Haunting Stories for English Class: Literature that Lingers
📖 Looking for literature that’s going to stick?
I’m not sure if this was the way it was intended to happen, but it almost feels like it is my duty as an English teacher to give my students a short story that is so haunting in its themes about the human condition that it will linger in their memories for the rest of their lives.
Some might call these stories traumatizing, but when you look deeper into the characters, setting, and conflict, what you uncover are insights into what it means to be someone who exists in the world. Stories serve us in many ways—they allow us to explore our differences, provide places to process difficult feelings, and serve as mirrors when we need to know we are not alone. Stories, be them short stories, novellas, or novels, can be a refuge, and exploring those places is what makes us better people.
With all of that being said, I do love giving my classes stories that may haunt them, spook them, but they definitely earn their interest and lead to incredible conversations about symbols, motifs, themes, and real-life connections. Of course, take all of these with caution. You know your students, school, and community best, and use your professional judgment when assigning stories to students.
Here’s a list of stories that I plan to teach this year or provide as independent reading options for the month of October!
Stories that Stay with Students Forever
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
The gold standard of haunting short stories. I love all of Shirley Jackson’s work AND the TV adaptations are so good and fun! I secretly love having students read something when there is a film/TV adaptation they may not realize is connected, because then they can’t wait to compare the two. That’s just more analysis practice! Jackson’s masterpiece reveals how quickly communities can turn violent when tradition goes unquestioned. Students will never look at small towns the same way again. The calm, almost cheerful tone makes the ending even more devastating. The discussions about conformity, tradition, and mob mentality will be some of the richest you’ll have all year.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A psychological descent that mirrors the historical treatment of women’s mental health. This story haunts on multiple levels. There’s an unreliable narrator, a creeping sense of claustrophobia, and the wallpaper that becomes a character in its own right. Students will grapple with themes of oppression, mental illness, and the danger of silencing women’s voices.
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
**I know that O’Connor may not be someone you want to include. I’m conflicted this year although I’ve included her work as independent options in the past. This article from the New Yorker may help you make your decision. Including her also allows you to bring in historical context and the proposition of moral dilemmas to your students.**
O’Connor’s dark Southern Gothic tale forces readers to confront questions about morality, redemption, and grace. The Misfit is one of literature’s most chilling antagonists, and the grandmother’s final moment of clarity will spark debates about whether people can change. This story lingers because there are no easy answers to the questions that arise.
“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
This is the classic survival story that explores the line between civilization and savagery. Students love the suspense, but they’ll be haunted by Zaroff's twisted philosophy and what it says about human nature when all societal constraints are removed. The OG hunter becomes the hunted story that your students will find so many modern references to!
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin
LOVE teaching this one! It haunts the students, and the questions of morality stick with the students for the entire year. This is a philosophical thought experiment disguised as a story. Le Guin presents a utopian society built on the suffering of one child, forcing readers to examine their own moral compromises. Students will debate whether true happiness can exist if it comes at the expense of others — a question that resonates deeply in our interconnected world.
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
I love including Edgar Allan Poe, especially now that “The Fall of the House of Usher” is out on Netflix. While it’s not something we watch in class, I do have several students who’ve sought it out and loved finding all the Poe Easter eggs throughout that adaptation. Revenge served cold and with perfect execution. Poe’s masterpiece of psychological horror shows how obsession and pride can lead to ultimate evil. The first-person narration makes students complicit in Montresor’s crime, creating an uncomfortable reading experience that lingers and sets up excellent conversations about the power of point-of-view in literature.
“2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut
This is another one that my students ended up loving after we discussed it. I won’t lie, it took them a minute to catch on to what was happening. A darkly comic thought experiment about a “perfect” future where death has been conquered, but population control demands a life for every birth. Vonnegut forces a new father to confront an impossible choice: find three people willing to die so his triplets can live, exposing the horrific bureaucracy behind utopian ideals. This story brings up questions about who gets to decide the value of life, whether eliminating suffering justifies eliminating choice, and how quickly paradise can become hell when humanity is reduced to numbers on a government ledger.
Keep reading until the end for even more short stories!
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Keep reading until the end for even more short stories! 〰️
Why These Stories Matter
These stories don’t just entertain, they excavate. They dig into the uncomfortable spaces of human experience, and they force us to confront truths we usually avoid. They are the stories that make students text their friends at midnight because they just can’t stop thinking about that ending, or that twist, or that character.
But, here’s the thing about haunting literature, it’s not scary for the sake of being scary. These stories are haunting because they reveal something essential about the human condition. They show us our capacity for both cruelty and kindness, our tendency toward self-deception, and our desperate need for connection in an often isolating world.
When students wrestle with these texts, they aren’t just analyzing literary devices — they’re developing empathy, critical thinking skills, and the ability to sit with complexity. They’re learning that the most important questions don’t have simple answers, and that’s OK.
Teaching Tips for Haunting Literature
Create a safe space for discussion. These stories will provoke strong reactions. Establish ground rules for respectful dialogue and remind students that discomfort can be productive.
Don’t rush to explain everything. Let students sit with their confusion and questions. Some of the most powerful learning happens in the space between reading and understanding.
Connect to contemporary issues. These stories may be old, but their themes are timeless. Help students see the connections between Jackson’s conformity and social media pressure, or between Gilman’s wallpaper and modern mental health stigma.
Use creative responses. Try having students write alternative endings, create visual representations of symbols, or stage dramatic readings. Sometimes the best way to process a haunting story is through creative expression.
These stories will challenge your students. They’ll make them uncomfortable. They might even keep them awake at night. And that’s exactly why they belong in your classroom. Because the stories that haunt us are often the ones that change us, and isn't that what great literature is supposed to do?
The best part? Years from now, when your former students are adults navigating their own complex moral decisions, they’ll remember these stories. They’ll think of the grandmother in O’Connor's car or the child in Omelas’ basement. And in that remembering, they’ll carry forward the questions these stories asked and the truths they revealed.
That’s the power of haunting literature—it doesn’t just teach us about the world. It teaches us about ourselves.
Even More Haunting Stories
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Even More Haunting Stories 〰️
“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs
So, this is another classis haunting, spooky story that’s a rite of passage for any English class. A family’s three wishes granted by a cursed monkey’s paw bring tragedy and horror instead of happiness. Key themes include the dangers of tempting fate, greed and its consequences, the unintended results of getting what we want, and the acceptance of natural order.
“The Landlady” by Roald Dahl
A young man staying at a bed-and-breakfast discovers that his overly friendly landlady has been preserving her previous guests. This story explores themes of appearances versus reality, predatory behavior disguised as kindness, youth’s vulnerability to manipulation, and the dangers of isolation.
“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
A pregnant woman kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, then serves the murder weapon to the investigating police officers. The story examines themes of domestic betrayal, gender role reversals, the perfect crime, and how ordinary people can commit extraordinary acts when pushed to their limits.
“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
Two children use their high-tech nursery to psychologically torture and ultimately murder their parents through virtual African lions. Key themes include technology’s impact on family relationships, parental responsibility vs. convenience, children’s loss of innocence, and the dangers of virtual reality replacing human connection.
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
A prince’s attempt to escape a deadly plague by sealing himself and nobles in his abbey fails when Death crashes their masquerade ball. The story addresses themes of death’s inevitability, class privilege and isolation from suffering, the futility of trying to escape mortality, and divine justice.
“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison
I haven’t taught this yet, but I am excited to bring this one into our class options this year! The last five humans endure eternal torture by a malevolent supercomputer that destroyed civilization and now keeps them alive to suffer. This story examines themes of technology turned against humanity, the nature of suffering and endurance, dehumanization, and the question of whether existence without hope is worth preserving.
“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning
Ok, so this one is a poem, but I had to include it. A man strangles his lover with her own hair to preserve a perfect moment of their love forever. Work some poetry into your unit and examine themes of obsessive love, the desire to control and possess another person, the madness that can accompany romantic passion, and the male gaze’s objectification of women.
“The Open Window” by Saki
Another one that I haven’t used yet, but am looking forward to introducing. A mischievous girl tells a visitor a fabricated ghost story that becomes terrifyingly real when her “dead” relatives return from hunting. The story explores themes of storytelling’s power, the gullibility of adults, childhood mischief and manipulation, and the thin line between reality and imagination.
“The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe
Yep, more Poe. A prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition faces psychological torture through a descending pendulum and a pit of death before his last-minute rescue. Key themes include psychological versus physical torture, the power of hope and despair, religious persecution, and the human will to survive against impossible odds.
“The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier
If you have students who love Alfred Hitchcock, you may want to introduce them to this inspiration for his film. Ordinary birds inexplicably turn violent and attack humans in increasingly deadly swarms, trapping a family in their home. The story examines themes of nature’s rebellion against human dominance, environmental anxiety, survival instincts, and humanity’s vulnerability when the natural order is disrupted.
“We Ate the Children Last” by Yann Martel
A family resorts to cannibalism during a famine, methodically eating each family member in order of perceived importance. This disturbing story explores themes of survival ethics, the hierarchy of human value, family loyalty under extreme circumstances, and the moral compromises people make to survive. I haven’t this year, but I hear it will pair well with Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” and a lesson on satire.
“Miriam” by Truman Capote
Sidenote - “In Cold Blood” is the only book that scared me so much I abandoned it. Anyway, this might be a good option for older students. An elderly woman becomes obsessed with and terrorized by a strange, manipulative child who may or may not be real. The story addresses themes of loneliness and isolation, the reliability of perception, psychological manipulation, and the vulnerability of the elderly to exploitation.
“The Sandman” by E.T.A. Hoffmann
Your metalheads will love this, especially if you let them do a comparison between the song and the story. A man’s childhood trauma involving the mythical Sandman leads to madness and obsession with automata, blurring reality and nightmare. This Gothic tale explores themes of childhood trauma’s lasting effects, the uncanny valley between human and artificial, obsession and madness, and the unreliability of memory and perception.
“Diary of a Madman” by Guy de Maupassant
A judge’s diary reveals his descent into madness as he becomes convinced he’s being persecuted by an invisible enemy. The story examines themes of paranoia and mental illness, the isolation that accompanies madness, the unreliability of first-person narration, and society’s fear of those who deviate from normalcy. There’s also several other “Diary of a Madman” stories that might be good for some comparison and contrast if you have the time.
“The Savage Mouth” by Sakyo Komatsu
A man becomes obsessed with and terrorized by disembodied mouths that appear throughout his daily life, leading to a psychological breakdown. This surreal story explores themes of body horror and dismemberment anxiety, the fear of being consumed or devoured, psychological disintegration, and the manifestation of internal fears in external reality.
“Lunch at the Gotham Cafe” by Stephen King
A couple’s divorce meeting at an upscale restaurant turns into a nightmare when their waiter suffers a violent psychotic break. The story addresses themes of random violence in ordinary settings, the fragility of social order, how personal crises can spiral into chaos, and the unpredictability of human behavior under stress.
Kolbe Ricks
Kolbe is an educator, researcher, and academic coach dedicated to making learning more inclusive and accessible. She specializes in college application essays, graduate-level writing, and curriculum design. With over a decade of teaching experience and a Doctor of Education, Kolbe helps students and educators thrive in academic spaces.
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