They are less than 200 pages and you can easily read them in a day or few hours. They are also good to read if you are in a reading slump or want to read something new. Some of these are very realistic and talk about things that actually happen in real life and also fictional.
Do check out trigger warnings for all of these because most of these books are triggering.
Short Book Recommendations Under 200 Pages
Recitatif By Toris Morrison
The only short story that Toris Morrison has written with an introduction by Zadie Smith.
This is a kind of experimental story.
The two young girls of different races were together in a shelter for four months at the age of 8. As they grow they lose touch and they meet each other again and again at different points of time in life.
What’s interesting is that one is white and the other is black. Now it’s up to us to know who is of what race. How we think a white or black person behaves or speaks.
But it’s not easy because there are no clear mentions of who is what and we are left with our own biases.
Diary of Oxygen Thief By Anonymous
Want to read a book where the main character is messed up? Then try this one.
The starting line “I liked hurting girls” just caught my eyes and I was like what’s going on here?
This is dark/ Adult/ Realistic Fiction.
This is an alcoholic’s account of his misogyny. What we do to other people and what we let others do to us.
The writing is honest. The character is aware that what he is doing is wrong but he is still doing it. It has humor and many crazy stuff that he does.
Many people don’t like it maybe because they think we are supposed to like the main character. But in this book, we are not supposed to like the main character.
We Had To Remove This Post By Hanna Bervoets
It follows a woman who works as a social media content moderator. The group of young colleagues reviews violent, bizarre, illegal videos and conspiracy theories for a giant social media corporation.
They have to go according to ever-changing guidelines. While the supervisor sits timing and scoring their assessments.
This Dark, Queer, Adult Fiction
It talks about how they feel and go through because of watching and reviewing these violent and abusive videos. The psychological toll it takes on them. Under what conditions do they work and what happens in their life?
We all know how offensive social media videos are but we don’t know the people, whose work is to see and block those videos go through and how much violent stuff they see just so we don’t have to see them.
The Grownup By Gillian Flynn
Gillian Flynn with her usual not-so-likable characters but in the form of a short story.
This is a Horror, Mystery Thriller
A woman while reading Auras meets Susan and figures out that Susan is an unhappy rich woman. She goes to Susan’s house to clean auras and realizes that she doesn’t have to pretend to believe in ghosts. Miles, Susan’s stepson also has some disturbing manners and imagination.
It’s creepy and fast-paced and amazing to get you out of a reading slump.
This is amazing and crazy. The twist is also a classic Gillian Flynn type of twist and It’s an open-ended story.
5- The Trees Grew Because I Bled There by Eric Larocca
It is a collection of 8 short stories of Dark Fiction.
There are stories of grief, obsession, control, someone imagining horrific scenarios in their mind, someone suffering from cancer and what the other person is thinking about the patient, a couple with a small child encounters a weird stranger and faces horrible consequences and toxic relationships.
The common things in these stories are the relationships and encounters with others like Family, lovers, strangers, and even our own mind.
It has amazing short stories and it is a page-turner. The creativity and writing are amazing. Telling a story in just 10-20 pages without making readers confused about anything is definitely a great skill.
I hope these suggestions helped you to find your next read.
