Our Hideous Progeny: A thrilling Gothic Adventure

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The novel's central character, Mary, is an aspiring scientist in the 1850s, a time of scientific breakthroughs, including the beginnings of the science of paleontology. She attends meetings of the Royal Society, but the male members (and only men can be members) treat her as an anomaly, an amusement, and an aggravation. To modify a line from Samuel Johnson, they find her scientific aspirations like a dog's walking on its hind legs: they are surprised to see Mary attempting it at all, and are incapable of seeing that she actually does it quite well. Our Hideous Progeny takes inspiration from Mary Shelley's masterpiece along with the Victorian fascination with scientific innovation and the prehistoric world. This wonderful debut evolves into a gripping Gothic tale of grief and ambition, passion and intrigue. JESS KIDD, author of THE NIGHT SHIP The difference between a proper young lady and a beastly little thing was that ladies were never angry; they took their moods and wove them into lace, stuffed them into pillows. They learned to hold their tongue. But I have always been a beastly little thing at heart, it seems." With what we see of Mary’s childhood and isolated upbringing with her grandmother (a woman who seemed to despise Mary simply for existing) I couldn’t help but be endeared to her (and root for her to succeed.)

Compelling and utterly absorbing... an artfully crafted debut' SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN, author of PANDORA Witty, dark and sharp as a scalpel...brilliantly captures what it's like to be a woman in a man's world' LIZZIE POOK, author of MOONLIGHT AND THE PEARLER'S DAUGHTER

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The only thing that Mary knows about her great uncle, Victor Frankenstein, is that he went missing in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic, other than that she knows nothing - well not yet anyway! There are villains in this story, but no heroes; heroines instead take their place, in the form of Mary, and her poorly, gentle sister-in-law Maisie. This book takes a look at the society and politics of the time; of the disparities between class, gender and race, and refuses to make apologies for the way things once were; instead giving us characters who

Fans of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and historical horror with a queer feminist twist will not be disappointed. LIBRARY JOURNAL This is an eARC that I was able to read in exchange for my honest thoughts and review, with thanks to Random House Transworld Publishing and NetGalley. A wonderful book; dark, passionate, multi-layered and rich with enticing detail. JOANNE HARRIS, author of CHOCOLAT and THE STRAWBERRY THIEF I’m going to need every to drop what they’re doing and add this to their TBR right now. This was absolutely everything I was hoping for and more. Our Hideous Progeny follows Mary; a young woman with many surnames. Firstly Brown, secondly Sutherland, and thirdly (and most importantly), Frankenstein. The niece of Victor Frankenstein, she happens across a bundle of letters and notes left amongst the belongings of her late father; letters that speak of what happened to Victor, and what miraculously terrifying thing he was able to do, so many years before.Honestly, I didn't finish this book. I DNF'd it at 40-ish percent and have no desire to revisit it, For all the marketing and talk of this being a queer feminist retelling of "Frankenstein", it was indeed that. It was so cookie-cutter and predictable that I earnestly believe that Shelley would be offended at anybody calling this a retelling of her work. I found the pacing of this to be incredibly slow and just boring. Mary as a character isn't particularly engaging and nothing that was happening at the 40% mark gave me any reason to continue any further. I don't mean to speak so badly about this novel but I was just not a fan. Oh, and did I mention it’s a double book deal?! Speaking of, I’d better get to work writing; more news on OHP and my as-of-yet-secret Book 2 to come! Who suddenly has an epiphany one day. Who decides to look into Victor Frankenstein's work and research and when she discovers... Well, read it and find out. It's a beautiful book. Absolutely sumptuous. I was completely mesmerized by it. I borrowed the copy I read - I want to own it.