12 Short Horror Novels Under 300 Pages

Julie and James have just bought a house in the country. They’re city folks, through and through, but they need the break from the hustle and bustle. And, perhaps more importantly, their marriage needs it. They’re working hard to turn over a new leaf, but things keep going off the rails. They find rooms that weren’t there before. Stains appear overnight, lining the walls like graffiti art. Is James playing tricks on Julie…or is something more sinister at play within those ever-shifting walls?

From the author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw and The Only Good Indians comes this novel about a trope-savvy high-schooler who must prepare to go toe-to-toe with a masked serial killer — again. Lindsay’s her hometown’s Final Girl. She survived her first run-in with Billie Jean, a slasher who wears a Michael Jackson mask. Everyone knows the story, but few know how it ends. Lindsay’s odds of surviving round two go up exponentially if there are other Final Girls around to — literally — take the hit for her. But can she survive long enough to become the last Final Girl?

According to local lore, a young bride whose husband-to-be died moments before their wedding sealed herself in the walls of a Heian-era castle in Japan. Now, her ghost is said to haunt the grounds, demanding a yearly sacrifice. What better place could there possibly be for two ghost-chasers to get married? As Faiz, Talia, and their friends prepare for their overnight celebration, however, old feuds come back to the fore, and one guest begins to suspect the Ohaguro-Bettari legend is anything but a myth.

In this Edgar Allan Poe retelling, war veteran Alex drops everything when they learn that their childhood friends, the Ushers, have become mysteriously ill. When Alex arrives, they find Roderick Usher exhibiting signs of mental illness. His sister, Madeline, is now a frail sleepwalker. And something foul seems to have infected the land around the siblings’ ancestral home. Alex gathers their allies and prepares to fight for their friends, but first, they must identify what, exactly, ails the Usher siblings.

Four-year-old Manami was the light of Yuko’s life. Now she’s dead, murdered by two of her mother’s 13-year-old students. Yuko has made up her mind to exact vengeance on Shuya and Naoki in her own time, her own way. But when her methods fail, one by one, she finds herself ready to resign from her position. But Yuko has one last trick up her sleeve. The grieving mother delivers one final lecture to her class in this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of Penance.

Strange phenomena plague a couple after they purchase a smart speaker in this tightly wound debut. Thiago and Vera’s house was never the same after Vera brought the Itza home. Random noises go unexplained. Rooms turn chilly at a moment’s notice. And Itza keeps ordering things neither of the two wants. After Vera unexpectedly dies, Thiago destroys the Itza and quits their home in Chicago for a Colorado retreat. The smart speaker is dead…so why do strange things keep happening at Thiago’s new abode?

Following a mental breakdown brought on by her mother’s untimely death, Miranda Silver returns to her childhood home, where she begins to exhibit strange symptoms. Miranda had an eating disorder long before her mother’s death. Now, however, she’s acting just like her mother, her mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother’s mother, as well. Bad fortune always befalls the women in the Silver House…and it looks like Miranda might be next.

Something terrible happened to Merry’s family. Fifteen years ago, the Barretts were the focus of a multi-night television event documenting the real-life exorcism of Merry’s older sister, Marjorie. But questions remain for many viewers, and even for Merry herself. Was Marjorie really possessed by a malevolent entity, or was she simply exhibiting signs of mental illness? Sitting down with an interviewer for the first time since her family was torn apart, Merry tells her story in A Head Full of Ghosts.

Would you spend a week playing hide-and-seek in an abandoned amusement park, if it meant you’d win enough money to change your life forever? That’s exactly what Mack and her fellow competitors are about to do. Once the game begins, however, Mack realizes that she hadn’t really known what kind of game she signed up for, not until people started disappearing, and something began stalking those who remain. Now, she and the others will have to employ all the skills in their arsenals in order to survive the week.