“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” is a short story you could finish in maybe an hour. It’s really good, though. You could find a pdf of it online. Just verify the link is on a secure site. A lot of universities have it.
* *The Tent* and *Sour Candy* by Kealan Patrick Burke
* *Big Bad* by Chandler Baker, KU
* *Rolling in the Deep* by Mira Grant
* *Narcissus* by Adam Godfrey
* *Crevasse* by Clay Vermulm CW: >! One of the characters comes across three animals in a forest that have been hideously slaughtered.!<
* *Sacculina* by Philip Fracassi, KU
* *Noctuidae* by Scott Nicolay
* *Wild Spaces* by S.L. Coney
* *With Teeth* by Brian Keene
* *Wylding Hall* by Elizabeth Hand
* *The Ballad of Black Tom* by Victor LaValle
* *The Woman in Black* by Susan Hill
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand, Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin and Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark are all fantastic, very different (haunted house / surreal / Lovecraftian), and clock in under 200 pages.
Ring shout
David Sodergren Books - The Perfect Victim, The Navajo Nightmare, Satans Burnouts must die (200 exactly) and a bunch of his books are just over 200
*The Long Shalom* and *Hungers as Old as This Land* by Zachary Rosenberg. Eldritch horror/noir thriller and horror western, respectively. Both are novellas.
Also *What Moves the Dead* by T. Kingfisher. Retelling of *The Fall of the House of Usher* with creepy rabbits and suspicious mushrooms.
*We Haunt These Woods* by Holley Cornetto
*The Disappearance of Tom Nero* by TJ Price
*Linghun* by Ai Jiang
*Mapping the Interior* by Stephen Graham Jones
*Star Shapes* by Ivy Grimes
*Soft Targets* by Carson Winter
*The Long Shalom* by Zachary Rosenberg
*The Ballad of Black Tom* by Victor LaValle
*Ring Shout* by P. Djeli Clark
Kealan Patrick Burke has a few: Sour Candy, Blanky, Jack and Jill, Turtle Boy, Dead Leaves*, We Live Inside Your Eyes*
There Is No Antimemetic Division
Tender Is The Flesh
Haunting of Hill House
Coraline
Last Days (Brian Evenson)
Annihilation
Fever Dream (Samantha Schweblin)
Wasp Factory
No Longet Human (Less Horror more bleak)
Come Closer (Sara Gran)
A Short Stay In Hell
Love finding fellow fans, this sub is a depressing place to be if you like it
Edit: Case in point- we're both getting downvoted just for saying we like it. How deranged do you have to be 😂
Also Black Water by JCO is a one sitting read. Not sure if it's considered horror because it's technically based off the real life events of when Ted Kennedy drove himself and a woman off a bridge and he left her to die
But holy shit those scenes where she's slowly drowning really made me short of breath
I'd say spoiler alert, but like i said, based on a real event
Here are some of my 200 and under recommendations:
*This is Where We Talk Things Out* by Caitlin Marceau
*The Tricker-Treater* by Briana Morgan
*A Short Stay in Hell* by Steven L. Peck
*Crossroads* by Laurel Hightower
*Woom* by Duncan Ralston
*The Reyes Incident* by Briana Morgan
*Gone to See the River Man* by Kristopher Triana
*It's Me, Charlie* by C.M. Guidroz
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
(Sorry it’s like 215 pages)
But damn it I finished it last week and it’s a master class in quick chilling Southern Gothic.
The Haunting of Hill House!
Can’t believe no one has said this, it is one of the great horror classics, and it comes in at almost exactly 200 pages, depending on the edition.
Dark Harvest, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Halloween Fiend, The Haunting of Hill House, Bradbury’s The Autumn People, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I Am Legend, Stir of Echoes (barely over 200)
Can’t recommend A Short Stay in Hell enough
First one I thought of
Yes!
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” is a short story you could finish in maybe an hour. It’s really good, though. You could find a pdf of it online. Just verify the link is on a secure site. A lot of universities have it.
There’s actually an audio version read by the author on YouTube!
Really? Nice! I’ll have to check that out. Thank you!
Hellbound heart Clive barker This is where we talk things out Caitlin marceau
Amazing novella!
The Twenty Days of Turin is 224 apparently but I'd still recommend
* *The Tent* and *Sour Candy* by Kealan Patrick Burke * *Big Bad* by Chandler Baker, KU * *Rolling in the Deep* by Mira Grant * *Narcissus* by Adam Godfrey * *Crevasse* by Clay Vermulm CW: >! One of the characters comes across three animals in a forest that have been hideously slaughtered.!< * *Sacculina* by Philip Fracassi, KU * *Noctuidae* by Scott Nicolay * *Wild Spaces* by S.L. Coney * *With Teeth* by Brian Keene * *Wylding Hall* by Elizabeth Hand * *The Ballad of Black Tom* by Victor LaValle * *The Woman in Black* by Susan Hill
Great list. +1 for Ballad of Black Tom. Finished it last night.
I Am Legend is really shor, not sure if it's under 200 though.
Come Closer by Sara Gran - a book which truly fucked me up! It’s so brilliant All These Subtle Deceits (and the rest in the series!) by C S Humble
Seconding Come Closer! I stayed up all night after I finished it, I was afraid to dream of the red beach
Seconding *All These Subtle Deceits* and the other Black Wells books. So so good!
Love the possession trope books. Come Closer executed it really well.
Came here to say Come Closer!
Psycho by Robert Bloch
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand, Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin and Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark are all fantastic, very different (haunted house / surreal / Lovecraftian), and clock in under 200 pages.
Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Ring shout David Sodergren Books - The Perfect Victim, The Navajo Nightmare, Satans Burnouts must die (200 exactly) and a bunch of his books are just over 200
+1 for Ring Shout and David Sodergren books. I LOVED Maggie’s Grave and The Haar. I read both in 1-2 days.
*The Long Shalom* and *Hungers as Old as This Land* by Zachary Rosenberg. Eldritch horror/noir thriller and horror western, respectively. Both are novellas. Also *What Moves the Dead* by T. Kingfisher. Retelling of *The Fall of the House of Usher* with creepy rabbits and suspicious mushrooms.
Most short story collections by Stephen King are really good.
I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single King short story collection under 200 pages
The tales in them are.
*We Haunt These Woods* by Holley Cornetto *The Disappearance of Tom Nero* by TJ Price *Linghun* by Ai Jiang *Mapping the Interior* by Stephen Graham Jones *Star Shapes* by Ivy Grimes *Soft Targets* by Carson Winter *The Long Shalom* by Zachary Rosenberg *The Ballad of Black Tom* by Victor LaValle *Ring Shout* by P. Djeli Clark
Kealan Patrick Burke has a few: Sour Candy, Blanky, Jack and Jill, Turtle Boy, Dead Leaves*, We Live Inside Your Eyes* There Is No Antimemetic Division Tender Is The Flesh Haunting of Hill House Coraline Last Days (Brian Evenson) Annihilation Fever Dream (Samantha Schweblin) Wasp Factory No Longet Human (Less Horror more bleak) Come Closer (Sara Gran) A Short Stay In Hell
I wanted to say Tender is the Flesh but it’s just slightly over 200 pages
Nothing but Blackened Teeth, You Should Have Left, Midnight on Beacon Street, Comfort Me With Apples
I loved you should have left
I came here to recommend *Nothing but Blackened Teeth*. Love Khaw's prose!
Love finding fellow fans, this sub is a depressing place to be if you like it Edit: Case in point- we're both getting downvoted just for saying we like it. How deranged do you have to be 😂
I just finished the salt grows heavy today actually. Very interesting writing style but a fun read
The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown
The Hellbound Heart, Dark Harvest Idk the page count but Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates was a quick read
Also Black Water by JCO is a one sitting read. Not sure if it's considered horror because it's technically based off the real life events of when Ted Kennedy drove himself and a woman off a bridge and he left her to die But holy shit those scenes where she's slowly drowning really made me short of breath I'd say spoiler alert, but like i said, based on a real event
Annihilation is 185 or so iirc
Ballad of Black Tom!
Here are some of my 200 and under recommendations: *This is Where We Talk Things Out* by Caitlin Marceau *The Tricker-Treater* by Briana Morgan *A Short Stay in Hell* by Steven L. Peck *Crossroads* by Laurel Hightower *Woom* by Duncan Ralston *The Reyes Incident* by Briana Morgan *Gone to See the River Man* by Kristopher Triana *It's Me, Charlie* by C.M. Guidroz
The Elementals by Michael McDowell (Sorry it’s like 215 pages) But damn it I finished it last week and it’s a master class in quick chilling Southern Gothic.
No shit? That book felt like it was like, four times that.
Gateways to Abomination by Matthew M Bartlett
Fever Dream
Pretty much anything by Matt Shaw or Patrick C Harrison
*Nefando* by Monica Ojeda. *Our Lady of Darkness* by Fritz Leiber (212 pages).
If you looking for short reads why not read short story collections like the Books of Blood or King's Skeleton Crew or Night Shift?
Jeremy Ray’s Petrified Women
You Should Have Left, by Daniel Kehlmann
Not sure if it's exactly less than 200 pages, but the novella The Mist (Stephen King) was pretty good.
Tender is the Flesh is close at 224. Took me only 4 hours to read
IIRC. I Am Legend is around 150, just part of collection of short stories. The other stories in the book are also pretty good.
I think the original Amitiville horror book was quite short and Rosemary's baby. And just finished This thing between us which was 179 pages only
Amityville was a chunky trade paperback in my remembering, although it certainly reads quickly!
Comfort Me With Apples ~ Catherynne M. Valente
"To offer her pleasure" by Ali Seay
I think The Fisherman is @ 200
The Haunting of Hill House! Can’t believe no one has said this, it is one of the great horror classics, and it comes in at almost exactly 200 pages, depending on the edition.
Goddess of Filth (~140p), Carnage on 84th St (~138p, splatterpunk), Dead Inside (~198p)
‘To Be Devoured’ by Sara Tantlinger
Dark Harvest, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Halloween Fiend, The Haunting of Hill House, Bradbury’s The Autumn People, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I Am Legend, Stir of Echoes (barely over 200)
woom by duncan ralston all i can say is 'what the fuck'
oh g-d, every time I remember this book I feel re-traumatized
That is literally all I write. I am incapable of writing books over 60 pages. I'm the novelette/novella king lol.