Written by: Drake Morgan

This list is by no means complete. There are so many fantastic novellas out there that one loses track fast. I don’t hold hard and fast to any literary rules on “novella.” Some of these pieces are short, but they’re published as independent releases. They count in my book. Rather than do a “best of” and try to search through decades of great work, I’m passing along the five most outstanding that I’ve read lately.

1) Sandy DeLuca: Messages from the Dead

This is just a great read. Spooky, haunting, and disturbing, DeLuca’s tale travels through the corridors of time to bring past and present together. Ghosts haunt the shadows of both the mind and a former hospital and they come with dark secrets.

2) William Meikle: The Auld Mither

Based on an old Scottish legend, Meikle weaves a complex tale questioning that fine line between reality and those ancient tales still told late at night when the storms batter the windows. Disbelief in the modern world comes face to face with dark things from the ancient past.

3) Mark Allan Gunnells: October Roses

This is a great ghost story in the old-fashioned “around the campfire” vein. College students searching for the lost body of a long-dead serial killer get more than they bargained for when they find him. Spooky Halloween read.

4) William Cook: Devil Inside

William Cook is a man who knows his madmen. Here he explores the delicate balance between sanity and insanity, and the disturbing consequences when the walls between the two collapse.

5) John Paul Allen: House Guest

When does love become something dark and sinister? John Paul Allen explores this complex question through an incredibly bizarre narrative construct (no spoilers here). He examines that nebulous place between reality and the supernatural through the character of Chastity and her rather unique situation.