Horror Anthologies and Short Story Collections for Bite-Sized Terror
For horror that you can consume in one sitting but will think about for days, try this list of seven anthologies and short story collections.
This anthology contains sixteen stories by the most visionary queer horror authors writing today. The book as a whole manifests ecstasy, heartache, and suffering, whether while watching the porter of a hotel exists in a time loop constructed for him by the sentient hotel where he works, or seeing lovers lose themselves in an unfolding garden labyrinth. This anthology cuts deep with its uneasy, expanding terror and is sure to linger in your mind for a long time after.
This anthology also focuses on queer stories written by queer authors, but these stories are intended for a young adult audience… and they all feature creatures of some sort. Both familiar monsters like the Mothman, gorgons, angels, and sirens, as well as some new beasts like a girl with thirteen shadows all have stories that celebrate queerness… and they come out, as the title says, mostly at night.
A young man’s father calls him early in the morning to say that his mother has passed away. He arrives home to find his mother’s body still in the house. Struggling to process what has happened he notices a small black wound appear on his wrist. Then he discovers his father is cursed with the same affliction.
Enoch Leadbetter goes to buy a knife for his husband to use at a forthcoming dinner party. He encounters a strange shopkeeper who draws him into an intoxicating new obsession and sets him on a path towards mutilation and destruction…
Two old men revive a cruel game with devastating consequences…
What to Read Next
Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her short works at Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She hosts the podcast about women in true crime, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. Follow Mary Kay McBrayer on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her author site here.