If you’re looking for a book you can knock over in a single dark and stormy night, these thirteen short and unsettling books are just what you need. Each is no longer than 250 pages, and guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, one way or another.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
The Vegetarian is a pretty twisted story, all told, and one that (ironically) says very little about the philosophy of vegetarianism or why one might wish to eschew meat from their diet. It actually began as a short story, which Kang says drew on her strange idea of “a woman turning into a plant”. Don’t come to this book looking for an impassioned defense of animal rights or the case for plant-based foods; instead, you’ll find an allegory about patriarchal oppression in Korean society and the ways that etiquette can kill. Read my full review of The Vegetarian here.
Picnic At Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Picnic At Hanging Rock is “a masterpiece of intrigue”, and a classic of Australian literature. It has beguiled and fascinated readers for a century, transporting them to the heat of a rural Australian summer and simultaneously chilling them with its gothic horror. Three girls, under the blaze of an afternoon sun, decide to climb into the shadows of the volcanic outcropping – only to disappear, never to be seen again. This short and unsettling novel ends on a massive cliffhanger, and proves that schoolgirls aren’t always squealing over nothing.
Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Tender Is The Flesh is a brilliant short and unsettling book… just maybe don’t read it right before dinner. It has an eerily pertinent premise: a virus has ripped through the entire animal population, wild and domestic, making all meat entirely poisonous to humans. Companies and governments conspire to legalise and legitimise the breeding and consumption of humans for food – or, in the post-Transition parlance, “heads” for “special meat”. Read my full review of Tender Is The Flesh here.
Carrie by Stephen King
Stephen King has made a career out of writing very long, super scary books, but it all began with one much shorter and very unsettling. Carrie is subjected to abuse in the name of her mother’s religion at home. At school, she is bullied mercilessly by her classmates. And yet, she’s harbouring a secret, one that will be both her salvation and her undoing: she has telekinetic powers, and she’s not too fussed about using them responsibly. A cruel prank turns her gift into a weapon, one that she wields against everyone who has wronged her.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead has a unique talent for making the horrific and unsettling feel strangely compelling. In The Nickel Boys, he turns this talent to a story set in a Jim Crow-era segregated reform school, where an innocent mistake has derailed the future of a conscientious young Black man. In the present day, an investigation into the now-defunct Nickel Academy exposes the school’s secret horrifying history. When bodies are discovered, buried in unmarked graves, former “students” of the “school” begin coming forward to tell their truth. Read my full review of The Nickel Boys here.
We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived In The Castle was Shirley Jackson’s last novel, published in 1962 (three years before her death). She was experiencing extreme agoraphobia at the time, and struggled to leave her bedroom, so it’s unsurprising she crafted a short and unsettling book about characters who were largely isolated from the world and only felt safe in their own home. The setting and conceit of the novel are ominous on their own, but the creepy narration of 18-year-old Merricat turns it up to eleven. Read my full review of We Have Always Lived In The Castle here.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Natsuki is an observant and imaginative pre-teen when Earthlings begins. She’s the black sheep of her family, but she doesn’t mind: she has magical powers, and in the summers she finds solace in her cousin Yuu, who shares her elaborate fantasies of escape and freedom. Later, at 34 years old, Natsuki is pretending to be normal, living a quiet life in an asexual marriage, hoping that she can someday succumb to the pressure to be truly “normal”. Unfortunately, the horrors of her childhood won’t be quieted so easily… Read my full review of Earthlings here.
Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
The conceit of Horrorstor is enough to send shivers up anyone’s spine: haunted IKEA. Well, actually, in Grady Hendrix’s universe, the furniture superstore is called Orsk, but the parallels are clear. A group of employees are voluntold that they have to stay in the store overnight to see if they can identify the culprits in a recent spate of nighttime vandalism. The discordant orderliness, the stale air… all of it makes for the perfect backdrop of a short and unsettling ghost story. Read my full review of Horrostor here.
I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel
We’re all guilty of a little social media stalking (aren’t we?) but a guilty pleasure takes a dark turn in this short and unsettling book. I’m A Fan sees an unnamed narrator describe a highly toxic affair she’s having with a married man, and her obsession with the other women he’s sleeping with. In rapid-fire chapters that fly past like scrolling a Twitter feed, Patel takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride through a world of mistrust, self-hatred, bitterness and rage – and as distasteful as we might find it, we can’t possibly look away.
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is a road trip novel in the psychological thriller/horror fiction vein. The story begins with a nameless narrator and her boyfriend, Jake, in a car en route to visit Jake’s parents for the first time. She’s thinking of ending things, but Jake doesn’t know that yet. And that’s not all: the narrator is also being stalked by The Caller, a man who leaves her cryptic voicemails, somehow calling her from her own number. This short and unsettling book has a hair-raising build-up, and a “resolution” that might leave you with more questions than answers. Read my full review of I’m Thinking Of Ending Things here.
The Woman In The Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura
The Woman In The Purple Skirt is named for the sad and ‘plain’ woman who spends her afternoons on a park bench, eating a cream bun, being watched (unbeknownst to her) by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. Her observer lures the woman to work in a hotel, where her fortunes begin to change. But soon her jealous colleagues turn against her – will the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan step in to help the object of her obsession? This short and unsettling book is chillingly voyeuristic, and it explores just how far envy and loneliness can take us. Read my full review of The Woman In The Purple Skirt here.
Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Unlike the other short and unsettling books on this list, Her Body And Other Parties isn’t a novel – it’s a collection of short stories, and every single one of them is unnerving in its own unique way. The stories aren’t linked by character or plot or even style, but they all address similar themes: sex, death, queerness, vulnerability, women, and their bodies (as the title might suggest). As much as the stories vary, they make sense next to each other, forming a complete and cohesive collection that somehow leaves you (selfishly) wanting more. Read my full review of Her Body And Other Parties here.
We Had To Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets
It’s hard to imagine a more upsetting and unsettling job than manually reviewing flagged social media content. Sex, violence, rants, threats, all of it on your screen day after day and you, charged with deciding whether it should be taken down. That’s Kayleigh’s job in We Had To Remove This Post, and while she’s good at it, she soon finds that the grueling work is changing her, and her colleagues. Who gets to decide what is acceptable and what isn’t? Who gets to set our boundaries? After you’ve read this book, you might never be able to scroll mindlessly again.
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