One thing I've learned from my years as a writer, reader, and sharer of media is that certain genres form constellations. By that I mean, if you come up to me and say you’re a fan of fantasy, it’s likely that your interest could be piqued by something in an adjacent genre...with the right pitch, that is.
And while book enthusiasts can talk your ear off on YouTube about what stories to read this year, and you could consult Goodreads and its exceedingly unhelpful (and, in my opinion, damaging) 5-star rating system, the best way to curate your TBR list is still through good ol’ word of mouth. I hope this can be that for you.
One of the constellations I’ve come to really enjoy recommending for Sci-Fi and Fantasy heads is Horror. Every person on this Earth has their dark side. Regardless of how much we suppress what’s inside, certain books can tease out our inner darkness in a way that helps us understand ourselves and one another better. In addition to Horror, the Dark Fantasy genre has blossomed of late into a titan unto itself, with grimdark tales of dread and rot flowing off authors’ pens like ambrosia into our collective chalice.
The last piece of the puzzle when it comes to recommendations is readability. There is nothing worse than being told you have to read something with the caveat that “it might be a little hard to get into” or “slow at first.” “Give it a hundred pages or so,” some recommenders will beseech me, “then it’ll really start to fly.”
But reading just to get to the good part is boring. On the flip side, bolting through something in one sitting has the potential to turn a week around. I recently did so with my number one book on this list, which I won’t spoil, and it was the highlight of my month so far. These bite-sized reads will have you trembling, cringing, laughing, and turning the page. A dark game is taking shape, and it’s my turn to make the first move.
Let’s dive in, then, to the 10 best horror and dark fantasy books to read in one sitting. The rest will be up to you.
10) Prosper's Demon by K.J. Parker
Prosper of Schanz’s ultimate goal is to raise the first philosopher king. Unfortunately, he’s possessed by a demonic force the likes of which the world has never seen. The book starts with a call to its unnamed narrator for help. From there, we follow an exorcist without a cause whose methods are as dark as his sense of humor. If you’re looking for a character-driven take on an exorcism story that is not afraid to joke in the face of the exceedingly macabre, this one’s for you. It’s 112 pages. You have no excuse.
9) And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin
Malcolm Devlin will always resist categorization. Before And Then I Woke Up, I knew him for a werewolf story that didn’t contain any werewolves. Similarly, this novella is a searingly new take on zombies...perhaps without a single brain-eater in sight. Saying too much about the plot would ruin Devlin’s carefully constructed tale, but the most important thing you’ll want to know going in is that this story tackles misinformation and the corrupting power of false narratives with a chilling and unflinching commitment to seeing the horror through to its logical conclusion.
I’ve heard an interview with Devlin where he humbly balked at And Then I Woke Up being called a great horror story, but that’s exactly what it is. An unusual plague conquers the minds of the characters we follow, and the consequences are irrefutably sobering and bleak. These 166 pages will change the way you look at our present-day relationship with information sharing and fake news...and give you an unforgettable scare.
8 ) The Builders by Daniel Polansky
Elements of Watership Down and Redwall are thrown into a blender with pure midnight-shaded grittiness in Daniel Polansky’s dark fantasy roarer The Builders. After a failed rebellion, The Captain regathers his troops to seek revenge on their enemies. The whole tale is imbued with last-stand stakes reminiscent of the classic Japanese film Seven Samurai, and following the animals as they each use their unique abilities to accomplish a dangerous, harrowing mission will have you glued to your seat. 222 pages here. Get to it, soldier.
7) Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
Eric LaRocca is the kind of author that baffles other authors with the pure gonzo insidiousness of his ideas. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke took the horror world by storm when it hit the indie market in 2021. It details the toxic online relationship between two increasingly unhealthy individuals who engage in a plethora of sadomasochistic body-horror oriented rituals to prove their love to one another in probably the most unhealthy way imaginable.
No, strike that. Odds are you can’t imagine the pain LaRocca inflincts on his characters. There are scenes in this one that will stick with you for life. What’s more, the story goes a long way towards de-mythifying same-sex relationships and proving to readers that queer love can be messy, wrong, and straight up villanous too.
The most famous line in Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is: “What have you done to deserve your eyes today?” Let that sit a while, and if you’re still interested, pick this one up. Beware, though: some seriously disturbing things go on within these 120 pages. You’ve been warned.
6) Rest Stop by Nat Cassidy
Remember how I said Eric LaRocca is the kind of author who baffles other authors by coming up with the most messed-up premises possible? Well, LaRocca himself called Nat Cassidy’s Rest Stop, “profoundly devastating...and nasty as hell.” That in itself should tell you what you’re in for.
A musician gets locked inside a gas station bathroom overnight. Cassidy then asks us a question. What’s scarier: the person outside that trapped our main character in the first place, or the beings crawling in to accompany him? A weird and horrendous feast awaits within this 128-page scorcher.
5) Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram
Sofia Ajram digs deep into psychological horror with Coup de Grâce, the story of a man who – after planning to throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal – instead finds himself trapped in an endless subway station. As the story goes on and the man explores his surroundings, he starts to believe he’s not alone. While this might be a relief for a depressed individual on the brink of self-harm in more mundane circumstances, the creature that lives in the station might be worse than death itself.
If exploring the dark side of mental health in genre fiction sounds like it’s up your street, then there’s no novella better. It’s 144 pages.
4) The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Clive Barker is a horror great, and this particular story inspired the 1987 film Hellraiser and its villain who has since become an icon in the genre: "Pinhead."
The Hellbound Heart tells the story of a horny criminal, Frank Cotton, who wants to unravel secret sensual experiences. The most forbidden of these is said to be found within the fabled puzzle box known as the LeMarchand Configuration. Once Frank gets it open, he’s subjected to incredible sadomasochistic torture, and the story just goes off the rails from there, including more lust, murder, and gonzo horror than you thought could be packed into a 186-page book.
Barker’s propulsive pacing will have you turning pages through to the end, watching the calamity unfold with eyes you'll be torn between wanting to shut or open wider than ever before.
3) The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
Cassandra Khaw writes with prose spare enough to shred skin from your bones. This strength imbues her novellas with sharp truths and scares galore. I was first exposed to her work when I read the novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth, a haunting ghost story I would also recommend. The more recent The Salt Grows Heavy stole my heart because it has roots in fairytales. And then Khaw digs up those roots and ruptures them beyond repair.
In this one, a mermaid and a plague doctor venture into a village overrun with bloodthirsty children and the “saints” that control them. In order to survive, they have to travel into the kind of dark places you can never return from. What Khaw is able to say in these kinds of whimsical and chilling settings will always keep me coming back for more. Plus, it’s only 112 pages.
2) I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Don’t let the lukewarm movie adaptation fool you; Richard Matheson’s 1954 novella is a stone-cold classic.
Robert Neville is potentially the only survivor of a pandemic that turned all living beings into zombified vampires that go out to feed at night. He conducts solo research on what caused the apocalypse while dealing with the grief and trauma of losing those he cared about most. The novella quickly turns from a story of grim survival into something that makes you question the morality of monsters and how isolation can warp one’s view of progress and otherness.
Going any further might ruin the magic. There’s a reason this one is often cited by the best in the business as a good place to start. It’s only 160 pages.
1) The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
Victor LaValle somehow created one of the most mesmerizing yet pertinent tales about our modern era of injustice by retelling a deeply flawed story by one of the most deeply flawed authors the horror canon has ever known. The Ballad of Black Tom draws inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s "The Horror at Red Hook,” retelling it from the perspective of a black hustler named Charles Thomas Tester who lives in Harlem with his ailing father. This story has everything a horror fan could ever want: blood, gore, rifts in time and space, creepy and liminal characters for days. However, most poignantly, it provides readers with a lens into what it’s like for black folks to live with police brutality and white violence day in and day out.
To do all this in a horror story is a feat. To do it all in 149 pages is nearly unfathomable. LaValle is a gem, and he’s given us one of the most impactful modern stories you’ll ever read.
(BONUS) Killer on the Road / The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
If this article has awakened something in you (which I hope it has), I just want to put one more book on your radar. It’s a collection of two novellas by an author who most critics believe to be the best horror writer practicing the craft today. It’s Killer on the Road / The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones, set to come out in paperback on July 15, 2025. One’s a haunted house story. The other concerns the acts of a serial killer on the road. Both are filtered through Graham Jones’ absolutely killer character work and prose. Pre-order now if you’re curious. Always good to lend our generation’s greatest storytellers the support they deserve.
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