Scorned Anthology

by Amanda Ruzsa (Editor), C.A. Baynam, Carietta Dorsch

"Scorned" is a collection of revenge horror stories penned by some of the genre's most acclaimed women's horror authors.

Each tale is a journey into the heart of vengeance, where ordinary people are pushed beyond the limits of fear and morality.

Crafted with gripping suspense and haunting narratives, "Scorned" is an anthology that celebrates the strength and darkness of the human spirit. These stories will leave you questioning where justice ends, and revenge begins.

306 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 2024

About the author

Amanda lives in Minnesota with her husband, three children, a dog and two cats. When she isn’t buried in a spooky book, she enjoys baking and spending time with her family— usually watching creepy movies or playing outrageous board games. In her free time, she enjoys collecting Halloween decor, writing macabre poetry, reorganizing her books and coming up with ways to surprise and amuse her friends and family. It has been a lifelong joke among her friends and family that Amanda is a member of the ‘grammar police.’ Writing and reading have always played a huge part in her life, stemming from growing up idolizing the talents of her Mother: a novelist, artist and journalist. Amanda began creating stories and crafting poems at a young age and never stopped. Now, reading and writing is still a huge part of her everyday life, and she feels blessed to be able to share her love of spooky stories with so many.

Reviews

[STEPH · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amazing lineup of revenge stories written by women. I loved it. I enjoyed the variety of themes.

Death, revenge, women fighting back, and taking what’s rightfully ours. I especially appreciated how betrayal and cheating were at the forefront. Every awful character got exactly what they deserved.

Never underestimate a woman’s wrath—you might just wake up gagged, bound, and tied to a chair with your d*ck cut off. Pretty graphic, right?

[Brian Bowyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Outstanding Anthology!

You'll have a blast with this one. I enjoyed all these stories, but my favorites were "Sarcophagus," "Wanna Play," "You Don’t Have the Guts," "The Loneliest Night," and "The Necromantic Bargain." All the stories are absolute bangers, however. Highly recommended!

[Paige Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an anthology of women only and boy did they come to impress! Revenge, Death and Pure Terror fill each page in this collection. This is hands down my favorite anthology I’ve ever read! Each one of these women went all in and delivered some truly HORRIFIC and FUCKED up stories. This is going to be a HUGE success in the horror community! Y’all aren’t ready for this one!

~Deadly Desires by Destiny Eve Pifer~
Selena is suspicious of her fiancée when he’s “working late.” Sure enough she finds last nights clothes discarded with remnants of lipstick and the scent of perfume. Turns out he’s been with his ex gf who was his HS sweetheart. Demetri tells Selena he’s leaving her to be with Celeste. Selena decides to take matters into her own hands to feed her suffering…
WOW! This story starts this anthology off with a bang! Love can be deadly in this dark affair tale. This was my first time reading anything by Destiny and boy did she deliver on this opening story. I can only imagine what the rest of this anthology has in store for us!

~You Don’t Have the Guts by Shannon Bradner~
Valerie has lost her Uncle Wade. He was like a father to her. He took her in as a kid and brought her up in a loving home. He lost his life being shot in a robbery and arson at his general store. Valerie’s ex is there to support her at the funeral as she has nobody else in her life. Cody, her ex, left her for a woman he got pregnant. After the funeral she finds herself at home drowning her sorrows in whiskey. Then she gets a phone call from the woman Cody left her for and she is insisting for Valerie to meet her. I don’t want to give anything away but HOLY COW, this story was filled with suspense and quite vivid imagery and the ending was *chef’s kiss* This was my first story by Shannon and it definitely won’t be my last!

~The Serpents We Embrace by Christy Aldridge~
Brie is surprised on her 35th birthday by her husband and best friend. They celebrate with pizza, cake and drinks. Things turn dark rather quickly though… 👀👀

Okayyyyy. Christy freakin’ killed it with this story. This was such a fun revenge story that was so satisfying. This anthology is absolutely fueled with fire!! These ladies are killing it!

~Witch’s Mark by Elizabeth J. Brown~
It’s the 1600’s. A woman has just given birth to a baby boy but he bears the witch’s mark… one of the women amongst them is a witch and is the reason behind this babe being marked.

This was my first time reading anything by Elizabeth. This was a nice change of pace and I love a good witch story!

~Dead From the Heart Down by Erin Banks~
Wow!! This story was INSANE. A woman not only takes revenge into her own hands but to an entirely WHOLE OTHER LEVEL👀😳 Watch out who you hurt in life because you may just end up on their operating table…

~Where Love Grows by Carietta Dorsch~
Short and to the point! Harmony is cheating on her partner and she finds out. Harmony gets her karma and the irony is great.

Carietta is always a joy to read 😁

~The Loneliest Night by Eve L. Fell~
Eve never disappoints with her stories. This one was so satisfying. Taylor is sexually assaulted by her best friend’s brother and she cuts off her friendship with her because she can’t see her best friend without seeing his face. 10 years later, Taylor finally gets her revenge.

~Fiery Mable by Kristal Shanahan~
I don’t want to give too much away with this story but wow! Mabel is in a nursing home from hell. Her daughter is visiting her and finds out what the staff is really up to with their patients and takes matters into her own hands with her mother’s help.

This was my first time reading anything from Kristal and I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for more of her work…

~Asking For It by Leigh Kenny~
In this story a woman gets revenge on her ex husband. He put her and their son through hell and she’s come to get justice.

I adored Leigh’s story “Cursed.” I was so pumped when I saw she was going to be featured in this anthology! Great story!


~Truth or Dare by Cassandra Daucus~
Okay this one was INTENSE! This is also my first time reading anything by Cassandra. She killed it with this story too…
Steamy, risky and a HUGE twist!

~Sarcophagus by Megan Stockton~
Women are being held captive and tortured by a mysterious man. This was pretty dark!

~Wanna Play by Amanda Ruzsa~
A little girls spirit posesses a porcelain doll. This was simple, short and fun!

~The Necromantic Bargain by C.A. Baynam~
The title alone is pretty self explanatory with this sick and twisted tale. Only C.A. Baynam can make the morbidly disgusting sound beautiful…and there were some truly vivid disgusting images that will haunt my mind for years to come🤢🥴 This was a great closing story to this anthology.

[H. Everend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Count me in for a women's only anthology collection! With 13 captivating stories, each offering something unique and chilling, this collection is a must-read. And let's not forget about that stunning cover! I can't resist a visually striking book cover. While all the stories were exceptional, a few of my personal favorites were 'You Don't Have The Guts', 'The Serpents We Embrace', and 'Fiery Mable'. This anthology demands attention and I hope to see it gain popularity in the future. These talented women held nothing back in their storytelling, and it truly shines through.

[Mrsgmamma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an awesome collection of short stories about revenge. I didn’t want to put this book down. Some of these stories is wild as hell. I truly enjoyed this book so much.

[Allyssa Gaines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horror? Women? REVENGE? SIGN ME UP! This was an anthology full of a variety of different “revenge stories.” Of course, there were some stories I resonated with more than others, but it was refreshing to read this horror anthology consisting of only women writers.

[Rachal Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Girl power

I absolutely love anthologies, especially female driven ones, I enjoyed reading these twisted tales of revenge, despair and empowerment by my favorite female authors and the opportunity to be introduced to some new ones.

[Susan]

I don't feel right giving a rating to an anthology since all the stories are by different authors, and some were better than others. Congrats to all the writers featured in this anthology, especially my friend Kristal (I hope it’s okay to name drop!).

[Catriona Mowat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The indie horror world is dominated by male authors. So this anthology by female authors is a really welcome change that takes no prisoners.

All of these women brought their ‘A’ game with this collection of tales about women scorned…every story is on the same theme but wildly different in every other respect. From bodily mutilation and murder to dolls, zombies and some inventive gardening, this anthology has it all.
I was hooked with every story and absolutely devoured the entire anthology in every minute I could!

Trigger warnings for sexual violence, assault, domestic violence, mutilation and torture

[Petri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the quality of the stories in this anthology really unbalanced. There were a couple really great ones but this also had one story that had some of the worst writing I’ve read in a long time.

Overall a fine anthology but not my favorite from what I’ve read.

[Louise Storey · Rating 4 out of 5]

girl power!

I loved that this was a collective of women writers. Each story unique and telling the tales of nightmares women face with a little revenge thrown in for good measure

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get ready to be blown away by this anthology.

[Joan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was very empowering, written by woman authors. Each story has a great twist that I did not see coming. The stories were gory and with Chocolate Habanero level of spice in many of them.

Thank you, Amanda Ruzsa, for sending me this collection.

[Jax · Rating 5 out of 5]

an anthology written by women laced with revenge. if that's what youre after that is what you will get!

[Amanda Ruzsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a real treat. An amazing lineup of women tackle the subject revenge and the stories they’ve shared are absolutely delightful…devastating… disgusting…. Deranged… I will recommend this book anytime a request for revenge horror is made as this collection definitely brings justice vs revenge to a whole new level of horror.