By Spencer Margaret
Ah, fall. The leaves are changing, the morning air has a crisp bite to it, and so do those apples you happily paid $35 for at the orchard with your friends/partner. Your sweaters are fully in rotation, boots are ready for walking, and pine-scented candles have been lit.
Right around now, you’re probably also digging around to find your Halloween decorations. Ghosts and pumpkins, skeletons, and my favorite of all—witches. This is the time of year that we’re able to lean into our fascination with witches in a way the public (*cough*, patriarchy) deems seasonal and appropriate. It’s the perfect time to cozy up with an atmospheric, spooky read, or my favorite new genre: female rage books.
Female rage books explore the mania, fury, and rebellion of women placed into bad situations with far too much expected of them. It’s a very real look at the hellscape women find themselves in on a daily basis, in modern times as well as hundreds of years ago. These books ask you to take a journey with the main character as she rebels against it all. I can’t think of a better season to spend some time with stories of women who become witches, use mushrooms to rid the world of evil, enact revenge against the systems built to oppress them, and much, much more.
So, dig into these 12 female rage book recommendations to lean into the inspiring power of women this fall—or any time of year the siren song calls.
Don’t Eat The Mushrooms
The Bane Witch
By Ava Morgyn | Romance, Mystery
Piers has always been drawn to poisonous things—abusive men included. She fakes her death and escapes to her estranged great aunt’s house in the mountains, where she learns her penchant for the poisonous isn’t a questionable character flaw, it’s a gift. As it turns out, Piers comes from a long line of women who ingest deadly plants and use their power to rid the world of evil men. She starts dating the town sheriff to throw him off her scent as the bodies start to line up, but soon is challenged when a serial killer rolls into town.
The Women of Wild Hill
By Kirsten Miller | Literary Fiction
Brigid and Phoebe come from a long line of Duncan women who called Wild Hill home—a sprawling, beautiful estate with two unique qualities: it seems to strengthen each generation of Duncan women more and more, and might also be haunted by the spirit of a witch murdered by colonists. Phoebe’s daughter Sybil is the strongest of all the generations and must harness every ounce of her power to defend her ancestral home from the personification of evil (rich, corrupt, white men).
Witchy Rage
The Book of Witching
By C.J. Cooke | Horror, Mystery
Clem experiences every mother’s worst nightmare—a call that her daughter is in the hospital in critical condition. Thankfully, her daughter wakes, but doesn’t recognize her own mother and insists her name is Nyx. Doctors for some reason don’t take Clem seriously, so she has to set off on her own to investigate why her daughter’s suddenly transformed, and what the location of the accident may have to do with it.
Bright I Burn
By Molly Aitken | Literary Fiction
It’s thirteenth century Ireland and Alice is determined not to suffer the fate of her mother, an overworked and never-appreciated wife and mother. However, times are not super accepting of an independent woman who grows wealthy through business, which is just what Alice does. Also, her ex-husbands keep turning up dead. People aren’t too happy about that, and Alice’s response is a beautiful example of strong women suffering through times that weren’t accepting of them.
Weyward
By Emilia Hart | Historical Fiction
Escaping a Very Bad Man, Kate flees London and finds solace in her great-aunt’s abandoned stone cottage. Within the cottage, she heals and learns the true power she’s inherited from the generations of women before her. This multi-timeline story has stuck with me years after I read it, and my fondness for its empowering message and beauty only grows.
The Last Witch in Edinburgh
By Marielle Thompson | Fantasy
Nellie is just trying to survive in an alternative-world 1824 Edinburgh, where women are being hanged as witches for any perceived indiscretion. When she stumbles upon The Rae Women’s Apothecary, a place where women are powerful creators of potions and cures, instead of running away, she leans in. Personally, I think it’s because of Jean Rae, a fiery and stubborn chronic pain love interest who works at the apothecary. However, it’s a dangerous time to be a witch. Look no further for an atmospheric, LGBTQ+, witchy read.
Atmospheric & Angry
The Sirens
By Emilia Hart | Historical Fiction
By the author of Weyward, this book explores Female Rage through a previously unexplored angle: mermaids. It’s an atmospheric, multi-timeline book deep with symbolism and empowerment, and it highlights the power of sisterhood in particular. It’s the perfect female rage read for a water sign.
The Change
By Kirsten Miller | Mystery
By the author of The Women of Wild Hill, this book is about three women who come together in a coastal Long Island community to embrace their strengths so they can take down a group of Very Bad Men. One of the preeminent Feminine Rage books, this story has one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. Emily Henry loved it too, so it couldn’t get much better.
The Mexican Gothic
By Silvia Moreno-Garcia | Fantasy, Horror
Growing increasingly concerned for her cousin’s well-being, glamorous socialite Naoemí travels to her cousin’s isolated mansion in the Mexican countryside. This generous wellness check transforms into much more when Naoemí peels back the literal and figurative layers of the home and all who inhabit it. But Naoemí, like all women, is much more than just one thing, and uses her intelligence and grit to fight back.
Atmospheric & Angry
The Curse of The Cole Women
By Marielle Thompson | Romance, LGBTQ+
Publish Date: December 2, 2025
How About Now: Poems
By Kate Baer | Poetry
Pubish Date: November 4, 2025
For The Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising
By Fatemeh Jamalpour | Politics
Out Now
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Spencer Margaret (she/her) is a writer and reader based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She’s self-published two novels and does her best to write stories that empower and entertain women. Her favorite local bookstores are Comma bookshop and Tropes & Trifles, and when she’s not reading, she can be found spending time with her cat, doing yoga, or in the aisles of a Trader Joe’s.
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