Last weekend, I purchased and started reading Mariana Enríquez’s Our Share of Night, a book that combines two things I don’t often dedicate myself to: 1) a horror story that is 2) over 300 pages long.
Hopefully, I will finish this before Halloween…
Call it a fear of literary commitment, but I have a hard time picking a long book off the shelf (even if that shelf is my own) and diving into it.1 Yes, this does mean that some titles just keep looking at me, waiting for the time that will only come when I decide I need to really sink my teeth into something with some meat in it. Maybe it’s a lingering bad habit from my qualifying exams and the need to go through three books every two days for long, never-ending weeks. Maybe I’m too antsy to sit still (metaphorically and literally) for too long.
On my way to rediscovering that books could be fun (and not just an avalanche of information I needed to ruminate on and digest), I also allowed myself to go into directions that were quite different from my previously beaten paths. One of them was short stories, a format that I never read in earnest before and that I now often reach to at the bookstore and at home (to the point where a friend would call me a “short stories girly”).2
In short, I don’t often read long novels. But as I think about the “horror” bit, I realize that I may be closer to this line than I first thought. I like stories that set a mood more so than try to give me answers. I like stories that hover over the thin lines between what is and what could be. I like some weird stories, and stories that don’t make a whole lot of sense.
As I look through the list of short story anthologies that I have read in the past couple of years, I shouldn’t be surprised to find a good number of fantastic and ghostly vibes collections in the mix. And quite some others on my wishlist…
So, in honor of October being just around the corner, here’s a short list of collections of short stories—of various flavors of out-of-this-world and unsettling. I hope you’ll find one you like I look forward to hearing your suggestions too!
A small selection of vibes feat. happy geckos by Steph Laberis
If you want just a slight out-of-this-world magical experience without too many frights…
What is not yours is not yours, by Helen Oyeyemi
This collection of interconnected (but independent) short stories will hit that sweet spot for people who want to get into the Halloween vibe of witches and magic but don’t feel like going all-in on ghouls and zombies and unsettling mansions. Consider it the decaf pumpkin spice latte of this list.
If you like flickering lights in old stone castles with a sprinkle of ghosts…
Ghosts, by Edith Wharton
This anthology brings together texts written throughout Wharton’s career and, in her own words, were meant less as a scary experience than as meditation on the speeding up of life brought about by the exponential intrusion of technology in everyday life (yes, in the early twentieth century). A strong chai latte with extra spices, if you will.
If you want your unsettling folk tales with a dash of anthropological curiosity…
Other worlds: Peasants, pilgrims, spirits, saints, by Teffi (trans. Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler)
Folk tales always have that dash of horror that inhabits the line between the village and the wild, whether the stories are explicit about out-of-this-world creatures or not. This collection explores this in-betweeness, and it is up to you to take it up on it. A cup of ginger tea (and a beat-up leather notebook full of notes).
If you want to explore the horrors of middle-class life and the unsettling that may lie within…
Thus were their faces, by Silvina Ocampo (ed. Daniel Balderston)
Ocampo’s short stories (of various lengths and also from across her long career) tap into that Latin-American vein of magical realism where shadows in the wall start wailing and creepy statues do indeed bleed while an average housewife finishes cooking dinner (eat at your own peril). A double-shot expresso with a stick of cinnamon.
If you think life needs more human-animal hybrids and that pubescent girls are scary on their own…
The complete stories of Leonora Carrington (trans. Kathrine Talbot, Anthony Kerrigan, and Marina Warner)
I could put any of Carrington’s paintings here and they would likely do a much better job at translating the sheer atmosphere of the subconscious come to life of the stories collected here. Some of them are wacky, some of them are curious, some of them are downright disturbing—and all of them exude the same visual quality even when no description is given. A dirty chai latte with a side of pain d’épices for extra spice.
Honorable mentions:
Life ceremony, by Sayaka Murata (trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori); Weasels in the attic, by Hiroko Oyamada (trans. David Boyd); Record of a night too brief, by Hiromi Kawakami (trans. Lucy North)
These books feel like what happens if you take magical realism, blend it with a cup of horror, then strain it all on top of a soup of upside-downess.
(some extra suggestions if you want some creepy-crawlies inside your brain)
I’ll admit here that I’ve only recently found out that May is Short Story Month, so I should probably honor it next year in full style by using my birthday as an excuse to expand my collection…
Some of these sound fascinating, but I am such a wimp when it comes to spooky stories (to wit: when I had to study Bram Stoker's Dracula as an undergrad, I had to leave all the lights on and still had terrible nightmares for weeks!) I might try some of the more magical realism ones though, as I've enjoyed some short stories in that genre before. Thanks for the recs!
Some of these sound fascinating, but I am such a wimp when it comes to spooky stories (to wit: when I had to study Bram Stoker's Dracula as an undergrad, I had to leave all the lights on and still had terrible nightmares for weeks!) I might try some of the more magical realism ones though, as I've enjoyed some short stories in that genre before. Thanks for the recs!
Also: love your coffee analogies!
This is an awesome round-up! I have been holding onto Carrington on my tbr but I think I might have to read it this month!!