Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. Gill book review

Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. Gill, reviewed by local councillor Lisa-Marie Hughes

Our Hideous Progeny is part re-telling, part sequel to Mary Shelley’s gothic horror classic, Frankenstein. 1853, Victorian London. Our protagonist Mary Saville is the great niece of Victor Frankenstein, who has been missing for some years in murky circumstances. 

Mary and her husband are keen palaeontologists and when clues about her great uncle’s disappearance also reveal information about his experiments, they see their ticket to scientific glory. It’s no small feat, taking on a masterpiece of sci-fi and horror. Unsurprisingly, many Shelley fans have read it with trepidation. 

To their relief, C.E.Gill has paid homage to the original, while bringing a fresh perspective. They weave all the ethical themes of Mary Shelley’s original with Mary Saville’s own story, touching on being a woman in a male dominated field as well as delving into queer love, themes that remain relevant nearly 200 years after the novel’s setting. 

Rich and engrossing, it’s perfect reading for the dark nights. 

We have loads more book reviews online by Lisa-Marie Hughes and Brian Hannan from Abbey Books in Paisley including:

• Confidence by Denise Mina
• Glasgow, The Clyde and Slavery by D. Pettigrew
• The Thief Takers by Patrick Pringle
• The Renfrewshire Victoria Crosses by Graham Fulton
• The Earth Is Weeping by Peter Cozzens
• The Waste Land, A Biography of a Poem by Matthew Hollis
• Black is the Colour by Seamus Connolly