10 Fiction Books Under 200 Pages To Restart Your Reading Habits

Short fiction books to read

Sad, but true, we’re in an era where the attention span of many has been whittled down to the length of a TikTok. And if you find yourself drowning deeper in the brainrot pool and are scrambling to negate that with a book or two, diving headfirst into an 800-page epic from the start isn’t an efficient way to literary salvation.

We’ll advise you to start small, a good story at a time. Here we have 10 short fiction books for you, each clocking under 200 pages, that’s slender enough to finish on a weekend, but brilliant enough to jolt your reading habit back to life.

Table of Contents

Short fiction books to read

1. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

192 pages

Image credit: 746 Books

The quiet Japanese novel The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa tells the story of a once-brilliant math professor whose memory lasts only eighty minutes, and a housekeeper who was hired to look after him. Her curious young son enters his life as well, and together, they learn to meet him where his memory begins again each time.

Numbers and math equations may be scattered throughout, but it is the geometry of human connection that will warm your heart, one that balances love and loss in a way that logic never could.

2. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

128 pages

Image credit: Pages and Coffee Cups

Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These is proof that a book does not need hundreds of pages to leave a lasting mark. Set in the 1980s in Ireland and within a small Irish town, coal merchant and father of five Bill Furlong lives his life in quiet diligence, until he uncovers the dark secret of a local convent during Christmas time.

In a town and world where not meddling and staying silent is the safe choice, Bill struggles to choose between comfort and conscience in the face of the cruelty around him.

Light as the book may be, it carries a moral weight so resonant, it reads like a frigid winter morning that cuts through the air. You’ll find that a remarkable novel isn’t just about the beauty in its prose, but the humanity written throughout, and about how even the smallest act of decency can echo far beyond its moment.

3. Foster by Claire Keegan

89 pages

Image credit: @literarystacey via Instagram

Not many writers can say so much with so little as Clair Keegan does so beautifully that we can’t help but include another one of her novella masterpieces in this list. Foster tells a tender tale of a young girl who is sent to stay with relatives in the Irish countryside, where amid chores and a borrowed home, she experiences kindness, gentleness, and a sense of belonging she’s never quite known.

There’s a beauty of simplicity in this book, with a story that captures the ache of growing up and impermanence, as well as the power of kindness, no matter how fleeting. Simply put, it is a small book with an immeasurable heart.

4. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

159 pages

Image credit: Em’s Shelf Love

It’s hard to imagine how a book this slim can contain worlds of emotions, but James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room does it so luminously.

An American man named David struggles with his identity and desire when he finds himself falling in love with Giovanni, an Italian bartender in Paris. Their love story unfolds achingly, haunting yet eclectic, painting a picture of a man caught between his longing and the suffocating expectations of society.

You’ll feel a whole lot with this read, the quiet devastation in denying your own truth, the hunger to be known, the loneliness in silencing ourselves to fit into the world, and the courage to reach out for love. But then again, that is the human heart after all, in all its contradictions and emotions.

5. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

128 pages

Image credit: @memoirsofra via Instagram

Letters to a Young Poet isn’t a full-on fiction novel, but fret not, it isn’t exactly a self-help book either.

Comprising a collection of letters written to a young aspiring poet, Rainer Maria Rilke’s responses to the young man’s questions go beyond guidance on writing, but on living life. With a gentleness that feels both timeless and refreshingly blunt, Rilke’s wisdom is that of a patient friend who reminds you to live more deeply, trust the questions, and embrace the uncertainty of life. Trust when we say that you’ll be picking this one up now and then, even in ten years down the road.

6. Open Water by Caleb Azuma Nelson

145 pages

Image credit: Zoella

A story as poetic as its prose, Open Water by Caleb Azuma Nelson thrums with the tenderness of the love story between two young Black British artists, whose connection blooms through music, art, as well as vulnerability and fear. Falling in love in a world that so often pushes one to find security in closing oneself off isn’t a simple thing, and this novel captures the rhythm of hearts opening – hesitantly, intimately, and sometimes painfully – as well as the strength of ordinary love.

7. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

173 pages

Image credit: @darciahelle via Instagram

A gothic, glittering gem for you this time – Shirley Jackson’s haunting novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle is more than just a horror tale, it is strangely tender in its eeriness, and melancholic beneath all the strangeness.

Two sisters, Merricat and Constance Blackwood, live in quiet seclusion after a horrifying family tragedy led to the rest of their family dead from poison. As whispers and rumours spread and the townspeople condemn the girls, they cling to rituals, imagination, and one another to stay sane.

While the novel reads like an atmospheric fairytale, it is deeply human in the way it addresses loneliness and the humanity of being misunderstood. And perhaps many of us might find some comfort in the fierce courage and defiance of the sisters to survive in a world that has turned cruel.

8. All Systems Red by Martha Wells

144 pages

Image credit: @thetsundokuchronicles via Instagram

A sci-fi novel can have a lot of heart, too, and Martha Wells’ All Systems Red proves just that.

The story introduces us to Murderbot, a security android who hacked its own system to gain freedom to watch all of its TV shows, instead of carrying out tedious security missions like it is designed to.

And while Murderbot is intelligent, it is not very understanding of human emotions, which makes for a lot of light-hearted moments of misunderstanding, as well as tender curiosity and musings on humanity. It’s a read that’s as warm as it is witty, and just like the book itself, you’ll find that beneath all that armour and steel, there can also be a depth of empathy deeper than its brevity would imply.

9. Kim Ji Young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam Ju

176 pages

Image credit: Em’s Shelf Love

A fiction it may be, but Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam Ju has a story that hits a lot closer to home than we’d expect, specifically for women.

Through the life of Kim Ji Young, we see how an ordinary woman navigates life, work, and social expectations in South Korea. It is mundane and nothing extraordinary, but it did not have to make any groundbreaking revelations for women to resonate with a story that stays largely the same across the board – the frustration and helplessness by virtue of being a woman.

The novel is at once personal and universal, giving a profound commentary on gender and identity, and the subtle ways that women’s voices are constrained. A slight warning: it might induce some skin-crawling rage and infuriation at how it strikes such a chord. And that makes it all the more a necessary read.

10. Greek Lessons by Han Kang

160 pages

Image adapted from: Ms ASK Writes

Greek Lessons by South Korean author Han Kang is a novel that captures what it means to lose language, and the fragile ways we still reach out for connection. The story follows two lonely characters, a woman who has lost her voice due to grief and a man slowly losing his sight, who find themselves bonding through learning the Greek language.

With a language both foreign and ancient, we see that it is still possible to understand the unsaid, and that sometimes human connection can simply be felt.

Short fiction books to start your reading journey with

If that “book person” persona feels far out of your reach and buried under a pile of half-read novels and Netflix series, these short fiction books are the perfect training ground you need that’ll fit between the cracks of your reading life and kickstart your reading bug. Better a book binge than hours of doomscrolling, amirite?