March ScaredyKit: Short Stories and Novellas

If you love to hear or read spooky stories then you will enjoy our March ScaredyKit theme. It’s time to turn your attention to those short stories and novellas that are bizarre, twisted, spooky, atmospheric and unsettling.

From the classic ghost stories of M. R. James and Edgar Alan Poe to innovative new fiction from authors like China Mieville, the choices are unlimited. Whether international or home grown these stories often have unexpected twists that can chill you or fill you with dread. Legends such as Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen King to newer authors like Kelly Link and Joe Hill all have short story collections or if you would rather have a mixed offering, there are plenty of assorted horror short story collections around.

Let us know what you are planning to read and then be sure to let us know how the read went. Don’t forget to add your choices to the Wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2021_ScaredyKIT

I am planning on reading a zombie novella with Among Monsters by Jamie McGuire and a collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates with The Doll Master.

I've got a lot of options, but I'm thinking I'll read Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud since I've been wanting to try the author.

I opened the thread, saw that picture, and just about screamed. Creepy!

I got a book for Christmas that I am going to read called Tiny Nightmares.

This one's a bit trickier, as I don't seem to have much on the tbr (at least not that's appealing at the moment). Will figure this one out later.

ETA: I was going to read Death: the High Cost of Living / Neil Gaiman in January. I ended up not being able to easily pick up the graphic novel when the hold came in for me. I see it's coming back for me, again (I was going to read it and post it in January, anyway, even if late, but maybe I can use it for this month, instead. If we can include graphic novels as novella or short story.

Or, I might just find something else NOT on the tbr.

>4 sturlington: That picture is creepy - I think my mind was on weird dolls as I am going to be reading The Doll Master by Joyce Carol Oates - and - I find that dolls can be rather disturbing.

Love that creepy pic! Will have to search my TBR, nothing comes to mind.

I'm thinking I shouldn't use a graphic novel. We already had a month for that. I do have some really old Stephen Kings that I was thinking of rereading. I"m not sure if any of them are the ones with novellas or not. I'll check. If not, I'll find something else.

>6 DeltaQueen50: I also find dolls disturbing, and ventriloquist's dummies, anything like that. There is that one Twilight Zone episode with the doll that just gets me every time I see it: Living Doll.

>1 DeltaQueen50: Yep, if there's an award for posting the scariest pic, you've won it, Judy!
I'll be reading Haunted Nights, a short story collection published by Blumhouse Books.

I dug through my books, and I have two Stephen Kings that are short stories. Both read years ago in or just out of high school, but I'll read them again. Well, I'll likely pick one for March. Either:

Nightmares & Dreamscapes or
Night Shift

We are reading The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce in our faculty book club this semester; however, we won't be complete with the book by the end of March--and spring break falls in the month. Still I'll read several stories from the book.

I have a short by Ambrose Bierce and also one by Stephen Vincent Binet. I am going to try to read both. OR, a reread of a Poe.

I think I'll read Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias for this challenge

>14 luvamystery65:, I'll be curious what you think of it--that's one I've been meaning to order!

I think I'll read Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado.

>16 VioletBramble: Ooohh. Good choice!

I finished my selection: Tiny Nightmares ed. by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto. I would recommend this anthology. There's a full review on my thread and on the work page. I really liked the story by Stephen Graham Jones, who I plan to read for another month.

The Infamous Bengal Mingh by Rajesh Parameswaran was a short story from the book I Am an Executioner: Love Stories. This was a bizarre story about a tiger who speaks and loves his feeder so much that he became too "amorous" when he sees him approach with food. Other "accidents" seem to ensue. If you don't like blood and guts, literally, don't read this! I will listen to the remaining stories, probably around Halloween. 47 minutes

I read The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs which I think I might have read previously but I hadn't checked it off, so I reread it. Be careful what you wish for.

I have completed my read of The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror by Joyce Carol Oates and this was a collection of very creepy and disturbing stories. I loved it!

Nightmares & Dreamscapes / Stephen King
3.25 stars

I’ve had this book since university and I can’t remember if I read it back then or not. I decided to (re)read. As with all short story collections, I liked some better than others. There were a few I really liked in the first half and I was debating about rating this higher than other short story collections I’ve read in the past, but some of the stories in the second half brought my rating down a bit.

I think something I’m not crazy about with short stories is the energy it takes to move from one to the other so quickly. I always knew that I often didn’t like how short they were because I’d just be “getting’ into the story, when it would end and move on to the next. It was reading this that it occurred to me it takes “energy” to start with a new story so often – you have to get to know new characters and a new plot.

Some of the stories I really liked included Dolce’s Cadillac, Chattery Teeth, You Know They Got a Hell of a Band (if I hadn’t read this one before, I had definitely heard about it), Rainy Season, Sorry Right Number (this was more of a screenplay, but I quite liked it). His last “story” was more of a diary/journal (nonfiction) about his son’s Little League baseball team and a successful season they had. He included an interesting note at the end with a bit of information behind some of the stories.

>22 LibraryCin: I agree with you about the energy it takes to move from one story to the next. That's why I don't often read short story collections.

>22 LibraryCin:
>23 sturlington:

I'm not a fan of the short story, either. Mostly because I don't think the plot is as fully developed as I like it to be.

April ScaredyKit is up!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/330597#unread

I completed another novella story from NPR top 100 horror tales. The Willows by Algernon Blackwood. Two men on a trip down the river, fight for their lives against the elements.

I wasted an hour and a half of my time reading Death Rattles by Casey Pletcher for this challenge. These are very lame stories.

I'm reading Haunted Nights, published by Blumhouse. I'm four stories in and so far they're all winners.

I have completed the novella, Among Monsters, which is a companion story to Red Hill a zombie novel that I read a number of years ago. Lots of zombie action so I enjoyed it.

I highly recommend Haunted Nights. These are character driven stories, not much gore, but many use the horror tropes in a fresh way that surprised me. The authors include Garth Nix and Stephen Graham Jones.

I read A Forest, or A Tree by Tegan Moore. This was a short story that I read on the Tor.com website. It was an OK story. I felt like the scary part was not really developed that well. Once the supernatural elements appeared it seemed that it ended abruptly quickly. I don't mind the ambiguous ending, but I felt that the pacing was a bit off.

Finished Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud, and it was pretty fantastic. He wrote another collection that was read pretty widely--North American Lake Monsters--but which I never got around to. Now, I'm going to make sure I get to it sooner than later. Anyhow, full review written, but I definitely recommend this one.

One of the stories here, "The Visible Filth", has also been made into a horror movie. It was one of my favorite stories in the collection, and I expect the movie will be gruesome, but it's now on our 'watch list'. The movie's title is 'Wounds'.

I listened to Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery Edited by Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering. There wasn't a bad story in the collection of 18 tales. A couple of the stories are from series I'm not familiar with, but it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the tale.

For March I read Dead Roses for a Blue Lady by Nancy A Collins (added to wiki) - short stories featuring vampire-hunter vampire, Sonja Blue.