Short horror texts for older teens

[Puddypuds]

Hi would anyone be able to recommend short snappy texts with a twists. I'm thinking a couple of pages long but that really engage the reader. I'm currently trying to encourage my teen to read (massive uphill struggle) so I was thinking that this might be a good place to start. School have put some ideas forward like The Landlady by Roald Dahl but I wanted something a bit more adult thriller/horror to capture his imagination.

I'm an English teacher and I teach The Lottery by Shirley Jackson almost every year. It's exactly what you're looking for.

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/lottery-and-other-stories-book-shirley-jackson-9780374529536?gad_campaignid=19591731044&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAIDpo26ZxFlSOj8pLrKCkBStw&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9obIBhCAARIsAGHm1mTfTAGKDhHR4ouwCwVZRcO0WynNmaEJy9MWVIpAjr3lkq09cDJV0pkaAkygEALw_wcB&sku=GOR002971825

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge

I immediately thought of The Lottery!

I found all my old “Point Horror” books from when I was a teenager and gave them to my eldest son - he loved reading them, and wasn’t really a reader before that either!

Ex English teacher; I taught "The Lottery" as an introduction to a unit on The Hunger Games - big hit!

Tell Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe
The Vendetta Guy de Maupassant
Frankenstein Mary Shelley - try the adapted play or short read version if the original is too long.
Year 8 love the play version

The Landlady and also Lamb to the Slaughter are from Dhal’s Tales of the Unexpected aimed at adults. The Landlady is brill. I teach it to Year 9.

Definitely The Lottery

We did Tales of the Unexpected for GCSE!

Point Horrors were meant to be fairly easy reading. Pulp fiction for teens. I’d recommend them too.

That's a great idea I might start doing that

The yellow wallpaper is another one

If you’re cool with him reading Stephen King, then The Boogeyman is a great one. I think it’s 11 or 12 pages long. I loved King in my teens and he seems to still be popular with the teens I know today.

Conan Doyle wrote horror stories - might be too long but they are very atmospheric. MR James could be worth checking out and the BBC often do a Christmas adaptation of one which might appeal as way in - or the Derek Jacobi audiobooks.

Exactly what I came here to say!