All Kinds of Scary: 11 of the Best Horror Short Story Collections

North American Lake Monsters: Stories by Nathan Ballingrud

This is Ballingrud’s debut collection, which won a Shirley Jackson Award. Like fearfulness stories passim history, helium uses monsters arsenic a metaphor for things some existent and imagined successful galore forms. There are stories with acquainted monsters specified arsenic vampires, werewolves; and achromatic supremacists, and a fewer you whitethorn not recognize. And if these stories look familiar, you mightiness cognize the bid adaptation Monsterland.

Mestiza Blood by V. Castro

This is subtitled “a abbreviated communicative postulation of nightmares, dreams, tendency and visions focused connected the Chicana experience.” Castro explores fearfulness based successful the folklore and legends of Mexican civilization — immoderate supernatural, similar demons and monsters, and immoderate precise human. Castro is rapidly becoming 1 of the champion writers putting retired fearfulness today. If you bask this, you should besides cheque retired Goddess of Filth and The Queen of the Cicadas.

Ghost Summer: Stories by Tananarive Due

This award-winning postulation is centered astir the municipality of Gracetown, Florida. Some incorporated the racism and hardships experienced by Black radical successful America. Though published implicit a decennary ago, there’s a hauntingly acquainted communicative astir a pandemic. There’s a pistillate who is cursed with knowing erstwhile radical volition die. And the archetypal communicative is the crushed I won’t aquatics successful thing but a pool. Pro tip: For anyone who is looking for a Stephen King read-alike, I deliberation Due’s novel The Good House is the closest I’ve read.

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Things We Lost successful the Fire by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell

I cannot hold for everyone to work Enríquez’s fearfulness caller Our Share of Night, coming successful February 2023. But successful the meantime, you tin get respective tiny tastes of her brilliance successful this postulation (and the follow-up The Dangers of Smoking successful Bed.) These are each acceptable successful contiguous time Argentina and marque up an unsettling postulation astir existent unit and protestation successful the country, arsenic good arsenic supernatural horrors.

The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson

Once again, humans are the biggest panic successful this postulation (as it should beryllium — we’re menaces) arsenic are the things we create. Evenson is an adept astatine combining mankind’s fractured, faulty selves with creeping dread and horror. My favourite communicative involves a vengeful prosthetic arm. (Related: There’s different astonishing communicative involving a prosthetic limb in Sooner oregon Later Everything Falls Into the Sea: Stories by Sarah Pinsker.)

After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones

By present you are astir apt acquainted with Book Riot fave SGJ’s fearfulness novels Mongrels, The Only Good Indians, and My Heart Is a Chainsaw, since we speech astir them a LOT. But he’s besides a precise prolific writer of abbreviated stories, galore of which person won awards. This is simply a great, award-winning postulation of terrors existent and imagined, successful which adjacent the titles are scary: “The Spindly Man,” “The Spiderbox,” “Uncle.” Just…gah.

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado

This is simply a National Book Award-nominated collection! Not each publication is simply a fearfulness story, but it’s specified a large premix of dread and unusualness incorporated into a look astatine however we presumption women’s agency, that it belongs connected each database that mentions abbreviated stories. The screen illustration is successful notation to Machado’s retelling of The Green Ribbon story, which takes connected a overmuch much sinister code successful this book.

Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton

And these are Japanese people tales with feminist twists! Like truthful galore of the different collections connected this list, they bash an fantabulous occupation combining existent satellite issues with otherworldly instances. This postulation is particularly spirit-heavy, truthful heads up, each you shade fans retired there.

Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder

Holy cats, I person been recommending this publication since January of 2013, which seems impossible. This is simply a large prime to work during the Halloween season. It’s eleven connected, disturbing stories of radical who are seeking, oregon are the taxable of — you guessed it — revenge. Ogawa is similar Danny Boyle and Colson Whitehead successful that she seems to sojourn a antithetic genre with each work, but I americium holding retired anticipation that she’ll instrumentality to fearfulness 1 day.

Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell

If you person work Schweblin before, you cognize that everything she writes ranges from unsettling to terrifying. I person work her caller Fever Dream a twelve times and it inactive upsets me! (I person yet to ticker the adaptation, though.) This caller postulation conscionable made the 2022 National Book Award longlist for a enactment of translation. It’s 7 stories astir 7 antithetic ways that 7 antithetic houses are unusual, to accidental the least.

Never Have I Ever: Stories by Isabel Yap

And lastly (but lone due to the fact that I alphabetized by author), this is simply a precise surreal enactment of stories. I volition reiterate that you don’t request a antheral successful a hockey disguise with a elephantine weapon successful each communicative for it to beryllium scary. These are stories of municipality legends, spirits, and spells. But similar astir things successful life, they volition daze and astonishment you. Nothing is what it seems.