Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

23 reviews

burnourhistory's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Child death, Grief, Blood, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, and Murder

Minor: Addiction and Drug use

hmatt's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

I love the concept of this novel: it's very original and a fun gothic take on historical fiction for the classical lit nerds. It does drag a bit in the middle for me, so I think it could have been shorter. The queer rep is there but only just barely, honestly, and I wish it had been explored more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexism, Animal death, Grief, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Classism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death of parent

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Medical content

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Death, Classism, Sexual assault, Blood, and Homophobia

kenley11's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Murder, Body horror, Animal death, Gore, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Infertility, Racism, and Miscarriage

milesjmoran's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Animal death, Medical trauma, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Racism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Pregnancy

sproutedpages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

4.5

Chronic illness representation: 

• Maise: migraines, asthma and lung issues, heart issues, history of childhood illness. 
• Mr. Jamsetjee: tremors (likely Parkinson's) referred to as “shaking palsy”.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Gun violence, Animal death, Racism, Gore, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Classism, Drug use, and Murder

Minor: Miscarriage, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

Discussion of phrenology (challenged) and racism in science, description of animal corpses and their decomposition (not overly graphic), description of surgical procedures on animal corpses, use of laudanum to treat chronic migraines, infant death/stillbirth

the_lesbrarian's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

women in stem™  makes terrifying but deeply sympathetic creature 

When Mary discovers the notes of her great uncle Victor Frankenstein, she, with the help of her disgraced and childish husband, stitches together her own eldritch dinosaur-esque creature in a desperate plot to prove her worth as a scientist, all while trying to avoid her feelings for her husband’s sister. 

The book had some pacing issues— it starts off slow and wraps up very quickly, but the story held my attention well enough that I found I did not mind. 

This dark & whimsical novel investigates a unique allegory to grief, motherhood, and queerness.

rep: queer fmc, indian sc 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Animal death, and Child death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Misogyny

Minor: Classism, Racism, Death of parent, Addiction, and Colonisation

n0elle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this one. For one, I absolutely love classic retellings, especially if they’re sapphic and this one was a very interesting take on the original story of Frankenstein. 
Now, while I do know the author tried hard to make it appear historically correct, I found it absolutely exhausting to read hundreds of pages of men dictating the protagonist’s life, telling her what she can and can’t do, how she should behave, what (little) she’s worth. 
I’m all for women in STEM, driven by ambition and scientific ideas that lead through breakthroughs. BUT if  her ideas and success are always overshadowed by a man or even taken by a man, while she just sits idly by.. that’s infuriating, historically correct but still infuriating. And while the main character did get mad about these things, she always stayed quiet. In the rare moments she didn’t, she was belittled and reprimanded so much, I felt the shame of being a woman bleed through the pages. 
Maybe the writing was just too good and too real and it made me feel so many emotions, some of which I could have gone without. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual harassment, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Death, Grief, Animal cruelty, Blood, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Sexism, Classism, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racism, and Terminal illness

lily_marigold's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Child death, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Death, Blood, Animal death, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol and Violence

_teoeo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"Frankenstein" meets "Ammonite"!

I loved every page of this book. It truly is a little masterpiece! It's so full of feminism and science and history and love and betrayal. Oh and Mary and Masie, they are my favorites! I wish I had annotated it but guess I'll have to read it a second time now! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Misogyny, Blood, Sexism, Chronic illness, Grief, and Gun violence

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Death of parent