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12 books under 500 pages that will keep you awake at night during the Halloween season!

Looking for a quick, scary book to read this fall? Here’s a list!

Now that it’s October and people’s thoughts are turning to Halloween, I thought I’d compile a list of my favorite scary books that are:

A). Under 500 pages.

B). Not part of a larger series unless they can be read as a complete stand-alone from other books.

C). Aren’t written by Stephen King.

This list is by no means exhaustive, especially since I’ve also read a number of outstanding books that were longer than 500 pages and/or part of a larger series of books. It does however, represent a wide-range of books and authors that seemed to kind of burst onto the horror scene in the mid-2000s. This was just about the same time I rediscovered the joys of reading this type of fiction; pulpy, scary, gory, bloody, gratuitously violent and sexual. Not for the faint of heart or the woke, but just the type of stuff that seems to go best with this time of year!

(Unless otherwise noted, these are kindle editions)

BRIAN KEENE: Keene appears thrice on this list and should probably appear more than that. Keene’s two-part series, The Rising (2003) and City of the Dead (2005) set the bar fairly high for the onslaught of zombie books that would flood the genre in the following years. Although Keene’s other books fit into a larger universe created by the author, they can easily be read as standalone novels.

Brian Keene, Dark Hollow (305 pp.)

A Satyr named Hylinus with a huge penis begins seducing and kidnapping the women of a rural town. Adam Senft, a “struggling author” leads the men of the town into Lehane’s Hollow in order to discover the origins of the monster and destroy it.

Brian Keene, Ghoul (333 pp.)

A kind of coming of age story for those of us that grew up in the 1980s featuring a subterranean ghoul that eats dead bodies in the graveyard. It doesn’t end well for any involved.

Brian Keene, Darkness on the Edge of Town (306 pp.)

Written and published before King’s Under the Dome, Darkness on the Edge of Town is a grittier depiction of what could happen if a town is entirely cut off from the outside world.

RICHARD LAYMON: Two of Laymon’s books appear on this list, and like Keene, many more could. Laymon, who passed away in 2001, was often criticized for falling back on gratuitous depictions of sex and violence in his books. That may be true by today’s standards but looking back the scenes all flow and fit together, and the scary moments far outweigh the sexual ones in intensity. After you read 1 or 2 of his books you realize that Laymon was a true master at building tension and shocking the bejesus out of you.

Richard Laymon, The Traveling Vampire Show (404 pp.)

Elements of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, but this travelling show boasts a woman who may, or may not be a vampire. There is a long build up leading to the end of this book, but the atmosphere starts out tense and builds to the final reveal.

Richard Laymon, One Rainy Night (421 pp.)

A great tale about a mysterious dark rain that turns he inhabitants of a small California town into VERY violent killers. No holds barred here.

Ryan C. Thomas, Hissers (254 pp.)

An airplane carrying a zombie virus crashes on top of a high school keg party a few days before classes begin for freshman, Connor, Seth, Amanita and Nicole. They miss the party, but the fun is about to begin as the virus spreads and mutates.  Truly one of my favorite books!

Tim McBain and L.T. Vargus, The Clowns (212 pp.)

I came across these two authors when I started their masterful The Scattered and the Dead Series, which I highly recommend. The Clowns is everything that haunts the dreams and waking moments of Coulrophobics. Bonus that L.T. Vargus was born in Hell, Michigan and now lives in Kalamazoo!

Stephen Dobyns, The Church of the Dead Girls: A Thriller (466 pp.)

Not technically a horror novel, more of a who-done-it, but with creepy atmospherics. Excellent writing that tells the tale of insiders, outsiders in a town where the murder of several young girls occurs.

J.A Konrath, Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, et. al., Draculas: A Novel of Terror (325 pp.)

A geriatric millionaire who wants to live forever buys a vampiric skull and lets it bite him in order gain immortality. Chaos ensues when his corpse arrives at the local hospital.

Keith Taylor, This Is the Way the World Ends: An Oral History of the Zombie War (373 pp.)

Told as a series of oral history interviews, Taylor’s novel flows well while each interview builds into the next to tell a well-written, coherent narrative.

Adam Cesare, Video Night: A Novel of Alien Horror (250 pp.)

With high school graduation approaching, two nerds decide to do it up right by having one last video night before going their separate ways. They even invited some girls, but aliens are about to crash the party!

Paul Tremblay, A Head Full of Ghosts: A Novel (309 pp.)

A story about demonic possession, two sisters and how reality t.v. can sometimes reveal a deeper reality.