6 Short Horror Books To Complete Your 2024 Reading Goal!

2025 is just days away and if you are anything like me, you are trying to either meet your reading goal or squeeze in the last few books of 2024.

Now is not the time to read that 800-page classic on your 2024 reading resolutions (I will get to you next year, “House of Leaves”). Now is the time for short and scary novellas that you can easily finish in a couple of days or even hours! 

Pick one or two to curl up with and round out your 2024 reading goals with some whirlwind reads that will help you ring in 2025 with a bit of fright.

Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan 

Two weeks ago, Christine Sinclaire's husband slipped off the roof while hanging Christmas lights and fell to his death on the front lawn. Desperate to escape her guilt and her grief, Christine packs up her fifteen-year-old son and the family cat and flees to the cabin they'd reserved deep in the remote Pennsylvania Wilds to wait out the holidays.

It isn't long before Christine begins to hear strange noises coming from the forest. When she spots a horned figure watching from between frozen branches, Christine assumes it's just a forest animal—a moose, maybe, since the property manager warned her about them, said they'd stomp a body so deep into the snow nobody'd find it 'til spring. But moose don't walk upright like the shadowy figure does. They don't call Christine's name with her dead husband's voice.

You will not be able to put this book down, but you can easily finish it in under two hours. Read like a stream-of-consciousness fever dream, you will live out a frightening incident that takes place over Christmas. Perfect if you are still in the festive mood and if you love “The Shining,” “The Babdook,” and “The Only Good Indians.” 

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection. However, when the "psychic" visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan's terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore. Miles, Susan's teenage stepson, doesn't help matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination. The three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.

From the author of Gone Girl comes an uncharacteristically supernatural gothic tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Truthfully, this novella is so short, it may be considered a short story, but I will let it slide. . . 

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

This haunting novella follows a young governess tasked with caring for two children in a remote English manor, only to encounter supernatural forces that blur the line between reality and imagination.
As the governess becomes increasingly convinced that malevolent spirits are preying on her charges, James masterfully weaves a story of psychological tension and ambiguity. Is she witnessing true hauntings, or is her mind unraveling? The Turn of the Screw invites readers to interpret the eerie events for themselves, leaving them questioning the nature of evil and the fragility of the human psyche.

If you had “read more classics” as a 2024 resolution, this is your chance to check it off that list! And quickly too!

The Visitor by Sergio Gomez

On Christmas, during one of the worst snowstorms Indiana has ever seen, five strangers are forced to take shelter inside of a roadside diner. As the night progresses, the snowfall shows no signs of relenting, ice begins to build up on the roads, and the temperature seems to be dropping by the hour. But the worst has nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with the sixth visitor coming to the diner.

The jolliest time of the year quickly turns bloody as the diners find themselves fighting for their lives. This Christmas won’t just be white. It’ll be red, too.

Keep the holiday feeling for a bit longer with this holly jolly slasher. 

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier, #2) by T. Kingfisher

After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.

In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home. . . or in their dreams.

If you are feeling ambitious, you can read both of these books from T. Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier series. These fantastical retellings of the Fall of the House of Usher are not only gripping but also have an incredible amount of substance and are beautifully written. 

I hope one or more of these 6 books finds its way to your 2024 read list, or maybe becomes your first read of 2025! Whichever it may be, I hope you had a wonderful year full of great horror books and I can’t wait to keep reading with you all in 2025.

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