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Discontinue If Death Ensues
15 horror stories and 5 poems about women, written by 5 women, facing down the grim tipping point of humanity and offering a glimpse of the hope to come.Horror stories about women, written by women. This anthology focuses on the strength of women faced with adversity. It explores many ways in which societal structures and personal action – including mistreatment of the environment and other people, particularly women – can reach a tipping point, creating unexpected changes, empowering women around the world.It contains fifteen interlaced stories and five poems from five authors in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand – all women who were nominated for the 2021 HWA Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in Short Lee Murray, Cindy O’Quinn, Kyla Lee Ward, Anna Taborska and Carol Gyzander.The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2024
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July 10, 2025That feminine urge to channel all your rage into sharp edged fiction that celebrates the strength of women and sends the men crying for their mommas.
*I am not rating books read for the World Fantasy Award.*
*I am not rating books read for the World Fantasy Award.*
August 30, 2024
Horror is a broad term. For some it conjures images of monstrous creatures, jump scares and haunted houses. These are not those kinds of stories. All fantastical elements aside, the horrors in this book are firmly rooted in unfortunate realities afflicting more than half our world’s population on a daily basis. I’m talking lizard men and tipping points, slants and spins and survival of the fittest – whatever that means in a world that must somehow teach itself to embrace paradigm shift if it hopes to survive environmental catastrophes already set in motion.
What comes after patriarchy? Or if gender-based violence triggers abnormalities resulting in physical manifestations of what have traditionally been considered private crimes? Or if we simply choose to acknowledge rape to be a crime against society itself?
Or boundless rage triggers fundamental frequencies manifesting unknown biological organisms – there being only so much nature can take before the cycle enters a new phase, such as a quiet, unanticipated apocalypse.
With a Mummy’s curse, funnel webbed ants, officially approved ghosts and a destructive wave of morbid obesity thrown into the mix, this book is stabby and filled with foreboding.
Culture evolves as we move through time. This anthology interrogates some of those possibilities.
What comes after patriarchy? Or if gender-based violence triggers abnormalities resulting in physical manifestations of what have traditionally been considered private crimes? Or if we simply choose to acknowledge rape to be a crime against society itself?
Or boundless rage triggers fundamental frequencies manifesting unknown biological organisms – there being only so much nature can take before the cycle enters a new phase, such as a quiet, unanticipated apocalypse.
With a Mummy’s curse, funnel webbed ants, officially approved ghosts and a destructive wave of morbid obesity thrown into the mix, this book is stabby and filled with foreboding.
Culture evolves as we move through time. This anthology interrogates some of those possibilities.
November 6, 2024
This was an instabuy as soon as soon as I heard some of the readings on YouTube. Great collection with a fantastic mix of styles here. The poetry and shorter pieces connected with me the most, I'd say, but there isn't a single dud amongst them. A beautiful book. Writers at the top of their game. Loved it.
September 30, 2024
This collection of feminist horror stories is beautifully presented in a metallic hardback with pink sprayed edges that makes it a stunning edition to the bookshelf. But this book is more than just its looks - the stories inside deliver spectacularly on the promise of feminist horror. The stories go to some dark places - rape, abuse, mutilation. So be prepared for that going in, if those topics are likely to be upsetting. There is a thoughtful warning about this in the front too.
Five award winning authors contribute to the anthology - Lee Murray, Cindy O’Quinn, Kyla Lee Ward, Anna Taborska and Carol Gyzander. Each section opens with a poem expressing frustration with the way society treats women. The stories vary from dark to comic to both. Being feminist, a couple of themes repeat, with the most common being, ‘What if women evolved biological defenses to fight back against rape?’ My favourite story in this vein is Glow: An Oral History. This is presented as a series of interviews which document a sudden onset of glowing in rich, powerful men. At first, this is seen as evidence of their superiority - until the truth is revealed. The format and the central journalist character make for a very compelling read. That said, the pufferfish venom of Maleficium and toothed vaginas offered up in the brilliantly titled A(n)nus Horribilis also seem like they’d be pretty effective rape deterrents.
The other standout story for me, due to sheer wackiness and humour, is Wearing White Out of Season. Ada Lovelace invents time travel and takes Cleopatra and Marilyn Monroe to the future to see what’s in store for womankind. One section of this takes place at an event in 2020 attended by one Kamala Harris, which felt strange to read given she is at time of writing running for president. A topical story reflecting on the past, present and future of feminism and makes for a nice change of pace.
Read this if you’d like unique, exciting feminist horror. There is enough variation among the stories in format, length and tone that I think every horror fan will find something that speaks to them.
Five award winning authors contribute to the anthology - Lee Murray, Cindy O’Quinn, Kyla Lee Ward, Anna Taborska and Carol Gyzander. Each section opens with a poem expressing frustration with the way society treats women. The stories vary from dark to comic to both. Being feminist, a couple of themes repeat, with the most common being, ‘What if women evolved biological defenses to fight back against rape?’ My favourite story in this vein is Glow: An Oral History. This is presented as a series of interviews which document a sudden onset of glowing in rich, powerful men. At first, this is seen as evidence of their superiority - until the truth is revealed. The format and the central journalist character make for a very compelling read. That said, the pufferfish venom of Maleficium and toothed vaginas offered up in the brilliantly titled A(n)nus Horribilis also seem like they’d be pretty effective rape deterrents.
The other standout story for me, due to sheer wackiness and humour, is Wearing White Out of Season. Ada Lovelace invents time travel and takes Cleopatra and Marilyn Monroe to the future to see what’s in store for womankind. One section of this takes place at an event in 2020 attended by one Kamala Harris, which felt strange to read given she is at time of writing running for president. A topical story reflecting on the past, present and future of feminism and makes for a nice change of pace.
Read this if you’d like unique, exciting feminist horror. There is enough variation among the stories in format, length and tone that I think every horror fan will find something that speaks to them.
November 11, 2024
This picture does not do justice to how beautiful this book is. Hardcover, with ribbons inside to mark your spot, the illustrator hit a home run with the cover, it's just lovely. The editor did a fantastic job also of deftly grouping the stories by author in a way that made this book flow very nicely. Now for the stories.
Just finished the anthology, Discontinue if Death Ensues, Tales from the Tipping Point. Written by five BSA nominees, Carol Gyzander, Kyla Lee Ward, Lee Murray, Cindy O'Quinn and Anna Taborska is excellent. In light of the election outcome these stories highlight the struggles women face, with a twist of horror. I don't know for certain, but I would say each one was written pulling from the human experience each woman faced at some point in their lives. Each story is just too close to the bone not to have been. I read this and felt a comradery with each struggle, as any woman will when she reads this.
If you buy only a few books this year, please make sure to get this one. One of the best books I've read all year. I highly recommend it, I loved it!
Just finished the anthology, Discontinue if Death Ensues, Tales from the Tipping Point. Written by five BSA nominees, Carol Gyzander, Kyla Lee Ward, Lee Murray, Cindy O'Quinn and Anna Taborska is excellent. In light of the election outcome these stories highlight the struggles women face, with a twist of horror. I don't know for certain, but I would say each one was written pulling from the human experience each woman faced at some point in their lives. Each story is just too close to the bone not to have been. I read this and felt a comradery with each struggle, as any woman will when she reads this.
If you buy only a few books this year, please make sure to get this one. One of the best books I've read all year. I highly recommend it, I loved it!
January 17, 2025
“We dedicate this anthology to all of our sisters, wherever they may be and to those who stand beside them. Don’t let the bastards grind you down”
Honestly they had me from the dedication and the stunning design of the book. Had so much fun reading this collection of feminist horror/ sci fi stories.
Honestly they had me from the dedication and the stunning design of the book. Had so much fun reading this collection of feminist horror/ sci fi stories.
October 13, 2024
Reviewing for BSFA Review.
December 29, 2024
A fantastic collection of poems and short stories about the crimes of man against the environment and women. Thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it! Highly recommended
February 1, 2025
Some books are read for fun. Some books are read to help you grow as a person. Many books that I read as a horror fan show me things that I can never pretend I haven’t seen. Discontinue if Death Ensues covers every base and then some.
The book kn ows exactly what it is, because the women who came together to write it and edit it couldn’t help but do so. The editor’s forward lets the reader know right away the reasons behind this work. I won’t dilute her words by trying to convey exactly what they were or truly intended, but I will let you know what they meant to me. These are women who see the world and the directions it heads in, and live the horrors already visited upon them, and will not go quietly. This book is a promise. It is a warcry. It isn’t a warning, to me. We’re past that. The subtitle of the book is Tales from the Tipping Point. It is clear this book is from the other side of that point.
Several of these stood out to me, as especially impactful. Lee Murray’s Glow: An Oral History demonstrates what would happen in a world where men began to glow. The terribly realistic way in which a phenomenon with no real explanation gets twisted into one more advantage for patriarchy is blood chilling in its believable approach. Especially in modern times.
Carol Gyzander’s Wearing White out of Season is, on its surface, a fanciful time travel romp starring some of our favorite female powerhouses from history. What’s wonderful is the relationships they form. What’s terrible are the revelations and accidental impacts they have. What is truly satisfying, for me in this story, is the power they exert when they realize they have it. I should clarify, I can be a mean and vindictive person. The comeuppance, when it arrives, speaks to my inner vengeful spirit.
Kyla Lee Ward has a bleak, uncomfortably close dystopian tale in Maleficium. One of the longer stories, she gets into great detail the compromises women make just to live. The deals they have to strike, the indignity they endure, and the abuses they pray to avoid. There are moments where I wanted nothing more than for the mystery to remain buried, so that the agonies being visited upon wealthy men by an unknown poisoner would never stop. The story has heart, and more than once it will rip yours out.
Anna Toborska’s stories all had a healthy dose of humor, which I appreciate in my horror often. Hers never shirked from the hard choices or tooth gnashing consequences even if an occasional grin could be had, and no more so for me than An[n]us Horribilis. There’s a lot of snark from one end, and a laughably naive point of view from the other in this letter writing short. The ending, however, reveals that maybe you the reader should have not been quite so cavalier as these sisters try to work through their difficulties in an assault filled world.
Lastly, no horror anthology would be complete without a skin crawling inexorable cosmic horror. Cindy O’Quinn delivers in spades with Rolling Boil, which grabs the reader along with its character ands marches them on a wild ride that never gets easy, but is so very worth it in the end. I think the reader gets off significantly easier than those being filled with darkness and used to take back power and wipe slates clean. But we’re all on this walk together, and it has yet to be seen if any of us will really be ok.
Overall I enjoyed this book for all the reasons I mentioned at the start. I knew what I was in for, and I allowed myself to be changed and shown a glimpse of what these women were compelled to share. I’m glad for it, saddened by much of it, and overall better for the experience. I cannot recommend this book enough.
The book kn ows exactly what it is, because the women who came together to write it and edit it couldn’t help but do so. The editor’s forward lets the reader know right away the reasons behind this work. I won’t dilute her words by trying to convey exactly what they were or truly intended, but I will let you know what they meant to me. These are women who see the world and the directions it heads in, and live the horrors already visited upon them, and will not go quietly. This book is a promise. It is a warcry. It isn’t a warning, to me. We’re past that. The subtitle of the book is Tales from the Tipping Point. It is clear this book is from the other side of that point.
Several of these stood out to me, as especially impactful. Lee Murray’s Glow: An Oral History demonstrates what would happen in a world where men began to glow. The terribly realistic way in which a phenomenon with no real explanation gets twisted into one more advantage for patriarchy is blood chilling in its believable approach. Especially in modern times.
Carol Gyzander’s Wearing White out of Season is, on its surface, a fanciful time travel romp starring some of our favorite female powerhouses from history. What’s wonderful is the relationships they form. What’s terrible are the revelations and accidental impacts they have. What is truly satisfying, for me in this story, is the power they exert when they realize they have it. I should clarify, I can be a mean and vindictive person. The comeuppance, when it arrives, speaks to my inner vengeful spirit.
Kyla Lee Ward has a bleak, uncomfortably close dystopian tale in Maleficium. One of the longer stories, she gets into great detail the compromises women make just to live. The deals they have to strike, the indignity they endure, and the abuses they pray to avoid. There are moments where I wanted nothing more than for the mystery to remain buried, so that the agonies being visited upon wealthy men by an unknown poisoner would never stop. The story has heart, and more than once it will rip yours out.
Anna Toborska’s stories all had a healthy dose of humor, which I appreciate in my horror often. Hers never shirked from the hard choices or tooth gnashing consequences even if an occasional grin could be had, and no more so for me than An[n]us Horribilis. There’s a lot of snark from one end, and a laughably naive point of view from the other in this letter writing short. The ending, however, reveals that maybe you the reader should have not been quite so cavalier as these sisters try to work through their difficulties in an assault filled world.
Lastly, no horror anthology would be complete without a skin crawling inexorable cosmic horror. Cindy O’Quinn delivers in spades with Rolling Boil, which grabs the reader along with its character ands marches them on a wild ride that never gets easy, but is so very worth it in the end. I think the reader gets off significantly easier than those being filled with darkness and used to take back power and wipe slates clean. But we’re all on this walk together, and it has yet to be seen if any of us will really be ok.
Overall I enjoyed this book for all the reasons I mentioned at the start. I knew what I was in for, and I allowed myself to be changed and shown a glimpse of what these women were compelled to share. I’m glad for it, saddened by much of it, and overall better for the experience. I cannot recommend this book enough.
September 30, 2024
I love how this anthology came into being. On 23rd February 2022, the Horror Writers Association
announced the finalists for the 2021 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction. For the first time in the Association’s history, all five finalists were women.
This well-deserved first, combined with the reversal of Roe v Wade, was the impetus for this anthology.
I was truly blown away by the incredible imaginations, by the incredible writing, and by how uncomfortable each story made me feel, ramping up my never waning desire for women’s equality. We will not go back.
Some stories that stuck out:
Lee Murray’s “Glow: An Oral History,” is a powerful piece about how men think, and how the conclusions they drew from the events in this story, were wrong. But would women be able to tell the truth?
Carol Gyzander’s “Because, Science”: Women rebelling against The Man? Fist pump!
Kyla Lee Ward’s “M a l e f i c i u m”: An incredibly intricate horror story.
Anna Taborska’s “A n [ n ] u s H o r r i b i l i s”: Devices are created to prevent rape. I wish that was true! The ending was a twist I hadn’t anticipated.
Cindy O’Quinn’s “R o l l i n g B o i l”: The Old Ones take over a young man, who becomes a pied piper of sorts. This terrified me.
October 15, 2025
This anthology had no right to make me feel as viscerally emotional as it did. And yet, it had every right. While the grim tipping point of humanity doesn’t seem like an especially new angle for horror to take, in the hands of five accomplished authors each of whom bring a unique voice, it is devastatingly special. Through them you get on one hand everything which a horror anthology might need – body horror, emotional viciousness, tension, and enough apocalyptic eventualities to make your stubbed toe from the other week the least of all your worries; on the other hand, it has everything it and the ‘Beyond & Within’ range is trying to achieve – an array of voices, interrogating us and them and plumbing a few unfathomable depths of emotion at the same time. Now, excuse me while I lock all my doors and never sleep again.
August 3, 2025
Stopped reading after about 4 or so stories/poems. Maybe I don’t like Lee Murray’s writing. Maybe it’s the way these stories are so over-the-top, smack-you-in-the-face with their analogies and themes. Not too sure but looks pretty on my bookshelf.
November 12, 2024
Really good collection of short stories and poems. It's brassy, it's brash. It's just what you'd hope it would be.
unfinished
May 3, 2025DNF. Extremely beautiful hardcover. most of the stories weren’t really grabbing me.
October 26, 2025
I don’t even know where to begin to rate this. This was a collection of bizarre, graphic, and fascinating short stories. Probably familiarize yourself with vagina dentata. WTF.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews