Kristian Wilson Colyard grew up weird in a one-caution-light town in the Appalachian foothills. She now lives in an old textile city with her husband and their clowder of cats. She’s on Twitter @kristianwriting, and you can find more of her work online at kristianwriting.com.
In the last dive bar in Red Hook, Erin pours drinks and dodges neighborhood legends. Jimmy, her boss and the man reshaping the neighborhood, claims he owes everything to a creature he met as a rookie cop. Erin doesn’t believe in myths—until the truth claws its way out. The past isn’t buried. It’s behind the bar. Don’t miss this dark and lyrical short story by Ivy Pochoda, award-winning author of Ecstasy. Read and listen with Prime & Kindle Unlimited.
Looking for some standalone horror short stories to devour? We have pulled six of our favorite short stories that do not require you to know anything about the characters — or, heaven forbid, another book or story. So sit back, relax, and get ready for some great horror shorts from your favorite authors.
Scary stories have been around for centuries, and, in many ways, short fiction is the perfect vehicle for horror. Where horror novels can drag on too long and wear out their welcome, horror shorts deliver the goods in quick, unflinching punches that leave you breathless and terrified.
For the list below, we have chosen horror shorts that span the full spectrum of what the genre has to offer, from visceral body horror to dreadfully quiet unease. Regardless of your tolerance for gross-outs and looming threats, there’s something here for every type of horror lover.
So get ready to devour some great, standalone horror short stories from the minds of some of the finest writers working in the genre today. Keep scrolling to find six short tales of dread and darkness, filled with voracious women and troubled men. We hope these twisted tales leave your darkest reading appetites whetted.
“Aspects of Emptiness” by Paula D. Ashe (We Are Here to Hurt Each Other)
“The Man with the Face of Teeth.” That’s all we should have to say to get you interested in this super short, super creepy tale of body horror. “Aspects of Emptiness” is the first story in Paula D. Ashe’s We Are Here to Hurt Each Other, and it’s the inspiration for the wonderfully abhorrent cover art as well.
“A Collapse of Horses” by Brian Evenson (A Collapse of Horses)
The title story in Brian Evenson’s 2016 collection centers on a man whose life begins to unravel following a head injury. With his house and his family growing and shrinking around him, he becomes first exhausted, then desperate to find a solution. And oh, what a solution it is.
“The Easthound” by Nalo Hopkinson (Falling in Love with Hominids)
Nalo Hopkinson’s post-apocalyptic monster story has lived rent-free in our heads since we first read it in 2012. Here, a close-knit found family of teenagers plays an exquisite corpse-like game called Loup-de-lou to pass the time while they hide from someone — or something.
“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” by Usman T. Malik (Qualia Nous)
This violent, gory story lays bare the realities of life in Pakistan for many women. It centers on Tara, an orphaned girl, as she searches for stability in a world that makes her a teenage widow. The result is brutal, raw, and utterly enthralling.
“An Inherited Taste” by Nadine Aurora Tabing (No Trouble At All)
Every story in this collection of “polite horrors” is a winner, but we have to recommend “An Inherited Taste.” In it, a young girl learns how to survive off consuming the misfortunes of others, as her mother “puree[s] bananas and season[s] them with sparkling shreds of spite.”
“The Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong (Nightmare Magazine #37)
Another story about women feeding in unconventional ways, Alyssa Wong’s “The Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” follows Jen, who eats the souls of terrible men and then vomits them up in jars to keep: collectibles from her many dalliances with the devil.
Want more great short fiction? Check out this list of the best horror short story collections and these Halloween short stories to get you in the spooky spirit.
English (US) · 