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Hell Hath Only Fury
On June 24, 2022, a cry rang out across the United States of America. It echoed, reverberated, and extended out across the world. To some it represented the fear of what’s to come. To others, a reality that was all too familiar. It was a cry of anger. Of terror and anguish. Of desperation. But it wasn’t one of surprise.
In its wake, voices joined and rose with warning tales of the impending future. Bodies stripped of autonomy, identities denied, freedoms robbed, lives lost. And so much rage. For these are not voices that will go gentle into this terrible night. These are stories of fright and fighting back. These are stories of reclamation and defiance. These are stories of warriors.
Because when all they give us is hell, we will respond with only fury.
Hell Hath Only Fury is a charity anthology for the benefit of abortion services in the United States of America following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In its wake, voices joined and rose with warning tales of the impending future. Bodies stripped of autonomy, identities denied, freedoms robbed, lives lost. And so much rage. For these are not voices that will go gentle into this terrible night. These are stories of fright and fighting back. These are stories of reclamation and defiance. These are stories of warriors.
Because when all they give us is hell, we will respond with only fury.
Hell Hath Only Fury is a charity anthology for the benefit of abortion services in the United States of America following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
217 pages, Unknown Binding
First published October 21, 2022
3 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
S.H. Cooper
19 books134 followersS.H. Cooper is a Florida based, multi-genre author with a focus on horror and fantasy. Her titles include the Victorian gothic novella, INHERITING HER GHOSTS, the cosmic horror novella, THE FESTERING ONES, and the YA fantasy novel, THE KNIGHT'S DAUGHTER, in addition to three short story collections and the horror comedy podcast, Calling Darkness. She is also a regular contributor to the award winning anthology series, The NoSleep Podcast. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband, pets, and a cup of Earl Grey.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 28, 2023
The American judicial system’s overturn of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing access to abortion sparked a number of projects in rebuttal, from art installations to literary collections. S.H. Cooper and Oli A. White’s contribution, Hell Hath Only Fury, is an array of twenty-seven speculative short stories penned by twenty-five different scribes. With a theme “of fright and fighting back” to regain control and reclaim independence of one own’s body, the anthology is an evocative display of quiet horror, dark fantasy, science-fiction terror, and psychological fiction.
Although pregnancy does factor into several of the stories, more often than not, protagonists are plagued by forces outside of their bodies. Co-curator Oli A. White’s own tale, “A Gentle, Soft Boy,” tackles an aspect of misogyny rarely spied in horror literature: while internet trolls and incels are ubiquitous, the sociopaths who hide in feminist facades are invasive forces far more destructive. The narrator explains, “This was his Twitter bio: ‘Nice boy, good friend, soft-spoken somebody. Kindness is cool, selfishness sucks! #RespectWomen.’ Every time I see a guy with a bio like this these days, I start shaking.” White’s villain is certain to make the reader angry, if only because we have all met a Robin and seen him nurtured by the blind sheep of social media, but White gleefully evens the score. Likewise, “June 24th, 2032” by G. Kimball, the anthology’s closing tale, provides a haunting glimpse at the possible domino effect anti-abortion rulings could have regarding the rights of sexual assault victims; in this story, it is both the judicial system and the angry mob of society that the narrator must defend against.
Two other tales take widely different approaches to the theme of reclaiming one’s destiny but are equally effective in evoking shock and horror. Syn McDonald’s entry will have readers thinking long after they have closed its pages. In “Life Support,” when a nonbinary person discovers that they are pregnant, their ferociously religious mother threatens to do everything in her power to prevent her child from having an abortion: “‘I’m on birth control, Momma. Apparently it didn’t work.’ She lifts her chin. ‘Just another sign the Lord wants you to have this child! He bypassed those medications you used to stop it from happening!’ Says the woman with seven children.” The shocking denouement of this tale reiterates the harm deadnaming and dismissing gender identity generates. Sandra Ruttan pens a sly wink to Ancient Greece’s deity of the hearth in “The Goddess Complex.” Vesta walks home with a male co-worker who hides a secret, nefarious hobby, and soon, her life direction is reorientated by acts of violence and vigilante justice: “Dark hoodie, dark jeans, dark sneakers. Nothing that would stand out. A lamp near the road offered enough light for her to read the street numbers. This was it…Her variation of the 12-step plan was a little different than the usual ones, but they started the same.” There are some acts, however, for which there is no absolution.
Three other standouts in the collection utilize a Cronenbergian method of skirting the edges of bizarro horror, and the resulting effect is delightful. The narrator in Dana Vickerson’s “8W2D” is trying to get pregnant but suffers a missed miscarriage. Her state’s laws, however, prohibit medical intervention in expelling the tissue. What follows is a visceral experience in terror: “Inside the black and white bulge of my uterus, I see the monster. I see its wriggling tentacles, its gaping mouth. I see claws and fangs and hundreds of eyes, all opening and closing with the lub-lub-lub of its heart.” Vickerson constructs a wickedly smart extended metaphor of the helplessness felt by women in the overturn of Roe as well as the patronizing misogyny set forth by the right-wing faction who pushed for it. Still more chilling imagery wafts through “The Change,” where Alice Towey’s protagonist begins a transformation. The world wants to teach Sarah skills to “cope” with her body’s change, but Sarah has a better idea: “She threw up, yards of thick white material spilling from her mouth. She touched it with trembling fingers. It was wet and fibrous. Soft, but strong. She understood.” Towey’s tale is quietly creepy, offering empowerment in a time of seeming impotence.
Finally, co-curator S.H. Cooper’s “The New Front Line” is simply genius: an art exhibit that is removed by officials from a political protest returns, grows, and shatters the fourth wall. The Inheriting Her Ghosts author offers a mesmerizing piece of speculative fiction that saddens, angers, and provides hope to the reader all at once. Cooper and White have assembled a solid line-up of writing styles and approaches. Reinforcing the notion that Draconian decisions affect more lives than those in power may comprehend, people with uteruses in all stages of life are represented Hell Hath Only Fury. Sexual assault and misogyny, menopause and infertility: all of these horrors are told in tales that are often heartbreaking, sometimes allegorical, but always unsettling if not downright terrifying.
Although pregnancy does factor into several of the stories, more often than not, protagonists are plagued by forces outside of their bodies. Co-curator Oli A. White’s own tale, “A Gentle, Soft Boy,” tackles an aspect of misogyny rarely spied in horror literature: while internet trolls and incels are ubiquitous, the sociopaths who hide in feminist facades are invasive forces far more destructive. The narrator explains, “This was his Twitter bio: ‘Nice boy, good friend, soft-spoken somebody. Kindness is cool, selfishness sucks! #RespectWomen.’ Every time I see a guy with a bio like this these days, I start shaking.” White’s villain is certain to make the reader angry, if only because we have all met a Robin and seen him nurtured by the blind sheep of social media, but White gleefully evens the score. Likewise, “June 24th, 2032” by G. Kimball, the anthology’s closing tale, provides a haunting glimpse at the possible domino effect anti-abortion rulings could have regarding the rights of sexual assault victims; in this story, it is both the judicial system and the angry mob of society that the narrator must defend against.
Two other tales take widely different approaches to the theme of reclaiming one’s destiny but are equally effective in evoking shock and horror. Syn McDonald’s entry will have readers thinking long after they have closed its pages. In “Life Support,” when a nonbinary person discovers that they are pregnant, their ferociously religious mother threatens to do everything in her power to prevent her child from having an abortion: “‘I’m on birth control, Momma. Apparently it didn’t work.’ She lifts her chin. ‘Just another sign the Lord wants you to have this child! He bypassed those medications you used to stop it from happening!’ Says the woman with seven children.” The shocking denouement of this tale reiterates the harm deadnaming and dismissing gender identity generates. Sandra Ruttan pens a sly wink to Ancient Greece’s deity of the hearth in “The Goddess Complex.” Vesta walks home with a male co-worker who hides a secret, nefarious hobby, and soon, her life direction is reorientated by acts of violence and vigilante justice: “Dark hoodie, dark jeans, dark sneakers. Nothing that would stand out. A lamp near the road offered enough light for her to read the street numbers. This was it…Her variation of the 12-step plan was a little different than the usual ones, but they started the same.” There are some acts, however, for which there is no absolution.
Three other standouts in the collection utilize a Cronenbergian method of skirting the edges of bizarro horror, and the resulting effect is delightful. The narrator in Dana Vickerson’s “8W2D” is trying to get pregnant but suffers a missed miscarriage. Her state’s laws, however, prohibit medical intervention in expelling the tissue. What follows is a visceral experience in terror: “Inside the black and white bulge of my uterus, I see the monster. I see its wriggling tentacles, its gaping mouth. I see claws and fangs and hundreds of eyes, all opening and closing with the lub-lub-lub of its heart.” Vickerson constructs a wickedly smart extended metaphor of the helplessness felt by women in the overturn of Roe as well as the patronizing misogyny set forth by the right-wing faction who pushed for it. Still more chilling imagery wafts through “The Change,” where Alice Towey’s protagonist begins a transformation. The world wants to teach Sarah skills to “cope” with her body’s change, but Sarah has a better idea: “She threw up, yards of thick white material spilling from her mouth. She touched it with trembling fingers. It was wet and fibrous. Soft, but strong. She understood.” Towey’s tale is quietly creepy, offering empowerment in a time of seeming impotence.
Finally, co-curator S.H. Cooper’s “The New Front Line” is simply genius: an art exhibit that is removed by officials from a political protest returns, grows, and shatters the fourth wall. The Inheriting Her Ghosts author offers a mesmerizing piece of speculative fiction that saddens, angers, and provides hope to the reader all at once. Cooper and White have assembled a solid line-up of writing styles and approaches. Reinforcing the notion that Draconian decisions affect more lives than those in power may comprehend, people with uteruses in all stages of life are represented Hell Hath Only Fury. Sexual assault and misogyny, menopause and infertility: all of these horrors are told in tales that are often heartbreaking, sometimes allegorical, but always unsettling if not downright terrifying.
May 24, 2024
This was not an easy book to read. The stories are dark and full of raw emotions. I appreciated the Content Warning section to let readers know about any triggers.
November 29, 2022
This might not be the most succinct review; this anthology is so full of thought-provoking stories and I don't think I can do them justice right here, right now (or ever, maybe). This anthology is powerful, and full of wrath, but also beauty, and sorrow, and tenderness. I wanted some of the stories to be too dystopian, but they are too plausible. I don't think this anthology will be an easy read for everyone. There are hard truths here, masked in fiction. Losing bodily autonomy is a true horror and it has happened to so many of us. But there is also hope and empowerment in these pages. We have to keep fighting.
March 20, 2023
S.H. Cooper and Oli A. White's anthology Hell Hath Only Fury is an outpouring of absolute necessary and justified fury. In the current landscape, bodily autonomy is stripped from women, nonbinary, and transgendered people. It is only just that horror fiction reflects the justified and simmering rage these people feel.
You can read Zachary Rosenberg's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
You can read Zachary Rosenberg's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.
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May 22, 2023I'm not giving this one a rating - usually I rate each story and average them all, but some of these felt really personal and some were just too short to figure out a rating.
I'm incredibly glad I read this, and will definitely check out some of these authors! Idk how much I'll return to it, but again I'm just glad I own it.
The best part of this is the list of trigger/content warnings at the back for each story. Even if they didn't contain a trigger specific to me, it was nice to know what I was in for at the start. Also appreciate the author bios!
I did read a big chunk of this today, as I felt I was in the right mood to handle this sort of material..but I started it a few days ago and only read about 30 pages before I needed a bit of a break. None of this is an easy read, but it's extremely worthwhile.
I won't say I necessarily *enjoyed* anything bc that's a weird word to use here, but I think I clicked with a few more than others. Ones I went back and folded the page corner down after I finished so I could go back. Ones that stuck with me, or ones where I liked the writing style or that author's particular brand of weird.
Anyway. My standouts were:
• The life you spent dying by lilyn george (the first one)
• Imptown by ann wuehler
• Minutes to midnight by jessica peter (heyyy name buddy = )
• This will only hurt for a lifetime by jamie perrault
• The unwanted by bridget d. brave
...and others? I didn't fold much in the second half, which is a reflection on me being a shitty reviewer, not that the stories weren't as good farther on. They were. I think there's something in here for every type of reader, and these are all powerful stories in their own way. You know, maybe I will end up going back to these on days that make me this specific sort of angry.
Overall, a collection I'm very pleased is out in the world. Sometimes I forget how much I love short stories ☺️
I'm incredibly glad I read this, and will definitely check out some of these authors! Idk how much I'll return to it, but again I'm just glad I own it.
The best part of this is the list of trigger/content warnings at the back for each story. Even if they didn't contain a trigger specific to me, it was nice to know what I was in for at the start. Also appreciate the author bios!
I did read a big chunk of this today, as I felt I was in the right mood to handle this sort of material..but I started it a few days ago and only read about 30 pages before I needed a bit of a break. None of this is an easy read, but it's extremely worthwhile.
I won't say I necessarily *enjoyed* anything bc that's a weird word to use here, but I think I clicked with a few more than others. Ones I went back and folded the page corner down after I finished so I could go back. Ones that stuck with me, or ones where I liked the writing style or that author's particular brand of weird.
Anyway. My standouts were:
• The life you spent dying by lilyn george (the first one)
• Imptown by ann wuehler
• Minutes to midnight by jessica peter (heyyy name buddy = )
• This will only hurt for a lifetime by jamie perrault
• The unwanted by bridget d. brave
...and others? I didn't fold much in the second half, which is a reflection on me being a shitty reviewer, not that the stories weren't as good farther on. They were. I think there's something in here for every type of reader, and these are all powerful stories in their own way. You know, maybe I will end up going back to these on days that make me this specific sort of angry.
Overall, a collection I'm very pleased is out in the world. Sometimes I forget how much I love short stories ☺️
April 8, 2023
First off: buy this book, because proceeds benefit abortion access in the wake of the Dobbs decision. Second: buy this book because there are some GREAT pieces in it, namely Laurel Hightower's "Life Begins at Possession," S.H. Cooper's "The New Front Line," and a few others.
As anthologies often go, it's uneven in spots, but worth the time and definitely worth the contribution facilitated by the editors. So many of us woke up the day after the Dobbs decision with the unshakable need to DO something. Grateful for what these writers and editors decided to do.
As anthologies often go, it's uneven in spots, but worth the time and definitely worth the contribution facilitated by the editors. So many of us woke up the day after the Dobbs decision with the unshakable need to DO something. Grateful for what these writers and editors decided to do.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews