Folklore Short Stories

Discover a magical world where monsters aren’t scary—they’re friendly! Dive into a collection of 29 delightful short stories perfect for young listeners. Each tale is a quick, engaging story, crafted especially for kids who are just starting to explore the world of books.

Every city has a story. Some will chill you long after the last page. From the neon glow of Las Vegas to the haunted tunnels beneath New York, America hides dark secrets in every skyline. This gripping anthology dives into 50 terrifying urban legends, each rooted in real locations, whispered folklore, and chilling mysteries that refuse to stay buried. 👻 Inside, you’ll discover: • Ghostly apparitions roaming iconic landmarks • Cursed objects and sinister doppelgängers • Unexplainable creatures lurking in lakes and alleyways • Vanished souls who demand to be remembered • ...

Step back into the stories you thought you knew... and discover the darkness beneath. In Dark Fairy Tales Reimagined: 20 Twisted Versions of Classic Tales, beloved fairy tales are transformed into haunting, unsettling stories where magic comes at a price—and happy endings are never guaranteed. A glass slipper binds its wearer to a cursed fate. A hidden kingdom dances to keep an ancient evil asleep. A simple lie twists a boy into something no longer human. These are not the fairy tales of childhood. Each story drags familiar characters into shadowy worlds filled with betrayal, horror, and ...

Rediscover the magic and menace of Grimms Fairy Tales in a fresh edition crafted for today’s readers. This Adapted for Modern Readers version keeps the original plots, moods, and morals intact while refining archaic phrasing, cleaning up inconsistent punctuation, and presenting clear, contemporary typography. Enjoy smooth, consistent formatting on every device, lightly clarified language that never talks down to you, and a reading experience that lets the stories shine without distraction. Rooted in the oral traditions of nineteenth-century Europe, these timeless tales explore justice, ...

Deep in the Appalachian backwoods, legends don’t just survive—they linger. In this chilling collection of Appalachian horror, step into the shadowy world of mountain people whose lives are steeped in isolation, superstition, and stories that have been whispered for generations. This book features: A haunting short story of a family's descent into madness in The Hollow’s Hunger A detailed exploration of eerie folklore with The Hollow Walkers A gripping first-person account of a terrifying encounter in The Hollow’s Shadow Each tale draws you deeper into the dark hollers, fog-covered ...

From critically acclaimed author Troy Onyango comes a dark, suspenseful tale of spirits bearing witness to a crime that rocks an island community, based on the Luo legend of the water people.

Mia is reluctant to go camping with her boyfriend and sister, who are graduate students working on a dissertation about American folklore. But ultimately, they convince her to help document the trip. The group sets off to Black Creek, a remote destination in the Pacific Northwest where Bigfoot has allegedly been sighted. They think they’re prepared for anything, but their sense of terror grows as they find more and more evidence to suggest the monster really is out there. Eventually, Mia realizes she’ll be lucky just to make it out of the woods alive.

A Goodreads Editors’ Pick | A Boston Globe Best Book of the Summer | A Time and LitHub Most Anticipated Book of the Year | A People Most Anticipated Summer Read A spellbinding story collection from Booker Prize finalist Ruth Ozeki, about the lives we almost lived, the people we can’t quite...

Set in an ancient West African kingdom, The Gay King tells the story of King Adebayo, a revered ruler carrying a secret that could shatter his kingdom. While tradition dictates he marry, his heart is drawn to Kwame, the twin brother of his intended bride. As their forbidden love deepens, Adebayo faces an impossible choice: uphold his duty or risk everything for a love that could transform his kingdom. A timeless romance where love challenges tradition and identity finds its true voice. For readers captivated by the rich history and vibrant cultures of Africa, this tale offers a profound ...

Step into a collection of short scary stories designed to hit fast, bite hard, and linger long after you swear you’re done reading. Scary Stories That Will Make You SH17 Yourself delivers a relentless mix of ghost stories, urban legends, haunted houses, and true-story inspired horror set in places that feel disturbingly real: quiet village churches, locked cemetery gates, old rectories, late-night bus stops, coastal roads, city apartments, and black water where wrecks sleep. These are not gentle campfire tales. They’re punchy psychological horror with a wicked streak of dark humour, ...

Featured in the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his multiple award-winning stories for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume. With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu...

This omnibus brings together seven of H.E. Bulstrode’s ghost stories originally published between 2016 and 2018. These are: The Ghost of Scarside Beck A newly-wed Cumbrian vicar and his wife experience a night like none they could ever have foreseen. He may have answered his calling, but who, or what, is calling her? Old Crotchet The year is 1920, and it's Twelfth Night by the old reckoning. Festivities are about to commence at Hinton St Cuthbert Manor when something sinister stirs from its protracted dormancy, awakened, it would seem, by the arrival of two young guests. The old ways, ...

From the desolate stretches of Route 666 to the fog-shrouded forests of Washington and the shadowed alleys of New Orleans, this third volume in the acclaimed Urban Legends series dives deeper into America’s darkest folklore. Each story is a firsthand account of encounters too strange to dismiss and too terrifying to forget—ghostly hitchhikers, haunted lakes, cursed motels, and phantom radio stations that speak to the dead. Blending real-world legends, modern horror, and spine-tingling storytelling, Urban Legends: Part Three invites you to step inside the headlights, feel the static hum ...

Dive into the magical world of French fairy tales and folklore as you embark on a language-learning adventure like no other! This unique audio collection combines the enchantment of French fairy tales and folklore with the fundamentals of French grammar and vocabulary, creating an immersive learning experience that will captivate your imagination.

Turn off the light. Keep your Kindle close. You won't read just one. Twenty-two short horror stories built for the last hour before sleep — when every creak in the hall sounds like it means something. Drawn from the same American folklore canon that gave us Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, this collection hands you the campfire classics reshaped for a reader who wants a proper chill in ten minutes or less. Inside you will find: The Antique Mirror — a woman ignores her grandmother's one rule about covering the glass on full-moon nights. Midnight on Ravenswood Lane — a boy drives a ...

This volume contains all 22 of the fictional ghost stories previously published by H.E. Bulstrode between 2016 and 2022, although it omits his occult fiction. Drawing heavily upon British folklore, legend and history, these stories tap into a deep and shadowy past which seeps, sometimes erupts, into the present, whether that ‘present’ should be eleventh-century England, or today. These are ghost stories with a twist written in the ‘classic’ vein, which is to say that they contain not so much gore as a sense of the uncanny, often steeped in antiquarianism. Others possess a distinctly...

Step back into a land of plague, prophecy, and whispers that burn. In Ashes of the Sick, acclaimed horror writer Silas Toombs brings you ten terrifying folk horror short stories from the darkest corners of Old England—where disease isn’t always the deadliest curse. Meet plague doctors who walk with shadows, scarecrows who remember too much, spectral bellmen, witchfinders, and ancient spirits that dwell beneath stagnant waters. From fog-choked moors to crumbling cottages, each tale drips with historical dread, blending superstition and survival in an era ruled by faith, fear, and ...

LOVE HUNTIN’ AND OTHER CRAZY HILLBILLY STORIES Volume 4 of MUSING APPALACHIA Hillbillies are peculiar critters, found only in the Appalachian Mountains…where real life often seems stranger than fiction. These stories weave mountain customs and folklore into the lives of whimsical characters who were mostly sane (give or take a little). I write about the more eccentric, humorous, and fun-loving folks I’ve run across…sprinkled with a few embellishments here and there. . The book features forty-two uproariously funny tales: The Jay Bird Boys Talk Trash The Snuggle Inn Half-Star Hotel ...

A contemplative book of Taoist-inspired stories for readers drawn to stillness, presence, and quiet reflection. This is not a self-help book. It does not explain how to live, improve, or become. It stays with what already is. These pages do not offer ancient myths or instructions for living. They hold quiet stories shaped from ordinary life — from work, adaptation, roles, comfort, and exhaustion — and from the subtle distance that can grow between us and ourselves. Foxes, cities, birds, rivers, and mirrors appear here not as legends, but as forms through which modern experience can be ...

They were never the villains. They were just the ones who got remembered wrong. Circe didn't turn men into pigs for fun. She had reasons. Macha didn't curse her husband's kingdom out of cruelty. Persephone didn't go to the underworld looking for power — she went looking for her daughter. Smoke and Ember: The Fire Keeps is a collection of eleven stories told by the women at the center of old myths — and by the women who survived in their shadows. Goddesses, queens, witches, and mothers from Greek, Celtic, Norse, Slavic, and Welsh mythology — each one finally telling the truth about ...