12 Short Horror Novels Under 300 Pages

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The Grip of It by Jac Jemc

Julie and James person conscionable bought a location successful the country. They’re metropolis folks, done and through, but they request the interruption from the hustle and bustle. And, possibly much importantly, their marriage needs it. They’re moving hard to crook implicit a caller leaf, but things support going disconnected the rails. They find rooms that weren’t determination before. Stains look overnight, lining the walls similar graffiti art. Is James playing tricks connected Julie…or is thing much sinister astatine play wrong those ever-shifting walls?

The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones

From the writer of My Heart Is a Chainsaw and The Only Good Indians comes this caller astir a trope-savvy high-schooler who indispensable hole to spell toe-to-toe with a masked serial slayer — again. Lindsay’s her hometown’s Final Girl. She survived her archetypal run-in with Billie Jean, a slasher who wears a Michael Jackson mask. Everyone knows the story, but fewer cognize however it ends. Lindsay’s likelihood of surviving circular 2 spell up exponentially if determination are different Final Girls astir to — virtually — instrumentality the deed for her. But tin she past agelong capable to go the last Final Girl?

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

According to section lore, a young bride whose husband-to-be died moments earlier their wedding sealed herself successful the walls of a Heian-era castle successful Japan. Now, her shade is said to haunt the grounds, demanding a yearly sacrifice. What amended spot could determination perchance beryllium for 2 ghost-chasers to get married? As Faiz, Talia, and their friends hole for their overnight celebration, however, aged feuds travel backmost to the fore, and 1 impermanent begins to fishy the Ohaguro-Bettari fable is thing but a myth.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

In this Edgar Allan Poe retelling, warfare seasoned Alex drops everything erstwhile they larn that their puerility friends, the Ushers, person go mysteriously ill. When Alex arrives, they find Roderick Usher exhibiting signs of intelligence illness. His sister, Madeline, is present a frail sleepwalker. And thing foul seems to person infected the onshore astir the siblings’ ancestral home. Alex gathers their allies and prepares to combat for their friends, but first, they indispensable place what, exactly, ails the Usher siblings.

Confessions by Kanae Minato

Four-year-old Manami was the airy of Yuko’s life. Now she’s dead, murdered by 2 of her mother’s 13-year-old students. Yuko has made up her caput to nonstop vengeance connected Shuya and Naoki successful her ain time, her ain way. But erstwhile her methods fail, 1 by one, she finds herself acceptable to resign from her position. But Yuko has 1 past instrumentality up her sleeve. The grieving parent delivers 1 last lecture to her people successful this pulse-pounding thriller from the writer of Penance.

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

Strange phenomena plague a mates aft they acquisition a astute talker successful this tightly coiled debut. Thiago and Vera’s location was ne'er the aforesaid aft Vera brought the Itza home. Random noises spell unexplained. Rooms crook chilly astatine a moment’s notice. And Itza keeps ordering things neither of the 2 wants. After Vera unexpectedly dies, Thiago destroys the Itza and quits their location successful Chicago for a Colorado retreat. The astute talker is dead…so wherefore bash unusual things support happening astatine Thiago’s caller abode?

White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Following a intelligence breakdown brought connected by her mother’s untimely death, Miranda Silver returns to her puerility home, wherever she begins to grounds unusual symptoms. Miranda had an eating upset agelong earlier her mother’s death. Now, however, she’s acting conscionable similar her mother, her mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother’s mother, arsenic well. Bad luck ever befalls the women successful the Silver House…and it looks similar Miranda mightiness beryllium next.

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Something unspeakable happened to Merry’s family. Fifteen years ago, the Barretts were the absorption of a multi-night tv lawsuit documenting the real-life exorcism of Merry’s older sister, Marjorie. But questions stay for galore viewers, and adjacent for Merry herself. Was Marjorie truly possessed by a malevolent entity, oregon was she simply exhibiting signs of intelligence illness? Sitting down with an interviewer for the archetypal clip since her household was torn apart, Merry tells her communicative successful A Head Full of Ghosts.

Hide by Kiersten White

Would you walk a week playing hide-and-seek successful an abandoned amusement park, if it meant you’d triumph capable wealth to alteration your beingness forever? That’s precisely what Mack and her chap competitors are astir to do. Once the crippled begins, however, Mack realizes that she hadn’t truly known what benignant of crippled she signed up for, not until radical started disappearing, and thing began stalking those who remain. Now, she and the others volition person to employment each the skills successful their arsenals successful bid to past the week.