Our Hideous Progeny Content Warnings

Before the events of the book, Mary had a difficult pregnancy that ended with the death (soon after birth) of her infant daughter. Neither the childbirth nor her daughter’s death are portrayed in graphic detail, but these events are discussed and alluded to many times throughout the book.

In Chapter 8, Mary recounts her first meeting with Finlay Clarke, when she was 14 and he was 17. Clarke claims that she was flirting with him, restrains her, and tries to kiss her, with the potential threat in the air that he may have tried to do worse if Mary hadn’t managed to escape.

In Chapter 2, Mary recounts that when she was around 6 or 7, she bit another child and was caned across the palms for it. The caning is only mentioned, not shown in detail.

In Chapter 8, Mary recounts her first meeting with Finlay Clarke, when she was 14 and he was 17. Clarke claims that she was flirting with him, restrains her, and tries to kiss her, with the potential threat in the air that he may have tried to do worse if Mary hadn’t managed to escape. This event and Mary’s feelings during it are shown in detail.

Before the events of the book, Mary had a difficult pregnancy that ended with the death (soon after birth) of her infant daughter. Neither the childbirth nor her daughter’s death are portrayed in graphic detail, but these events are discussed and alluded to many times throughout the book.

Mary’s mentor, Jehangir Jamsetjee, is a Parsi Indian man, and reference is made several times throughout the book to Victorian society’s prejudice against him.

In Chapter 6, a passing character makes an ignorant remark founded in scientific racism about the “natural abilities” of various races.

In Chapter 14, a character makes more racist remarks about the supposed perils of miscegenation and the superiority of white (specifically, upper-class English) people over other races and classes.

Several times during the book, Mary and Henry employ the help of local children to collect rats and mice to experiment on/test their theories on. Some of these animals died of natural causes before being used for these experiments, and some of them are actively killed, though this is not shown in detail. Some of the experiments involve repeatedly killing and bringing these rats and mice to life and observing their behaviour; one mouse in particular is clearly uncomfortable/in pain, and eventually dies for good.

In order to construct their Creature, Mary and Henry sew together parts of many different (dead) animals. The Creature, when alive, is later found out to be ill/falling apart and presumably in pain, though they are never truly able to establish whether its nerve endings/pain receptors truly work the same as a living animal or not.

From Chapter 15 onwards, Maisie is prescribed laudanum (a tincture of opium) by her doctor. Some other characters disapprove of this, but Maisie finds that is the best solution (available in the 1850s) to relieve the symptoms of her chronic illnesses.

In Chapters 25 and 26, one character uses a gun to threaten another; in Chapter 26, the gun is actually used by one character to shoot and kill another. This event is shown in moderate (but not exceptionally graphic) detail.