Top 10 Horror Novellas

[Craig Shaeffer]

Hey, MacAl, everybody.

Here are my Top Ten Horror Novellas of All Time:

1. "The Great God Pan," by Arthur Machen
2. "Sardonicus," by Ray Russell
3. "Petey," by TED Klein
4. "Apt Pupil," by Stephen King
5. "Bright Segment," by Theodore Sturgeon
6. "In the Hills, the Cities," by Clive Barker
7. "The Beckoning Fair One," by Oliver Onions
8. "The Passerby," by Jack Ketchum
9. "Black Man with a Horn," by TED Klein
10. "Naming of Parts," by Tim Lebbon

Hmmm...

As I look this list over, I see a bunch of my favorite titles missing. Perhaps I'll revise it or expand it later.

One more thing (for Mac)...

My horror novella ("Witching Hour Theatre") was accepted yesterday by Creative Guy Publishing. Since I mentioned it in another thread, I thought I'd let you know that it went from "pending" to "soon to be released." :-)

I know we're not supposed to "self-promote" here, but since I am a horror writer and my work will be published by the same publisher that publishes a lot of Paul Kane (who writes some darn good stuff), I thought I'd mention it.

Anyway, which novellas have I wrongfully omitted from my list?

[Anatole Ghio]

If I remember right, Call of the Cthulu is novella length, and I would put that in the top 10... if not that one in particular, then any of a couple others Lovecraft wrote at novella length.

- Anatole

[Craig Shaeffer]

Good call, Anatole.

I didn't have my Best of Lovecraft collection with me last night when I made the list, so I couldn't see which stories were short story length, novelette length, novella length, shrimp scampi, shrimp kabobs, shrimp...

I completely agree that HP needs to be on there. The Colour Out of Space, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Call of Cthulu, The Thing on the Doorstep, and about ten others could all qualify. I also wanted to put a lot more King on there, but lists with too many entries from one author look obsessive, and even though I am, I don't want to appear that way.

[MacAllister]

"Apt Pupil" is a great choice--but I don't know as I can call it horror, any more than "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption"

"The Langoliers" now...

And you know what? If forum members have something about to be released, I actually would like very MUCH to know about it here. Perhaps we should have a thread just for that? What do ya'll think?

[Craig Shaeffer]

Having a thread for that would be really cool. Hopefully, I'll have more to contribute to it soon.

"The Langoliers" is good, but I was always partial to the other three novellas in Four Past Midnight (I know mine is the minority view).

"Apt Pupil" isn't traditional horror by any means, but I'd definitely paint it with the horror brush. I suppose it's a matter of how wide the circles are on your horror Venn diagram, but mine are awfully large. I wouldn't call Shawshank a horror story despite the suffocating unfairness of Andy's plight. "Apt Pupil," on the other hand, seems almost clinical in its detached unfolding of the boy's descent into depravity.

It reminds me a little of Joe R. Lansdale's "The Drive-In Date" in the way it depicts horrific actions in a matter-of-fact way. Strangely enough, another tale I'd toss into this subgenre of off-putting, "quiet" horror is Harold Pinter's The Homecoming. In that play, a young man brings his new bride home to meet the other male members of his family only to watch in disgust as his brothers and his father proceed to "try her out" before his very eyes. I read that play as an undergrad, and I still feel a little sick thinking about it.

[MacAllister]

Ah...Harold Pinter. One of my favorite writers, actually. Takes me back years, to learning about the "Pinter Pause"...

errr...well...*comes back to present, blinking*

Also brought Charlotte Perkins Gilman to mind--"The Yellow Wallpaper" has got to top my list of horror novellas. Though I don't know as anyone but me ever calls it horror.

[Craig Shaeffer]

Mac, we horror mavens can rightfully lay full claim to "The Yellow Wallpaper." It's quiet horror, but dang if it isn't unsettling. I think I read Stephen King's Danse Macabre discussion of it before I read the tale, so I knew what I was supposed to look for, but even so, I got the sense while reading it that there were ragged edges, blurry places around the story's periphery that I couldn't quite grasp--and I mean that in a good way. It's as though the woman's madness is as elusive as it is unstoppable.

Glad to hear you're a Pinter fan. That would probably also make you an Albee fan, whom I like even more than Pinter because he's almost as disturbing but a hell of a lot more fun.

I'll throw another title into the fray: "Don't Look Now." Du Maurier's story (I blush to confess I've never seen the film, though Sutherland's romp with Julie Christie is the stuff of legend on internet movie forums) is one heck of a yarn.

Of course, much of this discussion hinges upon word counts and term distinctions, but while we're casting our nets wider, I'll throw in "Turn of the Screw," Blackwood's "The Willows," and David Case's "Fengriffen."