Scan barcode
A review by smart_as_paint
Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill
4.0
I didn't get Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. 18-year-old me had more pressing things to worry about than Merry Shelly's prodigious vocabulary and an Inception-like descent into bleak "17--" moping. I remember my English teacher explaining ideas of motherhood and man's desire to play god but I didn't really get it.
Until now.
As an independent book, Hideous Progeny isn't the best thing I've ever read. While Mary is a compelling narrator, nothing she does is so compelling. I longed for the technobabble explanations of reanimation in the 19th century if only to escape the depressive drudgery of mid-century misogyny.
BUT
As an explanation of the themes of Frankenstein? Easy 5 stars. Better than the lectures and YouTube videos that defined my first attempt to read Frankenstein. Without being melodramatic or conspicuous, McGill builds a persuasive argument for why the original Frankenstein is a queer text and how its varying themes play in that space.
And I think that's pretty neat.
Until now.
As an independent book, Hideous Progeny isn't the best thing I've ever read. While Mary is a compelling narrator, nothing she does is so compelling. I longed for the technobabble explanations of reanimation in the 19th century if only to escape the depressive drudgery of mid-century misogyny.
BUT
As an explanation of the themes of Frankenstein? Easy 5 stars. Better than the lectures and YouTube videos that defined my first attempt to read Frankenstein. Without being melodramatic or conspicuous, McGill builds a persuasive argument for why the original Frankenstein is a queer text and how its varying themes play in that space.
And I think that's pretty neat.