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Favorite Short Horror Story

A dedicated forum for discussing and celebrating your favorite short stories and short story authors.
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Murmur
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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DB Roy wrote:I warped by daughters by reading them horror stories for bedtime when they were young. The middle one hated them but the youngest loved them. Well, the middle one claimed to hate them but when I went to the youngest girl's room to read her a new one, the middle one would always wander in and then complain afterwards that she wouldn't get any sleep now, thanks to me. Of course, I'm a huge fan of the old radio programs and so when I read the stories, I always put on the proper voices with the proper emotions and the proper lighting.

Their favorites include:

The Cocoon by J.B.L. Goodwin, definitely the overall favorite
The Whole Town's Sleeping by Ray Bradbury (this one about scared my middle girl half to death)
The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
The Spider Hans Heinz Ewers, my eldest one LOVES this one
The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers, this one even terrified the youngest one and she's the bravest of the three
Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson
The Dunwich Horror by Lovecraft
Oil of Dog by Ambrose Bierce, darkly humorous eliciting many guilty laughs
In the Court of the Dragon by Robert W. Chambers

I just ask my youngest, whose 15 now, what other stories did she like and she said
Man From the South by Roald Dahl, claiming she was never quite the same after that one. Goddess, how I've warped them!
I'll try to find those stories that I haven't read yet.
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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I would agree with many of the selections mentioned here. The horror genre usually encompasses some kind of supernatural element and frequently a twist that shocks the reader. The following stories do not have a supernatural element, but otherwise fall perilously close to horror.

Technically southern gothic fiction, the short story, A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, is a stupendously, amazing work. It is structured ingeniously to gradually reveal to the reader the central horror at the heart of the story.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is also not usually considered classic horror fare, but it is breathtakingly shocking at the end.

Edith Wharton wrote some top notch ghost stories. One of her short novels, Ethan Frome, also resembles a horror story (again no supernatural). It gradually builds to its horrific conclusion.
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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Another story my girls liked that had no supernatural element was written by none other than Jack Webb called "The Incomplete Corpse." That was pretty good. There are a few novella that I really like. My two favorites are "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" by Poe and Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth." Another great horror short story author is Guy de Maupassant. Man, who could ever forget "The Horla"? My girls never will, that's for sure.

Here's a few online texts of stories I mentioned:

http://pdfs.mhpbooks.com/Guy.pdf
The Horla

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stori ... Sign.shtml
The Yellow Sign
http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/kiy_dr.htm
In the Court of the Dragon
These two stories by Robert W. Chambers are from his series called "The King in Yellow." Most of the stories center around a fictional French play called "The King in Yellow" that causes anyone who reads it to go mad even in translation. Tales as these two that I have posted here are the accounts of two such unfortunates.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605651.txt
The Spider. Outstanding story.

I emailed my middle daughter for what stories she liked most (she's in college). She mentioned this one:

http://www.unz.org/Pub/Unknown-1943aug-00127
They Bite by Anthony Boucher. It was first published in 1943, I think, and I found this original publication complete with strange WW2 anti-axis ad.
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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I have two as well:

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson - the first time I read that, I remember my jaw dropped. The story has been retold in so many different ways now...

And

"The Brass Teapot" by Tim Macy. I loved the short story. There was a film adaptation a while back that deviated from the book but was still really good.
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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"The Yellow Wallpaper" By Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Truly horrific. Of course Stephen King wrote many that were grand, one of my faves was this one about a finger coming up through the drain, can't remember the name of it though. Besides the ones you all know through pop culture, like Trucks, and Hearts in Atlantis, and the Langoliers.
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/sffaudio-us ... ohnson.pdf

"Far Below," by Robert Barbour Johnson. I've always liked pulp writing and stories from the 1930's. This is a good one.
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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Off the top of my head some of my favorites are...

"Who Goes There" by John W. Campbell (later filmed as The Thing From Another World and John Carpenter's The Thing)
"The Night Flier", "You Know They Got A Hell Of A Band", "The Jaunt" and "1408" - Stephen King
"An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" - Ambrose Bierce
"The Small Assassin" - Ray Bradbury
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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"Hop-Frog" by Poe is one of my favorites. It's short and has a fierce ending.

loa-shared.s3.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/ ... p-Frog.pdf
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Re: Favorite Short Horror Story

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RB816 wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:37 pm And as a smoker, I've always been partial to "Quitters Inc." by Stephen King. Even though it's a novella and not a regular short,
Stephen King can definitely turn out a well crafted short. I have almost all of his books of short stories, although I haven't managed to read "If It Bleeds" yet. "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" comes to mind.

I have also enjoyed "Fat Farm" by Orson Scott Card, which I think I first read in OMNI. I think that one is available online somewhere.
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