Best Short Novels

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Do you want to read but don't feel ready to tackle a fat bastard book? Then this list is for you! Here are 10 books that are under 250 pages and won't waste your time or break your wrists. All of these books are for an adult target audience because choosing children's novels felt like cheating. (There are a ton of awesome children's books under 250 pages, though.)

Let's get into it.

🌟  The Best Short Novels  🔖

The Deal Of A Lifetime by Fredrik Backman

Literary Fiction

85 Pages

A father and a son are seeing each other for the first time in years. The father has a story to share before it’s too late. He tells his son about a courageous little girl lying in a hospital bed a few miles away. She’s a smart kid—smart enough to know that she won’t beat cancer by drawing with crayons all day, but it seems to make the adults happy, so she keeps doing it.

As he talks about this plucky little girl, the father also reveals more about himself: his triumphs in business, his failures as a parent, his past regrets, his hopes for the future.

Now, on a cold winter’s night, the father has been given an unexpected chance to do something remarkable that could change the destiny of a little girl he hardly knows. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he must find out what his own life has actually been worth, and only his son can reveal that answer.

Why I recommend it: We're starting the list with a sad one. I love books where death is a character (or a profession, in this case). This book is about a man with regrets. He's spent his whole life working instead of having fun or caring for his family. Now he's dying from cancer. He makes a deal with death to do something meaningful with his final days. The story is full of warmth and humor. It'll make you question how you're living your life and what legacy you want to leave behind. It's a perfect book to read on Christmas Eve because the Christmas Carol vibes are strong.

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Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Literary Fiction

116 Pages

Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction―many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual―and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action.

Why I recommend it: It's about the pressure that people face to conform. We're expected to get a good job, get married, and have children. Keiko has her own ways of meeting society's demands, and they're definitely not what her family expects. The book highlights how ridiculous it is to "fix" people who aren't hurting anyone and who just want to live life on their own terms.

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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Classic Paranormal

116 Pages

With A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens created a modern fairy tale and shaped our ideas of Christmas. The tale of the solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of the season by a series of ghostly visitors and given a second chance, was conjured up by Dickens during one of his London night walks, who "wept and laughed" as he composed it. Taken to readers' hearts for its humor, compassion and message of redemption, it remains his best-loved book.

Why I recommend it: Since I included The Deal Of A Lifetime on this list, why not include the book that (probably) inspired it. Usually, I’m not a Dickens fan because I can tell he got paid by the word, but A Christmas Carol is pretty succinct. If you like Christmas and spooky stuff, then this is the book for you.

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The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Classic Horror

148 Pages

For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town's idyllic facade lies a terrible secret—a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same.

At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon.

Why I recommend it: The Stepford Wives is more than just a horror story. It’s a creative satire about gender roles and a warning to be careful what you wish for. The male characters are sex-obsessed masters of their domain. The women are beautiful caretakers. Those are the roles that society pushes us into, but are those the roles we actually want? It's a scary story that will leave you with something to think about.

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Home by Toni Morrison

Historical Fiction

162 Pages

When Frank Money joined the army to escape his too-small world, he left behind his cherished and fragile little sister, Cee. After the war, his shattered life has no purpose until he hears that Cee is in danger.

Frank is a modern Odysseus returning to a 1950s America mined with lethal pitfalls for an unwary black man. As he journeys to his native Georgia in search of Cee, it becomes clear that their troubles began well before their wartime separation. Together, they return to their rural hometown of Lotus, where buried secrets are unearthed and where Frank learns at last what it means to be a man, what it takes to heal, and—above all—what it means to come home.

Why I recommend it: If you want to learn how to write, you have to read Home. The writing style is poetic. The author is able to accomplish so much with so few words. This is a tiny book that feels huge. I feel like I know these characters. I badly wanted them to overcome their problems, and I was scared and frustrated by their ignorance. They're so real that you love them and hate them at the same time.

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Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

Horror

172 Pages

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.

Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.

Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?

Why I recommend it: I now understand what all the award committees are raving about. This itty-bitty horror novella is freakin' scary! I may never sleep again. The imagery will stay with me for a long time. It's vivid and graphic. A woman gets dissected alive! Then there's a butcher demon with tiny mouths all over his body. Gross. I like that the author takes real historical events and twists them into something paranormal. I also like that he finds the hopeful moments in tragedy. This is a horror story, but it's not a depressing story.

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We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

Classic Horror

173 Pages

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.

Why I recommend it: It's a terrifying depiction of mental illness and how it will slowly steal a person's life. The characters are unforgettable. I don't want to ruin the plot because it's best to go in without knowing too much, but it's a suspenseful, slow-burn story about an isolated family that may have committed murder.

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THE BODY BY STEPHEN KING

Horror

188 Pages

It’s 1960 in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. Ray Brower, a boy from a nearby town, has disappeared, and twelve-year-old Gordie Lachance and his three friends set out on a quest to find his body along the railroad tracks. During the course of their journey, Gordie, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio come to terms with death and the harsh truths of growing up in a small factory town that doesn’t offer much in the way of a future.

Why I recommend it: I could have made this entire list Stephen King novellas, but I controlled myself and only picked one. The best one! (Well, Apt Pupil is pretty good. And Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption. Read that too.) Anyway, this book was adapted into the movie Stand By Me. On the surface, it's a morbid adventure, but underneath, it's a realistic tale about how growing up is a lonely experience, even when you're surrounded by friends.

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A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Literary Classic

204 Pages

Set at a boys boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.

Why I recommend it: The author does an excellent job of capturing the insecurity of people's teenage years. This is the definition of a coming-of-age novel. The story stars a group of teenage frenemies who are growing up in an ultra-competitive environment. Their school has high academic expectations and mandatory sports participation. How do you make friends and trust people in a world where everything is a competition, and everyone is a potential enemy?

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My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Literary Fiction

228 Pages

When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defense and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other.

Why I recommend it: For a story about murder, it's weirdly relatable. It’s about how society is willing to overlook the bad behavior of beautiful women and how parents have different expectations for their older and younger children. It’s a very engaging book. I couldn’t stop reading because I was completely invested in the sisters’ lives (and crimes). 

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What's your favorite short book?