We’ve all heard that you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but have you ever judged a book based on its length? I’ll admit that I’ve been guilty of leaving short books by the wayside because I have some half-formed notion that they won’t be as meaty or as meaningful. I don’t know where this notion came from because I’ve read a number of books that prove the opposite.
All the books listed here are under 250 pages and all of them have left a lasting impression.
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Gen’s Top 8 Short Books That Will Stay With You
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq (189 pages)
Split Tooth tells the story of a young Inuit girl growing up in Nunavut in the 1970s. It slides between poetry and prose, memoir and myth, in a way that feels natural and seamless. This story could not be told any other way.
Tanya Taga never backs down from the hard things—the violence and alcoholism that ravages this community. Split Tooth is at turns brutal and beautiful, hopeful and devastating. Tagaq’s unique style is unlike anything else I’ve ever read and Split Tooth lingers the way all good stories should.
Human Acts by Han Kang (224 pages)
Beginning in Gwangju, South Korea in 1980, Human Acts opens with a second person narrative and the explosive violence of an uprising. Told through seven different narrators, each one moving forward in time until we reach an epilogue in 2013, Human Acts is about precisely what the title suggests. These human acts inspire disgust and despair in one moment, and hope and compassion in another.
Han Kang is relentless in her depiction of human atrocities and graphic in her description of the bodies left behind in the wake of violence. Human Acts is a novel that bears witness and that gives a voice to those who were silenced. It’s the kind of book that will haunt you long after you’ve put it down.
Slade House by David Mitchell (238 pages)
Slade House is a haunted house story, first and foremost. The titular house appears through a brick wall entrance every nine years, luring unsuspecting visitors into its hallways. People disappear in Slade House, never to be seen again.
If you’ve read Mitchell’s novel, The Bone Clocks, you’ll recognize Slade House as a spin-off, of sorts, though it works perfectly all on its own. Mitchell weaves a tale that is both seductive and chilling, reminiscent of the kind of Gothic literature that makes the house a character in its own right. It creeps along deliciously, and will stay tucked in the corners of your mind to come out again just as you’ve turned off the lights.
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (195 pages)
When I bought my copy of Annihilation, the guy working at the bookstore told me that reading it was hypnotic. I’ve yet to come up with a better way of describing this book.
Annihilation follows an expedition to the quarantined Area X. The team is made up of four women identified only by their occupation—the anthropologist, the surveyor, the psychologist, and the biologist, our narrator. Jeff Vandermeer manages to make the reading experience feel precisely like being in Area X. It’s a dizzying downward spiral that lures you in and traps you there, like vines slithering quietly to wrap around your limbs, binding you before you even realize what’s happening.
I know people claim all the time that certain books are impossible to put down, but that’s what everyone I’ve talked to has said about Annihilation. It’s a truly unparalleled reading experience.
Tin Man by Sarah Winman (213 pages)
I feel like I should lead with the disclaimer that Tin Man will break your heart. It tells the story of Ellis and Michael, who become friends when they are twelve years old, and something more as they grow older. Until Ellis meets and marries Annie.
What unfolds is a story of love in all its forms and all its unexpected combinations. It is also a story of grief. Sarah Winman’s writing is deceptively simple and all the more devastating for it. She’ll destroy you with this one, but it’s worth it, I swear. Writing this has made me want to read it all over again, just so that I can be destroyed anew.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (146 pages)
In a list of short books that pack a punch, how could I leave out Shirley Jackson? We Have Always Lived in the Castle is narrated by eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine Blackwood, more commonly called Merricat, who lives in an old house with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian. A tragedy six years earlier left them as the sole survivors in the Blackwood family.
Jackson is a master of the slow, eerie build, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle has an added element of isolation and claustrophobia that amps up the uneasy tenor of the novel. It is a tightly coiled story, perfect for a rainy autumn night, and one you’ll want to read again and again.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (198 pages)
I’m sure I’ve recommended this before, and I’ll keep doing so until everybody reads it. This Is How You Lose the Time War is told in a series of letters back and forth between two characters known only as Red and Blue. They are agents on opposite sides of a war through spacetime, altering events as they see fit.
The details and parameters of this war are relegated to the background, leaving the reader to piece it together from what little is provided. The time war itself hardly matters though. That’s not why we’re here. We’re here for the relationship that develops between Red and Blue, growing into a romance of two star-crossed lovers, doomed before they even began. The writing is exquisite, with lines that read like poetry. You’ll wish this one was longer.
Paper Houses by Dominique Fortier (192 pages)
You may have heard us talk about this one before. Coach House Books was kind enough to send us a copy of Paper Houses when it was first released, and we dedicated an entire episode to it. It ended up being one of those episodes where we rambled on. This always happens with books we love. We become incoherent in our adoration.
Paper Houses reimagines the life of Emily Dickinson in a series of vignettes, interspersed with occasional insight from our narrator, who is researching Dickinson’s life. It is beautifully written and conjures the landscapes of Dickinson’s life so clearly it feels as though you’re there with her. This is definitely one that has stuck with us. We bring it up again and again.
Small But Mighty
A book doesn’t have to be long to leave a lasting impact. Sometimes it’s the shortest books that pack the biggest punch. And these days, when my focus drifts a little too easily away from reading, shorter books are more likely to hold my attention. They are small but mighty, and they deserve a place on our bookshelves.
What are your favourite short books that have stuck with you? Let us know in the comments below.
