RIP READS: Short & Dark - Stories to Keep You Up At Night

Let's get this month of RIP Reads started with a short list of recommendations 

from Kai of Fiction State of Mind!  

------------------------

Credit:  Abigail Larson

Short & Dark : Stories To Keep You Up At Night

Happy Fall! Halloween is looming and so is my immersion into Horror Fiction. Living in California it’s often hard to get into a Fall State of Mind but Horror and Thriller reads really transport me to Fall.

Here are some of my favorite short stories that I have read recently and return to time and time again.

Edgar Allan Poe

I realized this month that a great chunk of my Poe knowledge has come from movies and television adaptations. So I recently read The Pit And The Pendulum, Murders In The Rue Morgue and Masque of The Red Death.

I was really impressed with the dramatic tension and spookiness of these stories despite them being written so long ago. I also read The Black Cat, though I’ll admit the celluloid adaptions of the story are more thrilling.

20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill 

This anthology has a touch of Fantasy and Science Fiction Elements to it but the stories are stunning.

Pop Art, a story about a friendship between boy and inflatable boy. The Cape about superpowers ending up in the wrong hands and Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead which is kind of self explanatory.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman 

This entire book is stunning but Baby Cakes and Vampire Sestina are two of my favorites.

I’ve also recently purchased these stories on my Kindle, all have thrilling and classic horror feels to them:

Ponies by Kij Johnson 

The Complete H.P Lovecraft Collection 

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson 

Hope you give these stories a try. Happy Reading!

-----------------------

P.S.  For more information on Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) Reads, check out the challenge here.