Horror/Spooky Short Story Collections

[Nollaig]

As it says on the tin - can anyone recommend me a good book of short spooky stories? I recently finished The Travelling Bag by Susan Hill, and am reading The Small Hand by her. I've also almost finished a collection of Lovecraft tales.

 

Any suggestions for me?

[MrCat]

Edgar Allan Poe goes without saying. 

 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is also short. As in around 100 pages. 

 

The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr Hyde is also great. 

 

Uhm uhm and Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. I read this one aeons ago, after reading Dracula. 

[Onion Budgie]

It's been many years since I read it, but The Far Reaches of Fear collection by Ramsey Campbell included some cracking stories -- in particular The Viaduct, which sent all manner of deliciously horrible chills down my spine as a teenager!

[Madeleine]

The Mistletoe Bride and other stories by Kate Mosse is quite good, not that scary though!    

[Anna Begins]

I think I've already recommended Stephen King's Thinner, it's only about 300 pages. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker is good, but it's for maybe 12- 13 year olds and appropriate for that age... one of my favorite stories though. I even have a painting done of it by Barker (my mom hates it lol).

[Nollaig]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'm definitely looking for more contemporary stuff, and I really want collections of short stories - so I can read one a day on my lunch break.

 

The Mistletoe Bride is one I intend to check out,

 

The Far Reaches of Fear looks a little more difficult to get hold of, and there isn't much info on Goodreads :/

 

I've read Poe's work, and Sleepy Hollow, and a few other classic stories - did a tutorial series on them in college.

 

Thinner does sound good, and it's on my wishlist, but I'm particularly looking for short story collections at the moment

[Lau_Lou]

I have a book of ghost stories, one of them is The Music Of Erich Zann by H P Lovecraft. Very good story.

Everything's Eventual by Stephen King is also very good.

[timebug]

The Complete HP Lovecraft is full of goodies, as he only

ever wrote two (some say three!) full length novels! All

the short stories are well weird and really creeped me out

when I first read them!

Edited October 22, 2016 by timebug

[MrCat]

Man, people praising Lovecraft left and right. I might do a Halloween reading and catch-up on him. I wasn't that impressed with him back when I read him the first time though. 

Edited October 22, 2016 by MrCat

[Nollaig]

I've read about 17 Lovecraft short stories, some are good, some are meh. His description of place is always beautiful, and the writing itself is great. But the plots frequently leave me a little cold.

 

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, will check them all out, and keep em coming