A review by n0elle
Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

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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