I regularly find myself in a reading slump these days. There are so many wonderful books out there, and yet, I struggle to read.
I think the primary reason is that I work with text all day, writing and editing. Add in managing my social media accounts - which usually ends in doomscrolling and consuming content “for inspo” - and my brain cells are honestly fried. I need to do something about it.
But I’ve found that reading a novella is the ultimate cure. Bite-sized reads are pure magic when you’re feeling uninspired, and they often spark the urge to dive into longer books in the genre!
I handpicked 12 horror novellas, and to be completely honest, I haven’t read all of them yet. I’m making this post partly for self-accountability - I need to read them all!
I hope you enjoy, and I hope this helps if you’re in a slump too.
The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo
1920, Appalachia. A nurse arrives in a mountain village where nobody wants that kind of help. The people watch from behind their doors. Something watches from the trees.
Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
Five people who can't sleep. Every night they end up in the same place - the graveyard behind Saint Anthony's. Tonight there's something new waiting for them there.
Loud As Bones by D.G. Woods
Iris's life as she knew it ends when two vampires invade her home, kill her girlfriend, and keep her as their plaything while developing a dark obsession with her. A gothic story about insatiable hunger and monsters that crave you - never letting go, not even after death.
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
A retelling of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. A retired soldier investigates a strange family illness and a fungal-infected house.
Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
A destination wedding at a haunted mansion turns into a fight for survival against Japanese folklore monsters.
Crossroads by Laurel Hightower
A mother grieving the sudden death of her son accidentally discovers that spilling her blood at his roadside memorial summons his ghost.
Come Closer by Sara Gran
Amanda is a successful architect whose life unravels as she becomes possessed by a demon named Naamah.
Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
A young Native American boy discovers his dead father's ghost. He desperately tries to bring his dad back, only to realize the spirit is a parasite.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
A mermaid married her prince. Only, in this fairy tale, he is cruel. After enduring years of physical mutilation and abuse, she gives birth to a generation of fanged daughters. These monstrous mermaid-spawn eventually rise up, devour the prince, slaughter the kingdom, and burn it to ashes.
The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson
Whenever Molly Southbourne bleeds, her spilled blood grows into an identical clone that instinctively tries to murder her. To survive, she must brutally kill and incinerate these doppelgängers until she ultimately chooses to let a stable clone take over her identity.
Root Rot by Saskia Nislow
Nine children spend a summer at their grandfather's remote property, where strange things begin to happen like eyes that blink from the bottom up and adults who aren't quite themselves. The novella explores toxic family systems and the rot that spreads when harm becomes ordinary.
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
Charles Thomas Tester is a small-time hustler in 1920s New York, playing bad guitar on street corners and running occult errands for rich white men to keep his father fed. One job takes him to a house on Long Island where things go badly wrong, and after that, Tommy wants payback.