1. Mallory

    Mallory Contributor Contributor

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    Short Horror Stories

    Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Mallory, Jan 30, 2011.

    Hi,

    I'm looking for some short horror stories, preferably ones available to read online.

    I really enjoyed "100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stores" compiled by Al Sarrantonio. I'm also an H.P. Lovecraft fan -- while his voice is a bit archaic, the horror concepts in his stories are really unique and interesting. "The Beast in the Cave" was especially disturbing and created a slew of unanswered questions with the ending, and "Dagon" was flat-out creepy.

    Any other recs? I really don't get scared by real-life stuff for the most part.

    Thanks!
     
  2. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    No idea if you can online but naturally Agatha Christie is my recommendation - also the Ray Bradbury will be available on line the Sound of Thunder.
     
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  3. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    You should check out "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. It's probably my favorite horror story of all time.

    edit: It's not particularly a scary story, but it's still a good read.
     
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  4. Mallory

    Mallory Contributor Contributor

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    I haven't read that one, but my friend told me the story when we were kids at a sleepover...soooo awesome. :)

    Elg, thanks, will check them out!

    Any others?
     
  5. Hollowly

    Hollowly Member

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    I think M.R. James's stories should be online. He perfected the ghost story and I have to say that I have been left frightened reading them. They're not too long and the language isn't very old fashioned either. Lovecraft liked James's works aswell.
     
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  6. Noya Desherbanté

    Noya Desherbanté New Member

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    Oh, my goodness, you've got a short horror story lover here lol! :-D

    If you hadn't said preferably online, I would have recommended trying to get your hands on old Fontana books. They used to publish loads of horror collections under titles like 'the 14th Fontana Book of Horror Stories', classics and then-contemporary ones mixed in. Alfred Hitchcock also published a big volume of his favourites. M. R. James is in my opinion the master of the short horror story, and Saki (O. Henry) also has a few chillers, and you'll find the odd ghost story by Dickens.

    As for online readability, I imagine most of these would be in the public domain? Definitely try finding a list of an author's stories, then looking for the title plus 'read online'.

    The best resource in my opinion is Librivox.org - a huge collection of audiobooks, read by volunteers, free and public domain. Go and browse for 'short horror collection volume 1' - they have absolutely tons of short horror stories read aloud... kept me entertained on many a bus journey!
     
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  7. w176

    w176 Contributor Contributor

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    I would check out "The SCP Foundation" a creative homepage with fake files for different objects and beings, and things like personnel files and experiment logs. Some are extremely well written and it a fun wiki based project to follow.

    The main material is found under "SCP series"
     
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  8. Contagion

    Contagion New Member

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    Hi Mallory,
    If you happen to be into survival-horror, then you may be interested in David Moody's 'Hater' series. There's 'Hater', 'Dog Blood', and 'Everything and Nothing' in the series. Everything and Nothing is a prequel to the books and is available as a free download on David Moody's website www.djmoody.co.uk

    The ebook is a fairly good read in its own right, but it makes much more sense if the other two books have been read beforehand.

    Hope this helps :D
     
  9. Mallory

    Mallory Contributor Contributor

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    Thanks! :)
     
  10. Flows

    Flows New Member

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    Paul S. Kemp has a really good one called "The Signal". It's in the Lovecraft style of horror.

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