Dark bleatings, my beautiful tribe. I read a whole bunch of fantastic novellas and novels last year, and now I’m going to tell you what my top 10 in each of those categories are. They’re in no particular order except for my favourites. I’m including links in case you’d like to find the books (I don’t use affiliate links).

I have made video versions of these lists and if you’d prefer to watch rather than read, you can find my TOP 10 NOVELLAS HERE, and my TOP 10 NOVELS HERE.

Let’s get into it!

Novellas

Skybreaker (Tyler J. Welch) is an incredible horror/mythology mash-up that tells the tale of a small, primitive community that is journeying to pay tribute to a god. We’ve got multiple perspectives, a blooming potential love story, but most of all, a deep-held shared belief that, of course, goes horribly awry.

Gifts Between Us (C.C. Adams) is the story of an older man facing his mortality and his chance meeting with a younger man, who seems to have some answers. The two form an unconventional bond, especially because of how they met. It was grisly, but our older gentleman is less perturbed and more determined. Excellent character work and body horror makes this awesome.

Remedy (J.S. Breukelaar) is outrageously unique in concept and executed to perfection, in my humble opinion. This is about a couple of different characters that are attacked by a winged beast, and when they come around, they’re not in their own bodies anymore. There’s a whole support group of people that feel they’re in the wrong reality. It’s so interesting!

The Clearing (Roland Blake, A Season of Horrors: Four Novellas) is a tense story about a group of drug dealers hiding out in a remote cabin, only they’ve broken the golden rule of being on this property, and the consequences are dire. This is way weirder than you might think, and falls into that “good, old-fashioned, monster story” category.

Baby Hawk: A Novel in Verse (Tom Epperson) is a story I had no idea I could love so much because I typically don’t enjoy stories in verse. However, this follows a woman in the apocalypse who was taken by a violent group of men, for specific purposes. (Yep, those purposes). This is on of my own worst nightmares but this character was so strong and compelling I could not put the book down.

Territory (Dan Howarth) is a cold, snowy, small-town story about a community that are trying to figure out a wolf problem. The animals don’t normally bother them, but they’re starting to move into the town, and a battle of man vs beast ensues. But…things, as always with Dan Howarth, are not way they seem (in the best way!).

Bluebells (Leanbh Pearson) covers so much ground for such a short book. The world has been ravaged and reshaped by disease that spreads for reasons that made me delighted by the author’s creativity. A woman is waiting for her brother’s return, which doesn’t seem to be coming, but then a stranger turns up. This is gothic, bloody, violent, and empathy engaging. It’s fantastic.

Bestial (Roland Blake, A Season of Horrors: Four Novellas) is a harrowing but oddly amusing story about a young boy with a particular obsession, who meets a man that happens to just “get” him. This man helps this boy enact revenge on some people that may or may not have it coming. It feels like it would make a great episode of one of those fabulous 1980’s anthology shows.

Roth-Steyr (Simon Bestwick) is the fascinating story of a woman who has been alive for…let’s say a LONG time. Her life is in order and she’s happy until someone from her past turns up. I think I love this so much because the reason this woman has been around so long isn’t the obvious, and it was so fast-paced and full of intrigue.

Blood Cypress (Elizabeth Broadbent) is the perfect storm of sapphic horror, mystery, a fantastically complicated but strong protagonist, small-town bigotry, and a compelling inciting incident that is impossible to not care about. I adore this story, and this author’s work in general, because it’s also so emotionally engaging and interesting. For those reasons, and more (like the imagery, oh lordy, the imagery!) this had to be my favourite novella of 2025.

Novels

Children of Solitude (Michael G. Williams) is about a man returning to his mother’s home to take care of things following her death, only to find that there something fu**y going on with the house. Not only that, but this weirdness seems to be seeping into people most local to the place. It’s scary and awesome.

At Dark, I Become Loathsome (Eric LaRocca) is a powerful story of loss that had me feeling just all of the feelings. Except joy, actually. Joy was a little lacking, but gosh diddily darn it, Eric’s writing has such impact. A man struggling with grief helps other people struggling with suicidal ideation, and his method is unconventional and super interesting. Loved it.

The Shape of Guilt (Lisa Fransson) deals with a subject matter that I normally actively avoid but the way the author handles this is so skilful and subtle that it didn’t bother me the way it normally does. A mother sits by her son’s hospital bedside hoping he’ll awaken from a coma, following an attempt he made on his own life. We see this narrative through the eyes of a toy rabbit, but this story somehow doesn’t fall into the usual tropes that this kind of thing usually does. Innovative and unique.

The Witch of Willow Sound (Vanessa F. Penney) features a woman going back to her beloved auntie’s house after years away, because her auntie seems to be missing. When she gets there, she finds that the locals are afraid of her/dislike her by association because they all think her auntie is a witch. Our protagonist sets about trying to find out what happened, and uncovers much more than she could ever have hoped to find.

We Are Always Tender With Our Dead (Eric LaRocca) Another brutal but sensitive, thought-provoking exploration of the human condition from one of my favourite authors. A town is horrified in the wake of a heinous crime, and decide to deal with the culprits in a way that initially feels deserved but the more you read, the more you wonder.

Secret Lives of the Dead (Tim Lebbon) This is a fast, action-packed page-turner that merges a thriller style with a horror concept, and I’m quite obsessed. A woman hunts for relics in a race with a man she believes killed her father, and there’s a witchy legend lurking in the background. I never knew which direction this would go in, and loved where it ended up.

Haussitter (Brendan Norton) is a highly amusing and entertaining story about a man who housesits for an eccentric couple. They task him with taking care of the house, their pets, and…oh yeah…the demon that dwells on their property. The handing of the demon in particular was a highlight, but I just loved this book in general.

Coffin Moon (Keith Rosson) gives us a return to nasty, monstrous, brutal vampires! My favourite kind, it must be said. A man makes a fatal mistake when he stands up to a gang headed by a vampire (he doesn’t know dude is a toothy bastard), and this sets about the most hideous chain events and the subsequent mission that follows. Absolutely fantastic.

Itch! (Gemma Amor) does it again with a layered protagonist (and antagonist), a small town, and an internal conflict that mirrors and is as strong as the external conflict. It’s a fascinating story of a woman who moves back in with her dad while she gets back on her feet after a relationship breakdown, only to immediately stumble across a dead body.

King Sorrow (Joe Hill) is one of the most delightful horror fantasy blends I’ve ever had the pleasure to read, and I couldn’t love it more. It follows a group of friends that summon a dragon to help them in a dire situation, only to regret it because the dragon is a dickhead that won’t go away. The character work is unbelievably good. They’re all so layered, their relationships are intense, their motivations are interesting. The story spans time, weaves in plenty of fabulous folklore, myth, and legend, and the dragon itself is probably my favourite part because it, for so many reasons, is by far the most memorable and compelling dragon that I’ve ever enjoyed in any sort of fiction. Just wonderful!

Bleeeeat!