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Hell Days: Into the Inferno of Hormonal Mood Disorder
Not yet published
Expected 19 Jan 27
When I think of my hell days, I think of crime scenes. Familiar sites, made uncanny with violence.
In the fluorescent tedium of a call center in 2018, acclaimed novelist Laura Elizabeth Woollett finds herself meticulously plotting her own death―until her period arrives, and equilibrium with it. After years of dismissing these monthly turns, she’s diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Then, at thirty-three, she becomes pregnant and experiences a reprieve, but will it last?
Through case studies, interviews, extensive medical research, and forays into history, true crime, and algorithmic rabbit-holes, Woollett looks beyond herself to assemble a chorus of PMDD sufferers, along with dedicated scientists and clinicians. Navigating the impossible terrain between a potentially fatal disorder and treatments that can be almost as dangerous, Hell Days is a testament to the precarity and dignity of life as a periodically suicidal person in an often-brutal world.
In the fluorescent tedium of a call center in 2018, acclaimed novelist Laura Elizabeth Woollett finds herself meticulously plotting her own death―until her period arrives, and equilibrium with it. After years of dismissing these monthly turns, she’s diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Then, at thirty-three, she becomes pregnant and experiences a reprieve, but will it last?
Through case studies, interviews, extensive medical research, and forays into history, true crime, and algorithmic rabbit-holes, Woollett looks beyond herself to assemble a chorus of PMDD sufferers, along with dedicated scientists and clinicians. Navigating the impossible terrain between a potentially fatal disorder and treatments that can be almost as dangerous, Hell Days is a testament to the precarity and dignity of life as a periodically suicidal person in an often-brutal world.
336 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2026
About the author
Laura Elizabeth Woollett
13 books146 followersLaura Elizabeth Woollett is an author and critic based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her short story collection, The Love of a Bad Man, was published in 2016, followed by the novels Beautiful Revolutionary (2018), The Newcomer (2021), and West Girls (2023). Her works have been listed for numerous awards, including the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction. In 2025, she was a writer-in-residence at the Cité Internationale Des Arts in Paris. Hell Days (2026) is her nonfiction debut.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 18, 2026
“When I think of my hell days, I think of crime scenes. Familiar sites, made uncanny with violence.”
As someone who lives with anxiety, has struggled with PMS and was, at one point, diagnosed with PMDD, this book felt very personal. There’s something both comforting and slightly infuriating about reading your own experiences reflected back at you, comforting because you realise you’re not imagining it, and infuriating because women have spent centuries being told that our hormones are simply making us “dramatic.”
Woollett combines her own frightening experience of PMDD with medical research, interviews, history, cultural commentary and even a few true crime rabbit holes. Basically, all the ingredients required to lure me into a nonfiction book. It’s intelligent and meticulously researched, but it never loses sight of the actual people living through these monthly shifts.
I particularly related to that bewildering feeling of becoming a different version of yourself before your period, more anxious, more emotional and far less able to cope, only for the fog to lift and leave you wondering, “Well…what fresh hell was THAT?”
This isn’t always an easy read. Woollett writes candidly about suicidal thoughts and the devastating consequences of a condition that is still misunderstood, misdiagnosed and too often dismissed as “just PMS.” But Hell Days also made me feel seen. It gave language and legitimacy to experiences that can be incredibly difficult to explain, especially when you don’t entirely understand them yourself.
Raw, compassionate, confronting and genuinely fascinating. Women deserve to understand what is happening inside their own bodies and to be believed when they say something is wrong.
A really important read.
My Highest Recommendation.
Thank you Scribe Publishing and Laura Elizabeth Woollett for my early readers copy.
Available Now!
As someone who lives with anxiety, has struggled with PMS and was, at one point, diagnosed with PMDD, this book felt very personal. There’s something both comforting and slightly infuriating about reading your own experiences reflected back at you, comforting because you realise you’re not imagining it, and infuriating because women have spent centuries being told that our hormones are simply making us “dramatic.”
Woollett combines her own frightening experience of PMDD with medical research, interviews, history, cultural commentary and even a few true crime rabbit holes. Basically, all the ingredients required to lure me into a nonfiction book. It’s intelligent and meticulously researched, but it never loses sight of the actual people living through these monthly shifts.
I particularly related to that bewildering feeling of becoming a different version of yourself before your period, more anxious, more emotional and far less able to cope, only for the fog to lift and leave you wondering, “Well…what fresh hell was THAT?”
This isn’t always an easy read. Woollett writes candidly about suicidal thoughts and the devastating consequences of a condition that is still misunderstood, misdiagnosed and too often dismissed as “just PMS.” But Hell Days also made me feel seen. It gave language and legitimacy to experiences that can be incredibly difficult to explain, especially when you don’t entirely understand them yourself.
Raw, compassionate, confronting and genuinely fascinating. Women deserve to understand what is happening inside their own bodies and to be believed when they say something is wrong.
A really important read.
My Highest Recommendation.
Thank you Scribe Publishing and Laura Elizabeth Woollett for my early readers copy.
Available Now!
October 18, 2026
What an experience to read this. I need to synthesize all my sticky notes throughout the books into a review but it’s about so much more than PMDD as a medical diagnosis. Thought a lot about how the world has become more and more complex to be a “good person” in (down to what medical treatments or aids you choose or are chosen for you) while also the main vector of health info transmission (social media) has primed us to expect and amplifies the most simplistic judgements. So much about the fraught intersection of women’s health and mental health treatment within the scope of the authors own experience as well as heaps of research integrated in a compulsively readable form.
October 16, 2026
Very carefully researched, a delicious blend of memoir and non-fiction. A bit over-researched for my tastes, I found myself skipping the lengthier scientific explanations. But maybe that says more about me than this book. Woollett takes a wide and very holistic view on PMDD, tying it to everything from menopause to eating disorders to motherhood. Maybe a bit too broad at times as I struggled to stay focused on or land on the theme of each chapter since Woollett covers so much ground. Still, a much-needed book.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
In 'Hell Days', Laura Elizabeth Woollett draws upon her experiences, as well as research and the experiences of others, to draw a portrait of a disorder that many do not know exist, and most do not understand. PMDD has become a bit of a buzzword disorder these last few years, and I was eager to read this book as soon as I saw it was available to read in advance. The research is meticulous, and Woollett makes many fascinating (and relevant) connections to neurodivergent conditions, gender and sex differences, surveillance capitalism, and conservative politics. The book honours that this condition (and hormonal disorders or sensitivities in general) seldom has concrete conclusions and explanations, but nonetheless a reader will find many valuable insights here. I recommend this to anyone who’s been curious about the condition, or someone who wants to understand more about hormonal health. Interestingly, I sought this book because of my history with premenstrual dysphoria, which I know is somehow connected to my autism. Though the blur does not mention any connections to neurodivergent conditions or autism, it was interesting to discover how connected the two conditions can be.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you Scribe for sending me a copy of this book
Hell Days is an undeniably carefully researched nonfiction book on premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). It is informative and highlights the lack of understanding of menstruating people. I felt a deep sense of despair reading this, that being controlled by your hormones is permanent. These are not the points that Laura Elizabeth Woollett is trying to make but I found myself ruminating negatively anyway. I think Hell Days is a great book and many people will find it interesting, it just threw me for a loop.
Hell Days is an undeniably carefully researched nonfiction book on premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). It is informative and highlights the lack of understanding of menstruating people. I felt a deep sense of despair reading this, that being controlled by your hormones is permanent. These are not the points that Laura Elizabeth Woollett is trying to make but I found myself ruminating negatively anyway. I think Hell Days is a great book and many people will find it interesting, it just threw me for a loop.
September 18, 2026
loved this! so fascinating and informative. 2026 the year of aussie PMDD non fiction!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Brilliantly researched and the writing is beautiful, not always an easy read but a very worthwhile one.
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October 19, 2026👍
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews