Our Hideous Progeny: A thrilling Gothic Adventure

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As Henry’s desire for fame grows, Mary must decide how far she will go to protect this Creature—the hideous progeny—she has grown to love. A real treat: a Victorian adventure novel cloaked in gothic imagery that dives into the museums and debate halls of London . A novel about youthful friendships, rivalry, unspeakable crimes and the way memories mutate when dark secrets are revealed, this is probably Ward’s most complex and brilliant book yet. When we finally get to the construction of the creature, it feels like its existence is barely a blip in the story.

Mary is a would-be palaeontologist, but the fact that she’s a woman coupled with a lack of formal education means her work’s been overshadowed by her talented but feckless husband Henry.The debut author’s original, feminist variation on Mary Shelley’s foundational text makes for a wonderfully rich, emotionally engaging tale with the flavour and appeal of a great 19th-century novel.

She's quietly bisexual, married to a geologist she isn't quite sure she loves or respects any more, mourning a stillborn daughter, processing the effects of a traumatic childhood, looking for a way to make her mark on the world. A lifelong fan of science both real and imagined, they originally studied aerospace engineering at NC State University. McGill’s short fiction has appeared in Fantasy Magazine and Strange Constellations, and they are a two-time finalist for the Dell Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. In it McGill explores and questions relationships across the gender binary and documents the ways that equivalent actions by men and women can be viewed in completely different (and damning) ways. A wonderfully rich, emotionally engaging tale with the flavour and appeal of a great 19th-century novel.Various scientific presentations, diner parties, conversations occur to hound in the fact that the 19th century was deeply misogynistic and racist.

Though setting the reader up to sympathise with the protagonist, the author does a great job of showing us hershortcomings. Frankenstein as a character is deeply unlikable, morally ambiguous and his descent into madness is fascinating to read about.Mary is a fabulously nuanced protagonist on a journey of grief, reflection, ambition and awakening, and the way McGill wrote her inner world had me scrambling for a highlighter. What kept me reading in the end, was the way McGill stab me in the gut with their chapter endings, and while certain scenes didn’t have a whole lot of “body”, McGill truly knows how to pack a punch and keep the reader’s attention.

Do you think that one day, some Mary of the future will sketch our bones and wonder what we might have been in life? The story starts off slow, maybe a little bit dull, and nothing much is going on, which makes the narrative drag somewhat.Set in the 19th century, it shows the advancement of biological sciences, chemistry and geology, and it perfectly interwove the related paradigms with the story itself. She knows her great uncle disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic but she doesn't know why or how. Maisie, Mary's sister-in-law and love interest is a really delightful character and, from my limited perspective, a refreshingly honest and sympathetic portrayal of someone who lives with chronic illness. It failed to offer anything unique or distinct from the original Frankenstein, and it could even be argued that it offers far less.