Our Hideous Progeny: A thrilling Gothic Adventure

Product Information

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 A wonderful book; dark, passionate, multi-layered and rich with enticing detail. JOANNE HARRIS, author of CHOCOLAT and THE STRAWBERRY THIEF

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! Absolutely fantastic news today: my debut novel, the Frankenstein-inspired paleontological gothic OUR HIDEOUS PROGENY, has been acquired by Kirsty Dunseath at Doubleday! Read the full press release here! In two aspects, though, I wished for a bit more from the novel: pacing and the creature. The tempo of the story is sometimes too slow, too steady, and I never understood the true nature of the creature. Is it dangerous? Gentle? A threat to society? Aside from a few glimpses of its behavior here and there, the creature itself is only a secondary character in the story when it should’ve played a larger role, it being the Frankenstein monster. Fans of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and historical horror with a queer feminist twist will not be disappointed. LIBRARY JOURNALI was in absolute awe of just how immersive the descriptions were and loved that it really delves into the inequalities of the Victorian era and the classist, sexist and racist attitudes which were prevalent and still very much relevant today. Evocatively and compassionately, Our Hideous Progeny seeks a way to tell the stories of those whose tales cannot fit in one book, those poor creatures who remain lost or forgotten NEW YORKER

It’s set in 1851, at the height of the Victorian era’s fascination with all things dinosaur and follows Elizabeth (the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein) who (having spent the better part of her life being looked down on for being a woman interested in science and palaeontology) yearns to find scientific acclaim beyond the footnotes of other people’s research. But without any powerful connections or wealth, neither Mary or her husband stand a chance of ever succeeding. Our Hideous Progeny is a continuation of the Mary Shelley classic, Frankenstein. The year is 1853, and Victor Frankenstein’s great-niece, Mary Sutherland, and her husband, Henry, are desperate to break into the science of paleontology. But together, they have neither money nor good reputation – both of which they need for their academic peers to take them seriously.McGill’s narrative features an intricate reworking of Shelley’s themes around science and ethics, reproduction, mortality, motherhood and loss. But McGill builds on these for a moving, intelligent exploration of prejudice, gender and queer identity. I thought this was incredibly compelling, accessible but well-researched, with echoes of Sarah Waters, Sarah Moss and The Essex Serpent - although I’m lukewarm about Moss and not so keen on Perry either but loved this. Fluid, thoughtful, and exceptionally entertaining. Through Mary’s fight for acclaim and acceptance in the scientific world, McGill does an excellent job of showing the trials of women in the 19th century, particularly for women as intelligent and outspoken as Mary. The men sure do try to keep her down. A fantastic read: I felt everything about Mary, her simmering anger and her intellectual delight' FREYA MARSKE, author of THE LAST BINDING trilogy

For fans of queer fiction, imaginative historical fiction, admirers of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (of course!), and readers fascinated by dinosaurs and paleontology. BOOKLIST Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic but she doesn't know why or how... I was less enamoured of her husband (or any of the male characters aside from Mr. Jamsetjee who was such a sweetheart) though the realism and accuracy to the contemporary attitudes of the day were spot on and really highlighted how remarkably strong Mary (and others like her) had to be to persevere in such a harsh, discriminatory environment. For readers of Circe or Ariadne, a brilliant literary revisiting of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein with a fresh, queer, provocative twist. The tender relationship between Mary and Maisie is a joy to behold; the two of them growing because of each other, and able to shed the dead weight in their lives. Where Mary is obsessed with bringing her uncle's work to life, Maisie is the foil who sees through the glitter and the gold, into the almost barbaric truth of it. But, in the end, both of them see the beauty in creating a life; in giving something a life that it might not have had, even for a small amount of time.Nevertheless, the book is a superb debut. McGill sure has a sunny career ahead of them. I’m jealous of their talent. But Mary, declared illegitimate by her family, and Henry, sort of disinherited from his, are in a continual struggle just to make ends meet. They're part of a great scientific circle of inventors and scientists - and yet they are not. However, things start to change when Mary learns who her distant great-uncle, Victor Frankenstein, was and what he accomplished. So at this point the story delves from real history (and real science) into the world of horror and science fiction. But it's a beautiful evolution - or de-evolution - in the hands of CE McGill, the writer. There is SO MUCH going on in this book. Mary's fascination with what she learns about Great Uncle Victor. Her relationship with her husband and her husband's sister. (Gorgeously written.) There's a villain - of course there is! And the whole atmosphere and landscape of rural England in the mid-1800's, along with the poverty and squalor in the great cities. And through it all marches Mary... Our Hideous Progeny also so desperately tried to be feminist and anti-racism that at some point, I stopped seriously taking it as such. Sure, it critiqued the classism and elitism of academia, but there are only so many "oh-this-is-so-unfair-I-don't-understand-why-it-can't-be-changed-and-made-fair" you can shove down my throat before I start feeling as if I'm treated like an idiot. "Subtlety" is something this book would truly benefit from. A fantastic read: I felt everything about Mary, her simmering anger and her intellectual delight, so very clearly. FREYA MARSKE, author of THE LAST BINDING TRILOGY Compelling and utterly absorbing, Our Hideous Progeny is an artfully crafted debut that echoes the dark essence of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein while maintaining a fascinating originality all of its own. SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN, author of PANDORA