8 Page-Turning Books With Short Chapters To Keep You Hooked

Set during World War I, this is a story of four lovers — a shy pianist, a soldier who holds the dream of becoming an architect, a gifted musician being sent off to war, and a French woman who’s been treated awfully by Germans. It’s narrated years later by Aphrodite to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares. They wonder how love and war are so intertwined, bringing each other together and keeping each other apart. It’s a tale of drama, trauma, prejudice, music, and most of all, love.

This book gets raw and real about race in America. It was written as a response to the murder of Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old black boy. Justyce McAllister has a bright Ivy-league future ahead of him. But that does not make a difference to the police officer who puts him in handcuffs. Justyce feels lost, confused, and helpless, and he looks to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for guidance. He starts to write a journal addressed to him. This epistolatory novel is one that stays with you long after you’ve read it.

Yunjae has Alexithymia, a brain condition that makes it hard for him to feel certain emotions like fear or anger. However, his devoted mother and grandmother are unfazed. They’ve helped him in small and big ways to navigate the world. However, on his 16th birthday, an act of horrific violence leaves him alone in the world. He isolates him until Gon, another troubled teenager, arrives at his school and starts to bully him. With time, they realise they have more in common than they think, and their stories take an unexpected turn.

This is an autobiographical book about the author’s condition that left her bedridden with an undiagnosed illness. She encounters a common woodland snail, the Neohelix albolabris. She observes the snail and is intrigued by how it chooses to move through the world with its anatomy, defences, decision-making, and courtship rituals. It shows us the wonders of the natural world and how much there is to learn from it. It’s a story of resilience that’s told with grace and wit as a woman tries to survive life alongside a mysterious creature.

Icarus is a high school student and a thief. He replaces priceless art with his father Angus’ forgeries. They have their reasons to steal Mr. Black’s art which we find out with time. Icarus sneaks in and out of the Black household and forms an unlikely friendship (possibly more) with his son Helios. The book is divided into multiple short chapters that make the story digestible. It’s a book that’s a bit bizarre and very queer. It explores cruelty while also being a celebration of quiet love. It made me realise and feel warm about all the moments of care that sometimes go unnoticed.

This is a short, quirky read that’s divided into short, bite-sized chapters. It’s written from the perspective of an alien that’s sent to Earth. You might think that the trope is overdone but it’s done so well in this book. We follow a member of a species that is far superior in intelligence to humans sent here to destroy information we can’t handle. He takes over the body of a professor and lives as one among us. It is filled with delightful observations and dark comedy. It’s such a vivid and raw lens into what makes us human and what would stand out about us to an intelligent life form that isn’t human.