Dark bleatings, my succinct tribe! I talk a lot about novels, collections, and authors, so I thought it might be fun to make a list of my favourite short horror stories. I have learned things.
Dark things.
Firstly, it’s REALLY hard to make a short list of my favourite shorts, and put them in any order. I meant to just do 10 but when perusing my shelves and noting down all my favourites, I ended up with 37 and I had to whittle them down – I couldn’t go lower than 15.
Secondly, picking out individual shorts is way harder than compiling a list of my favourite collections. I love short stories and I read so many of them, and this task turned out to not be fun. However, I will now have a lot of fun talking about the ones I eventually landed on for this list!
I did limit myself to only one story per author, so here goes!
15. The Moth (Part One and Part Two) – by Rachel Knightley
Fine, I’ve started by cheating, because I’ve included both parts of The Moth. But I think that’s fine, because they make up two halves of a whole!
A bit hard to discuss without spoiling what happens, but we begin with a controversial relationship between a young woman and a university lecturer – and the dude is a bit of a dickhead. If you’re anything like me, what happens to him will bring a smile to your lips, not least of all because it is so absolutely bizarre.
You can find this (these) story (stories) in Twisted Branches.
14. Farewell II Flesh – by Mocha Pennington
This story hit me in all of the feels. A trans woman who just wants to feel like herself (and be accepted by others) seeks the help of a surgeon, who unfortunately can’t be trusted. It’s so fear and stress inducing, so heartfelt, and so horrifically tragic, thinking about it fills me with sadness but also awe, because of how well it’s written.
You can find it in Dark Murmurs.
13. The Letter – by Lydia Prime
This is a truly excellent work of horror, and it’s also funny in a dark way. A pregnant woman receives an unwanted, but apparently solicited visitor, and it gets… visceral. It’s horrific. But the author does offer us an olive branch by making us laugh despite ourselves by the end. Pure brilliance!
You can find it in We’re Not Ourselves Today.
12. The Debts We Owe – by Phil Sloman
Even the thought of this one STILL gives me the chills and I will never look at an ice cream van the same again. The less said about this one the better, but I will say this – the atmosphere that Sloman creates is akin to the sheer chilling creepiness that Salem’s Lot has.
You can find this story in No Happily Ever After.
11. Lock and Key – by Nat Whiston
If ever I’ve read a Clive Barker story that isn’t actually by Clive Barker, it’s this! A man seeks help because he’s plagued by nightmares that have ruined sleeping for him, and he finds someone with an unconventional “cure”. This is deliciously dark, karmic, and the idea itself is so out-of-the-box and scary – it’s my favourite type of horror.
You can find this excellent story in Fear Forge: Winter Quarter
10. The Jaunt – by Stephen King
It was really really hard for me to pick just one King story for this list, but ultimately this won! (It it weren’t novella length, it would have definitely been The Mist otherwise!). The Jaunt is the first sci-fi horror story I can remember reading, and it’s stayed with me for decades. It involves travel that requires very specific circumstances, but a kid deviates from complying on purpose and… it’s bad.
You can read The Jaunt in Skeleton Crew.
9. The Lottery – by Shirley Jackson
If you’re a fan of horror and/or dystopian fiction and you haven’t read this yet, you must! Jackson blazed a trail (did I use that phrase correctly?!) with this tale. A lot of great minds think alike coincidentally, but this preceded things like Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, and I truly believe neither of those would exist without its influence.
You can get this short as its own volume, you don’t need to track it down in a collection/anthology.
8. Meat – by Kristin Kirby
Well, this story is horrendous (in the “eeeeek” good way you hope for in a horror short). Set in the post-apocalypse, we follow a group that have taken to cannibalising the heaviest person in the group (this could be a thin person, but the least thin). The candidate is referred to as a “meat”. It gave me the shivers, honestly.
You can find this story in Negative Space 2.
7. The Old Church – by Gary McMahon
I can’t tell you why without spoiling the punchline but this one is right up my street and it made me break out into a broad, probably sinister grin. A guy goes to a church for a Christening, and that’s all I can tell you.
You can find this absolutely fabulous short story in This Isn’t Anywhere You Know.
6. Yellow Teeth – by Adam Nevill
Truthfully, I really love all of Nevill’s short stories, and I think every single piece in his collection, Wyrd and Other Derelictions, is tremendous. However, of all of his shorter works, it’s Yellow Teeth that has continued to haunt me. For some reason, it just persists. It’s about a guy who ends up living with a dirty, cretinous slob, and what begins as a gross inconvenience slides into an anxiety and fury inducing nightmare of epic proportions. Perhaps it’s because I like to keep my house a certain way that this one bothers me so much, but it’s very much my idea of my own personal form of Hell, and for that reason, it’s one of the greatest horror stories to me.
You can find it in Some Will Not Sleep.
5. Pulling Teeth – by Kit Power
If Nat Whiston is the Clive-Barker-who-isn’t-actually-Clive-Barker, then Kit Power is the Stephen-King-who-isn’t-actually-Stephen-King. This story feels like it was plucked right out of King’s Firestarter universe – and it would fit seamlessly into any of his collections. And for me, it’s a perfect story. A guy with an insanely weird, paranormal… let’s say “ability”, is held in an institution by people who want to exploit it. And it’s a first-person narrative (I love it when Kit writes in first person because he’s so good at it).
You can find this story in Voices
4. Just A Note – by Brennan LaFaro
I’ve gone on about this story before – it chilled me to my bones. MY BONES, I TELL YOU! A mother and son that live together work and sleep at different hours, so they’re always missing each other. In a sweet effort to still talk, they communicate by leaving notes for each other. The thing is… is something else present and reading the notes? It’s so scary!
You can find this story in Illusions of Isolation.
3. The Bloody Chamber – by Angela Carter
Angela Carter was known for re-writing fairy tales and bringing back their original dark tones, but The Bloody Chamber tops them all for me. This is the classic Bluebeard tale but… er… Angela Carter’d. It’s grisly!
You can find it in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
2. The Fourth Call – by Ramsey Campbell
This is one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read, and as an added bonus, it’s festive! I love Christmas. The only thing I love more than Christmas itself is when an author scares me with a seasonal-yet-unconventional-and-unexpected Christmas story. This has to do with a particular family in a particular town and a particular annual tradition. The imagery Campbell conjures really freaks me out – even just typing this is making me chilly all over again. I LOVE THIS STORY.
You can find it in Fearful Implications.
And that just leaves my very favourite short horror story….
The Yattering and Jack – by Clive Barker
I’ve been obsessed with this story since I discovered it… last year. How can I have been a life-long horror fan and only just discovered Clive Barker in 2023? That’s just insane, and I’m swiftly rectifying the ills of my past by ploughing through his back catalogue right now.
A man is sharing his house with an evil presence that is doing its damnedest to torment him, but it’s not going as expected. I love Barker’s writing, this humorous idea, the imagery, and also the implication about the world as Barker sees it (in his fiction only, hopefully!).
Please let me know what your favourite short horror stories are – there is always room for more!
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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