Chilling Short Story Anthologies and Collections to Read This Halloween—And Beyond

The ABCs of Horror anthology series returns in its fifth installment, Elemental Forces, edited by Mark Morris.

This non-themed anthology series brings you short stories from sixteen of the biggest names in contemporary horror, as well as four emerging authors sure to scare you all the same. 

Why should adults have all the fun? This collection of sixteen spooky stories is the perfect Halloween companion for kids as young as six, great for before bedtime, at sleepovers, or around the campfire. 

Older readers may recognize updated classics like “The Hook” and “The Ghost of the Bloody Finger,” revamped for a new generation of horror enthusiasts.

Tales of ghost bells in graveyards and mischievous dream fairies are a great way for young readers to dip their toes in the genre, and remind older ones of the stories that made them love it in the first place. 

Authors under the Hellbender imprint of Sunbury Press, which publishes horror, fantasy, and psychological thrillers, come together in Hellbent to create one terrifying short story anthology. 

This collection includes 18 original short stories from both new and established authors, as well as several horror classics from the likes of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft.

With a foreword by Thomas M. Malafarina and an introduction by Catherine Jordan, this anthology showcases the very best Hellbender, and the horror genre as a whole, have to offer.

Think you’ve seen everything the vampire trope has to offer horror? Think again. Seize the Night brings together the biggest names in vampire fiction, such as Charlaine Harris, author of the books that inspired HBO’s True Blood. 

Throw all notions of Twilight or What We Do in the Shadows out of your mind: the vampires in these stories are terrifying. With an introduction from New York Times bestselling horror and fantasy author Christopher Golden, this anthology is sure to make you fear the living dead again.

This book from one of Canada’s leading horror writers is equal parts short story collection and fragmented novel. In a series of separate yet interconnected stories, she tells the tale of five clans forced to flee Scotland for practicing witchcraft.

The Five-Family Coven, as they come to be known, settle in the sleepy town of Dourvale, Ontario, where they survive using the very powers that cast them from their native land. 

Dark magic, bloody vendettas, forbidden intimacy, and a world-ending evil all claw at balance the five families have so carefully managed to create over the centuries.

Gemma Files weaves together disparate tales across generations of these witches, building toward one terrifying culmination. 

You'll never look at the carnival the same way after reading this delightfully disturbing urban fantasy anthology—unless you were already afraid of clowns. Then you might want to stay away altogether.

Carniepunk features original stories from bestselling authors like Rachel Caine, Jennifer Estep, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, and Rob Thurman, as well as nine up-and-coming urban fantasy writers.

From disappearing circuses to creepy clowns to psychopaths stalking unsuspecting carnies, this anthology is the perfect literary follow-up to your Halloween Terrifier marathon.

It Was a Dark and Creepy Night is not your average horror anthology: The stories in its pages are made all the more scary by the fact that each and every one of them is true. 

From time-traveling ghosts and reptilian mutants to demonic dreams with real-life consequences, editor and paranormal investigator Joshua P. Warren sought out the perfect combination of short and scary to make even your evening commute a time for veritable chills and thrills. 

It may be over a century since H.P. Lovecraft wrote his first short story, but humans fear the unknown no less now than they did 100 years ago. To prove it, fourteen contemporary horror authors take on Lovecraft’s trademark supernatural and cosmic terror in short stories of their own. 

Compiled by the acclaimed editor Ellen Datlow, winner of both a Hugo and a Bram Stoker award, Children of Lovecraft sees some of the biggest names in modern horror try their hand at the cosmic subgenre, including Laird Barron, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Gemma Files, and Brian Evenson.