Six Must-Read Short Stories for Halloween
Micaela Pryor//Blog Writer
Halloween is fast approaching, and the movie marathons have been rolling out since August. It’s a time-honored tradition to sit down with popcorn and a favorite horror movie to get into the reason for the season, but Halloween is a holiday that inspires all forms of scare-inducing media. If you’re a lover of literature, your Halloween prep needs a marathon of good horror reads. These six short stories touch on the supernatural, the Gothic, and the downright horrifying to get you in the mood for All Hallow’s Eve.
“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers”
By Alyssa Wong
Halloween is full of monsters that hide in plain sight. Vampires walk the night, werewolves are free to be themselves outside the night of the full moon. These humanoid creatures are classics, but they are also slightly overdone. Alyssa Wong creates a new kind of predator, one who feeds on the darkest thoughts of society’s underbelly. Jen is completely unable to keep down regular food, and lives her life hungry for thoughts of hate, murder, and deception. She soon finds that she is not the only one cursed with this unique diet, and the world of sinister minds she falls into may cost her the people she holds dearest. Winner of a Nebula Award, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” is rife with metaphor and intricately crafted horror imagery, with a new monster to add to the ever-growing list.
http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/hungry-daughters-of-starving-mothers/
“A Kiss with Teeth”
By Max Gladstone
Who says Halloween can’t be heartfelt? Vampires may drain people of blood, but they have hearts like anyone else. This story tells the new life of Vlad, an ageless vampire who has fallen in love with the woman who hunted him for years. The life of senseless killing and blood-drinking behind him, Vlad must now take on a far more grueling challenge: parenting. What’s more, his son’s teacher has begun to stir old instincts, instincts that, if he acts on them, could get her killed. This story features some excellent Gothic imagery, as well as unique work-arounds for the modern-day bloodsucking monster. “A Kiss with Teeth” is a story about fidelity, parenthood, and quelling the monster within, and is sure to leave your heart just a bit warmer.
https://www.tor.com/2014/10/29/a-kiss-with-teeth-max-gladstone/
“A Collapse of Horses”
By Brian Evenson
Get a healthy dose of unreliable narration with Brian Evenson’s “A Collapse of Horses.” Much of horror draws on the fear of uncertainty and the unknown. This story follows the thought process of a man who recently survived a severe accident at work. In his recovery, he begins noticing strange changes in his environment. The house is shifting of its own accord. He and his wife disagree on the number of children they have (three… or is it four?). On a walk, he finds a barn full of horses that are lying motionless on the ground, and runs from the scene before he can determine if they are alive or dead. “A Collapse of Horses” has an entrancing narrative style that will have you questioning what is and isn’t real.
http://theamericanreader.com/a-collapse-of-horses/
“The Pear-Shaped Man”
By George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin is best known for his high fantasy, but his years writing for The Twilight Zone were no accident. “The Pear-Shaped Man” explores the horror of not being believed, of being left to your anxieties unsupported, and driven to madness because of it. Jessie leads a normal life with a career in painting and friends to keep her occupied. When she moves into a new apartment, however, she meets a most unnerving man. He is greasy, pale, and inexplicably pear-shaped. He is also, according to Jessie, stalking her. To the neighbors, the local shopkeepers, and even her friends, this man is odd but harmless. “The Pear-Shaped Man” creates an unsettling aura of nerves and frustration that culminates in psychological twists and body horror that will make your skin crawl. With no online publication to link to, this one is harder to find but it’s worth the search.
“Don’t Turn On the Lights”
By Cassandra Khaw
Remember those scary stories you told with your friends at sleepovers? Despite how formulaic they were, they always managed to give a good scare. Cassandra Khaw takes the bones of one of these little stories and builds on it, exploring the different iterations that may have cropped up in popular culture. Read about Sally, a normal girl in any urban legend who may not be as much a victim as certain renditions of her story make her seem. “Don’t Turn On the Lights” is a fascinating retelling of the scary stories told around campfires, and reminds you not to take innocence at its word.
http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/dont-turn-lights/
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
By Edgar Allan Poe
If Poe isn’t on your Halloween reading list, something has gone terribly wrong. The body of his work is a Halloween must-read on its own, but “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a Gothic horror classic. The voice of a madman doesn’t have to be raving. Here the voice is meticulous, mathematical, and fully convinced of its own sanity. The Edgar Allan Poe Museum had the courtesy to keep an online archive of his most famous works, so if you haven’t read them in a while, take a moment and indulge in some of literature’s most famous scary stories.