"The year is winding down, and so am I. When the holiday parties, gift buying, and resolutions are all said and done, there’s nothing I would rather do than curl up with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. If you’re a big reader like I am, you know that this time of year is all about hitting your reading goal. Whether you set out to read 20 books or 100, these next few weeks are your last opportunity to hit the goal you set at the beginning of the year. The easiest way to get there? Reading short books, of course.
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Personally, I am a huge fan of a quick read. My ideal reading experience involves sitting down for four hours on a Sunday morning, devouring an entire book, and getting on with my day. Given this cadence, I consider myself something of an expert in short books, which is why I’ve put together this list of 22 books that are around or under 300 pages. Some are slightly longer, and a few are under 100 pages, but these reads are definitely ones that you’ll be able to fly through before the year is out.
From thrillers to romance novels to short stories to historical fiction, these 22 books are perfect for downloading on your Kindle and padding your reading challenge.
In this fever dream of a novel, a queer mountain lion survives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. The lion spends their days listening to humans in a nearby homeless encampment. When a dangerous wildfire forces the lion to venture into Los Angeles, they observe the realities of the climate crisis firsthand. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: Do they want to eat a person or become one?
Pages: 160
If you’re looking to end your year on a self-help note, How to Do Nothing is a great book to pick up. When the technologies we use every day collapse our experiences into 24/7 availability, platforms for personal branding, and products, nothing can be quite so radical as…doing nothing. Jenny Odell delivers an action plan to resist constant productivity and to become more meaningfully connected to other people in the process.
Pages: 232
If you’ve been hearing about Heartstopper all year but haven’t had a chance to check it out for yourself yet, now is the time. In this graphic novel, softhearted Charlie Spring sits next to rugby player Nick Nelson in class one morning. A warm and intimate friendship follows, and that soon develops into something more for Charlie, who doesn’t think he has a chance. But Nick is struggling with feelings of his own, and as the two grow closer, they come to understand the surprising ways in which love works.
Pages: 263
Andy is living out of a suitcase in his best friend’s spare bedroom, waiting for his career as a standup comedian to finally take off. He’s also struggling to process the life-ruining end to a relationship with the only woman he’s ever loved. As Andy approaches 35, he grapples with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group, and the growing suspicion that he really should have figured this all out by now. Relatably, Andy has a lot to learn.
Pages: 345
For as long as she could remember, Ashley has put her father on a pedestal. She knows that he’s like her—an ambitious artist—but there’s just one problem. Ashley’s father is in prison, and she does not know what he did to get there. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates; when the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley finally finds out why her father is in prison. And that’s where the story really begins.
Pages: 224
A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world’s troubles. Her mysterious employer and his intelligent daughter have created a mountain that is unaffected by the smog, where crops can grow and pleasure is abundant. Soon, though, the chef is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.
Pages: 240
The demon Vitrine loves the dazzling city of Azril. But when the angels come, the city that she worked so hard to build falls. Devastated, Vitrine mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever. This book is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story.
Pages: 216
Somewhere, out beyond the edge of the universe, there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?
Page count: 304
This deeply scary and intensely unnerving novel follows a couple in the midst of a twisted unraveling of the darkest unease. You will be scared. But you won’t know why…
“I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always. Jake once said, ‘Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.’ And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here.”
Page count: 256
This story starts as an innocent and idyllic beach story that will have you wanting to take a vacation to an East Coast private island, but by the end, you’ll be so shook that you’ll be thinking about this book for days. It’s full of family secrets and mystery, and its famous twist is one you just have to read for yourself.
Page count: 320
Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: She must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful 13-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.
Page count: 254
Dannie’s meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content. But when she awakens, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. Dannie spends one hour exactly five years in the future before she wakes again in her own home on the brink of midnight—but it is one hour she cannot shake.
Page count: 288
This story is about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that had been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.
Page count: 297
Raised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother’s childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being Black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor—someone, or something, to love.
Page count: 224
Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Without a shred of doubt, one of his fellow passengers is the murderer. Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man’s enemies before the murderer decides to strike again.
Page count: 288
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had. But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter—she doesn’t behave like most children do. Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Page count: 320
Toadling is a human who, on the day of her birth, was stolen from her family by the faeries. She grew up safe in faerieland, but once she turns 18, the faeries ask her to return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Centuries later, a knight approaches a mysterious wall of brambles on a mission to break the curse that Toadling has placed on the area and will do anything to uphold. Thornhedge is the story of a kind-hearted heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone sideways.
Page count: 116
Centuries ago, the robots of the land of Panga laid down their tools and wandered into the wilderness, fading into myth and urban legend. Now, the life of a tea monk is upended by the return of a robot, who has arrived to make good on the robots’ promise to check in on the human race. The robot cannot return to the wild until the question, “What do people need?” is answered, but the problem is that the answer to this question depends on who you ask.
Page count: 147
When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition—no one knows anything about the disease, aside from the fact that no one suffering from it has ever lived past age 21. Zinnia’s best friend, Charm, is intent on making her 21st birthday special with a sleeping beauty-inspired experience, complete with a tower and spindle. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, she finds herself falling through worlds, desperate to escape her fate.
Page count: 119
A small back alley in Tokyo houses a coffee shop that offers both delicious coffee and the chance to travel back in time. In this book, we meet four visitors to the coffee shop, each of whom has come to travel back in time for a different reason. However, the rules of the coffee shop demand that they sit in a particular seat, remain in the café, and return to the present before the coffee gets cold.
Page count: 213
This award-winning memoir from former child actress Jennette McCurdy details her struggles with eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her mother at the beginning of her career. In unflinching detail, Jennette recounts everything her mother did to shape her into a perfect star, plus what happened when she finally did achieve her mother’s big dream by starring on a Nickelodeon television show. Full of candid dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is a story of resilience and independence.
Page count: 320
Hannah is a NASA aerospace engineer who, after a series of unfortunate events, finds herself stranded at the remote Arctic research station. The one person who’s willing to make the dangerous rescue mission? That would be Hannah’s longtime rival, Ian. This fellow scientist once tried to veto her expedition but is now going out of his way to save her.
Page count: 139
Emma Ginsberg, Associate Editor
Emma is a writer, editor, and podcast producer who has been creating at The Everygirl since 2021. She writes for all sections on the site, edits the Entertainment and Community sections, and helps produce The Everygirl Podcast. With a degree in American Studies, Emma is especially passionate about evaluating the impact pop culture and internet culture have on the day-to-day lives of real women.