In the wake of the #MeToo movement comes a collection of short stories that challenge the reader to consider how women have suffered through the ages and continue suffering now. The primary connection between the stories in the collection, Suffer/Rage, is that they are stories of and about women. Each woman in the collection has suffered, whether at the hands of men, society, or other women. Those they love, those that should love them, even their own bodies and minds, have betrayed them at some time. Some of these women are nameless, some only have their names to hold onto, and some are looking for new names to go with the possibility of new lives.
Some stories tackle sexual assault, abortion, mental health issues, aging, and surviving against the odds. Regardless of the genre employed, there is a profoundly feminist and, at times, gurlesque tone to the stories. There are sharp and smart gestures toward body, femininity, and patriarchy, and you get a sense of simmering rage throughout.
As one of the story's protagonists says, "All you have to do is listen in the bright dawn, and you will hear tender violence, the noise of women." When you have finished reading Suffer/Rage, you will hear the voices of all the women vibrating in your bones, and you will ask yourself if you should choose to be a "coward or a revolutionary."