📓 Novelette : Stories that refuse to Overstay
A novel is a prose work typically above 40k words, though many fall between 60-100k. Anything between roughly 17k and 40k words is generally considered a novella, while works between about 7k and 17k words are classified as novelettes, with some flexibility ~
TL;DR - stories with 7k-17k words
created by Maynificient
last updated May, 2026
Comments
Thank you for this list!! "Refuse to overstay" is so true, I love shorter works for that. I would love for this list to be a quest someday ✨️
If you are taking suggestions, I recently read The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt and it was a good short read!
Thank you! And added to the list.
Yet another list from you that I saved. I'm guessing you've not read all but if you if know any of these has a reflective tone. Something that will make me think?
Also thank you for the list.
I haven't read all of these but i think you should like Blood Music by Greg Bear. It has a What is Self? energy like in a biological manner. Your body, your cells, your consciousness.
This is not exactly reflective in a traditional sense.
If you read any of these, let me know of the vibes.
Sounds interesting. I'll give it a read! Thanks !
The Faery Handbay- another Novelette which is not available as a book but it's free to read online.
4.5 🌟 for me
Baldeziwurlekistan is real. Zophia knew before you did. You’ll realise it a few pages in or you can take a train to Boston and go to The Garment District.
This story is logical in the way your best dreams are logical. You’re inside it, nodding along, completely convinced, and then suddenly you’re out of it, staring at the ceiling like… wait. Wait. What just happened. Then you go look for a dog in your bag.
Sounds interesting and funny! Haha. I'll put it on my TBR for days when I want to read very few pages.
This is a good list. Many times we see novellas pretending to be novelettes, infact I didn't know what a Novelette was until I came across this list. (don't judge me)
Yeah I found the same. Many "short reads" with 20k+ words so I made this one. And no. Not at allll. I wouldn't judge anyone for not knowing things. I believe that no matter how much I read I still know nothing so.. yeah.
Makes me wonder what's 17-40k words 👀
God no 😭 I made an error - you've got a good eye. I accidentally wrote 70k instead of 17k. 70k–40k doesn’t even make sense in hindsight. Thank you! I fixed it.
So, under ~1k > flash fiction 1k–7k-ish > short story 7k–17k > novelette 17k–40k > novella 40k+ > novel
