As humans, we’re entertained by many things, but it’s hard to resist the thrill of a story that takes a turn you weren’t expecting. Whether it’s a well-loved story told in a movie or a book, a friend telling you their latest vacation misadventure over a meal, or a cold case that finally gets solved through an unexpected break in the case, we love to see what happens when we can’t predict what will happen next.
Not every story needs to be the length of a movie to have the payoff of a twist ending or an unpredictable turn. Here are five short stories famous for keeping readers on the edge of their seats, or perhaps a better way of putting it for readers: Stories that pull our noses closer to our books.
“The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry: A Classic Twist Ending
When a young wife and husband struggle to find the perfect Christmas gifts for each other, they each take a big risk to try to show the lengths they will go to in their devotion. But the result isn’t what either of them intended. This simple short story can be read online or found in collections of O. Henry’s stories such as The Very Best of O. Henry. Or, if you prefer to read a PDF of the story, you can download our free printable PDF from Penny Magic.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson: Unsettling and Unpredictable
One of our Penny Magic favorites, Shirley Jackson has offered readers thrills and chills for decades. While her books The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle will entertain readers in novel form, this unsettling short story has kept readers captivated by its unpredictable turns since it was first published in the New Yorker in 1948. Read it from the New Yorker, or find it in a collection like The Lottery and Other Stories.
“The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs: You Won’t Always Get What You Wish For
What would you do with three wishes? When a content elderly couple end up in possession of a monkey’s paw that grants three wishes, they quickly learn that their wishes may not come true in the way they think. Can they rectify the consequences of their first wish through their second? Or their second through the third?
“It moved,” he cried, with a glance of disgust at the object as it lay on the floor. “As I wished, it twisted in my hand like a snake.”
Read this story for free online.
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin: Short and Powerful
When a woman learns of her husband’s death in a railroad disaster, she spins through many emotions and takes the readers along with her. In this very short story (just a four minute read), we watch as the newly-widowed woman sees her future change before her very eyes.
“She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.”
Read this online on Penny Magic, or find it in a collection of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Selected Short Stories.
“The Outsider” by H. P. Lovecraft: Otherworldly Revelations
How far would you go in search of connection, of something you sensed you were missing or had lost? A wretched man who lives alone in a castle breaks forth to find something beyond the life he knows. What fate awaits him?
“Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness.”
Published in Weird Tales in 1926, you can read this story online or find it in many H. P. Lovecraft collections.
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