10 Must Read Horror Stories | Scary Shorts and Full Length Books
Since January 2017, people spent over 54 million minutes reading horror stories on Wattpad. We don’t track data on the hours of sleep lost as a result of reading those hair-raising tales, but we’re sure it’s a lot.
The 10 horror stories below are some of the most widely-shared online. Dim the lights, shut the blinds, and enjoy these chilling, nightmare-inducing stories.
This 2016 Watty Award winning anthology includes a collection of short horror stories. Writer Josh Saltzman specialized in comedy, but proves here that a good scare, like a good joke, is all about timing.
Author’s Description:
Strange Yarns is a ball of tangled tales. Twisted, knotted, and intertwined. Like Tales of the Crypt, the Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits. Strange Yarns is not just a collection of ghastly tales, these are yarns, and yarns are sewed together. Follow the yarns and see the grand design... think of this as an evil quilt.
As the cover alludes, this story is not for the faint of heart. Writer @Ms_Horrendous has quite the reputation for horror. She’s a member of both the Wattpad Stars Program and horror collective, The Cryptic. Explore this take on the classic haunted house trope.
Author’s Description:
When you enter the house, you follow the rules, you play the game...
My name is Emily. I thought it was a normal, abandoned house. I thought she was a normal girl. I thought we'd play a normal game of hide and seek. Turns out I was wrong. Dead wrong...
What’s scarier than a loss of control? Perhaps being turned into a human puppet. Canadian writer @Zombies examines this terrifying concept in her breakout work.
Author’s Description
"My beautiful Puppet Boy and my beautiful Puppet Girl."
A teenage boy and girl find themselves trapped in the lair of a crazy man obsessed with human puppetry.
There’s a reason that folk tales endure the test of time: good scares are worth sharing. Writer Finn H.Arlett is an active member of the Wattpad community and manages the Paranormal Community in his spare time.
Author’s Description
In 1922 my Papa told me of a faceless entity that lurks amongst us in our isolated slice of Russia. The locals have kept this horror alive for a century, though the only ones who claim to have seen the Folveshch have succumbed to a life of sightless silence.
Fans of Science fiction will love this twisted take on space exploration. This book was written collaboratively by Wattpad writers Taran Matharu, Jason Kucharik, Stephen Landry and Penegrin Shaw.
Author’s Description
A team of astronauts crash land on a primitive alien planet, millions of lightyears from earth. Hunted by savage megafauna and native tribes, they must band together to survive. What they discover there will change everything they know about what it means to be human.
Ethan James is an award winning videogame scriptwriter who’s worked on some of Ubisoft’s biggest titles, including Assassin's Creed. His short story was featured in Wattpad’s Top Horror stories reading list.
Author’s Description
In this horror short, a father and son must come to terms with their tumultuous history, devastating family loss, and a past that will not stay buried. Memories are slippery, violent things and lying to one's self can be deadly.
