Great short stories are miniature miracles. They contain worlds, but can be consumed in a single sitting. They are finely-wrought, intense, and brief. They do much of the work that novels do, but with a fraction of the wordcount. When done well, they’re certainly a thing worth celebrating.
The works listed below can all be read or listened to online for free – an insanely-good bargain considering how much work must have gone into their creation. Here’s our pick of excellent short stories that are completely free to read online. Enjoy!
“Noli Mi Tangere” by Lucy Durneen
Flawlessly-crafted, and filled with haunting detail, “Noli Mi Tangere” is a story which opens with an accident. Alicia, on holiday with her parents, is dragged off in search of excitement by a local boy who works at her hotel.
The beautiful descriptions alone are enough to make this one worth a read, but if that’s not enough to convince you then there’s also the fact that it was shortlisted in Storgy‘s 2014 short story competition.
“After We Got Back The Lights” by Eric Del Carlo
An interesting post-apocalyptic story that looks at what happens when the end of the world isn’t actually the end of the world. After months (perhaps years) of isolation and chaos, civilization returns to claim a small American township. While shops reopen and a new currency is established, the narrator is left wondering when anyone will ask the crucial question: how far did it go?
“Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” by Wells Tower
Wells Tower is probably the most well-known writer on this list – evident, perhaps, from the fact that this podcast of the titular short story from his collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is available via The Guardian. He is, however, too good not to mention.
In this tale we follow the fates of an aging band of viking warriors as they go pillaging and plundering one last time before retirement.
“Road Pizza” by Melissa Kuipers
This story begins with the narrator and her friends discovering a pristine pizza lying in the middle of the road. Despite the narrator’s misgivings, her friends take it home and eat it. A quirky incident, but one that author Melissa Kuipers manages to instill with a real sense of dread and nostalgia.
The rest of the story is similarly packed with odd but memorable detail, and it’s paced beautifully.
“Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian
You’ve almost certainly heard of this short story – published by the New Yorker – before. It went viral in early 2018, and it’s not difficult to see why. As well as being sublimely well-crafted, it’s also painfully recognisable.
Margot meets Robert on a Wednesday night at the end of her fall Semester. The story follows them as they awkwardly attempt to find something akin to romance.
Thank you Neon Books team for sharing these interesting books. I hope you will share the such listing of other genres as well.
Thank you!