfed in quite a while (which i won't review since i don't usually review books i dnf. principle of the thing or whatever) and so maybe i'm just spoiled by this book not being That book. but also ugh i loved this
this has gotta be one of my favorite frankenstein adaptations (if this counts as that). it takes a definitively unique spin on the whole "victorian scientist creating life" premise and delves deeper into the real life scientific societies of england at the time, which was really enjoyable to see. and god, i LOVED the creature. we need more frankendinosaurs right now immediately. charming, exciting and fun nearly all the way through.
i have this funny thought that these characters could have easily been in a less well written book and would have been a total mess. but they weren't and i'm very happy about that. it took me a little while to fully come around to mary since i am a little tired of one person automatically being the only morally upstanding person in the room at a time where a lot of backwards opinions were commonplace. but i found i could relate to her anger with the fucked up practices of her community, and yes, i continue to adore women of science. i also like that they specified her love for her child was different than her love for the creature and shot down the idea that she was basically using it to replace her kid because if they had compared the creature to her daughter i would have cringed SO hard. honestly i feel like the author did a good job writing a character who isn't really typically motherly and wants to exist as a person outside of that. and while losing her child is always going to affect her, there was a lot going on with her that didn't have anything to do with that.
maisie was so sweetiepie...the sort of character i'm so glad was allowed to be a love interest. she's allowed to be less physically strong and be chronically ill but at the same time she's so full of life and perky and multifaceted and lovely...also sapphic stories where the love interest is the more feminine one always make me jump up in the air for joy. though i know it's victorian times and there's a base standard of femininity for both of them but you get what i am saying. you understand. henry was AUGH! it's so crazy because like. most of the time when a character has a crappy husband it kind of smacks you over the head with it but henry was maybe one of the most realistically flawed of these kinds of characters i've seen and it legitimately took me by surprise. a lot of his banter with mary was genuinely sweet! i could genuinely see that at one time there was love there! and there still was and still might be but those flaws begin to become less and less charming as mary becomes more and more disillusioned. he also got a lot worse whenever clarke entered the picture which i also appreciated even as it pissed me off because it's true that a lot of men who are otherwise somewhat decent people can easily go downhill when surrounded by an echo chamber of way worse friends. speaking of clarke i wanted to shred him into little bits so that characterization did its job.
if i had a qualm with the book i'd say that it does -sometimes- seem to kind of reinforce the idea that men are the ones thinking of Logic and Facts and women are the ones guided by Emotions. a lot of choices mary made were spur of the moment emotional ones that ended up just making everything worse but also i'm realizing even as i write this that it makes me sound like a major asshole. maybe i'm just too used to baru-type characters who make awful decisions in a different way. and overall i did understand her anger in most of the situations she found herself in. also i guess henry's emotions get the better of him a lot. i also didn't really love that mary apologized to maisie before vice versa after she showed her the creature and maisie reacted badly. honestly i feel like she had a lot more to apologize for. yes maybe mary shouldn't have been lying to her the whole time but also she ended up literally being right to keep it from her because she reacted with such disgust!! it was nice that she came around to the creature after watching mary interact with it and it would still be nice for that to be the thing that changed her mind but it made me feel weird. maybe it was supposed to show that mary is willing to be the bigger person for maisie? but it still felt like she was the one less in the wrong so it felt more frustrating than anything.
honestly a really lovely book. full of things i enjoy that i haven't seen enough of. and a couple quotes i liked so much i wanted to take a picture of them (because this book is also not my book it belongs to the library).
this came on the heels of the first book i dnfed in quite a while (which i won't review since i don't usually review books i dnf. principle of the thing or whatever) and so maybe i'm just spoiled by this book not being That book. but also ugh i loved this
this has gotta be one of my favorite frankenstein adaptations (if this counts as that). it takes a definitively unique spin on the whole "victorian scientist creating life" premise and delves deeper into the real life scientific societies of england at the time, which was really enjoyable to see. and god, i LOVED the creature. we need more frankendinosaurs right now immediately. charming, exciting and fun nearly all the way through.
i have this funny thought that these characters could have easily been in a less well written book and would have been a total mess. but they weren't and i'm very happy about that. it took me a little while to fully come around to mary since i am a little tired of one person automatically being the only morally upstanding person in the room at a time where a lot of backwards opinions were commonplace. but i found i could relate to her anger with the fucked up practices of her community, and yes, i continue to adore women of science. i also like that they specified her love for her child was different than her love for the creature and shot down the idea that she was basically using it to replace her kid because if they had compared the creature to her daughter i would have cringed SO hard. honestly i feel like the author did a good job writing a character who isn't really typically motherly and wants to exist as a person outside of that. and while losing her child is always going to affect her, there was a lot going on with her that didn't have anything to do with that.
maisie was so sweetiepie...the sort of character i'm so glad was allowed to be a love interest. she's allowed to be less physically strong and be chronically ill but at the same time she's so full of life and perky and multifaceted and lovely...also sapphic stories where the love interest is the more feminine one always make me jump up in the air for joy. though i know it's victorian times and there's a base standard of femininity for both of them but you get what i am saying. you understand. henry was AUGH! it's so crazy because like. most of the time when a character has a crappy husband it kind of smacks you over the head with it but henry was maybe one of the most realistically flawed of these kinds of characters i've seen and it legitimately took me by surprise. a lot of his banter with mary was genuinely sweet! i could genuinely see that at one time there was love there! and there still was and still might be but those flaws begin to become less and less charming as mary becomes more and more disillusioned. he also got a lot worse whenever clarke entered the picture which i also appreciated even as it pissed me off because it's true that a lot of men who are otherwise somewhat decent people can easily go downhill when surrounded by an echo chamber of way worse friends. speaking of clarke i wanted to shred him into little bits so that characterization did its job.
if i had a qualm with the book i'd say that it does -sometimes- seem to kind of reinforce the idea that men are the ones thinking of Logic and Facts and women are the ones guided by Emotions. a lot of choices mary made were spur of the moment emotional ones that ended up just making everything worse but also i'm realizing even as i write this that it makes me sound like a major asshole. maybe i'm just too used to baru-type characters who make awful decisions in a different way. and overall i did understand her anger in most of the situations she found herself in. also i guess henry's emotions get the better of him a lot.
honestly a really lovely book. full of things i enjoy that i haven't seen enough of. and a couple quotes i liked so much i wanted to take a picture of them (because this book is also not my book it belongs to the library).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Racism, and Sexism
Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Sexual harassment
lunarmagi42's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Our Hideous Progeny tells the tale of a woman who is, quite frankly, trapped in a society that thinks she is "less than" simply due to the fact that she was born a woman. Worth less than a man, less intelligent than a man, less worthy of scientific acclaim than a man. Less monstrous than a man. Less angry than a man. None of these things are true and she disproves them one by one.
While the story takes some time getting into the whole "Frankenstein" aspect of the book, that time is well spent setting the stage for the fascinating tale to follow. We see how, despite being the mind more or less behind her husband Henry's scientific discoveries, Mary is only ever credited with "And many thanks to M Sutherland for the illustrations." We see how the people who should be her scientific peers look down on her for her gender. We also slowly learn of Mary's discovery of her great uncle, Victor Frankenstein, the Creature he created, and the story of that creation left behind in letters.
Mary's journey to creating her own Creature is fascinating and deeply frustrating, both for Mary herself and for the reader. Over and over she runs into the hurdle of needing a man for something, usually simply due to the fact that women are not allowed in many of the circles she needs to be in to continue her work. Due to the society she lives in, this is not simply a hurdle she can overcome, she must work with Henry and the loathsome Mr. Clarke to bring her discovery to life.
I thought the story was very well written and engaging as well as surprisingly touching at points, especially for a story with as much gore as this one has. Mary's relationship with Maisie is sweet and very natural feeling and her moments of introspection over the loss of her child a year prior are deeply touching. C.E. McGill uses very poignant and eloquent language in a way that feels smooth and nicely poetic to describe a rather gruesome thing: the creation of a Creature, stitched together from the sum of the parts of others.
Our Hideous Progeny is definitely worth a read if you like gothic horror about angry women fighting for their place in society and finding love and solace in an unexpected place. 4.5/5 Stars
While the story takes some time getting into the whole "Frankenstein" aspect of the book, that time is well spent setting the stage for the fascinating tale to follow. We see how, despite being the mind more or less behind her husband Henry's scientific discoveries, Mary is only ever credited with "And many thanks to M Sutherland for the illustrations." We see how the people who should be her scientific peers look down on her for her gender. We also slowly learn of Mary's discovery of her great uncle, Victor Frankenstein, the Creature he created, and the story of that creation left behind in letters.
Mary's journey to creating her own Creature is fascinating and deeply frustrating, both for Mary herself and for the reader. Over and over she runs into the hurdle of needing a man for something, usually simply due to the fact that women are not allowed in many of the circles she needs to be in to continue her work. Due to the society she lives in, this is not simply a hurdle she can overcome, she must work with Henry and the loathsome Mr. Clarke to bring her discovery to life.
I thought the story was very well written and engaging as well as surprisingly touching at points, especially for a story with as much gore as this one has. Mary's relationship with Maisie is sweet and very natural feeling and her moments of introspection over the loss of her child a year prior are deeply touching. C.E. McGill uses very poignant and eloquent language in a way that feels smooth and nicely poetic to describe a rather gruesome thing: the creation of a Creature, stitched together from the sum of the parts of others.
Our Hideous Progeny is definitely worth a read if you like gothic horror about angry women fighting for their place in society and finding love and solace in an unexpected place. 4.5/5 Stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Sexism, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Homophobia, and Alcohol
Minor: Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment