Books

This Is The Horror Novel Guaranteed To Scare Your Zodiac Sign

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A woman in a sweater clutches an orange hardcover book, in this list of horror novels to read, based...
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If you need a spooky read to round out your TBR, you're in luck! I know exactly which horror novel you should read next, based on your zodiac sign. These book selections dig deep into what scares each sign, and each one has a deliciously disturbing story for you to enjoy. Whether you're really into checking your horoscope forecast each week, you like the identity that comes with claiming your zodiac sign, or you're just looking for something spooky to read, I've got you covered here.

Now, I'm not saying you should build your reading list based only off of books for your zodiac sign, but adding a read chosen to please your specific sign is never a bad idea. Even if you don't believe in horoscopes and the zodiac, you won't regret checking out one of the great, scary reads on the list below. And obviously, there's nothing to stop even the most dedicated horoscope reader from checking out the books that scare other zodiac signs the most.

Check out the horror novel recommendations based on your zodiac sign that I've picked out for you below, and be sure to share your favorite, spine-tingling-as-heck reads with me on Twitter when you're done!

If you're an Aries: Beloved by Toni Morrison

Oh, Aries. If there's one thing you hate, it's losing control of your life. You always want to be in charge, and you think of yourself as a good leader. But what happens when you make a decision that's utterly wrong, and it costs you everything?

If that thought sent a chill down your spine, you need to pick up Toni Morrison's Beloved. The award-winning novel centers on Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman who killed her young daughter to prevent their former master from taking her back down South. Now living in Cincinnati in the wake of the Civil War, Sethe is plagued with guilt over her daughter's death, and lives every day in a house haunted by the revenant spirit of the child, whose gravestone reads "Beloved."

If you're a Taurus: The Cipher by Kathe Koja

Taurus also craves control, but in a much different way than Aries. You want to be secure, and you value a financially stable home environment over all else. Chaos, unpredictability, and the things you can't explain get under your skin more than anything else.

That's why you need to read Kathe Koja's The Cipher. In this classic horror novel in translation, Nicholas and Nakota — a couple of young creatives in an on-again, off-again relationship — discover something strange in his run-down apartment building's storage room: a black hole. With their lives already teetering on the brink, Nicholas and Nakota begin a series of experiments to uncover the secrets of what they dub the "Funhole." Nothing comes out of that black space unchanged, however, as the two of them will soon learn all too well.

If you're a Gemini: Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

Geminis have a terrible reputation for their mood swings and flightiness, but that's just part of who they are. If one thing's for certain, it's that you'll never have a dull moment when you're with a Gemini, and that's by design. Geminis hate boredom with an intense passion, and they'll do anything to avoid it.

If you're a Gemini nodding your head in enthusiastic agreement to what I just said, you're going to want to read this book. Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse is one of the more disturbing horror novels I've ever come across. The story here centers on two young "artists," Andrew and Jay, whose perversity draws them toward murder. With an unflinching gaze, Brite follows the two men as they hone in on the object of their obsession, Tran, who is destined, they believe, to be their next victim. Exquisite Corpse will make any Gemini wonder just how far they'd be willing to go to avoid being bored.

If you're a Cancer: Dawn by Octavia Butler

The inveterate homebody of the Western Zodiac, Cancer is a down-to-earth sign who fears change, abandonment, and leaving their comfort zone. Although their practicality and enjoyment of the little things can make them pretty difficult to scare, there's one book that will hit all of Cancer's horror high-notes.

First published in 1987, Octavia E. Butler's Dawn kicks off her Xenogenesis trilogy. The story here centers on Lilith, one of the last survivors of the planet Earth, which was destroyed by fire centuries ago. She wakes on an alien ship, far out in the reaches of space, where she has been brought to live among the Oankali — a gender-trinary race of aliens who interbreed with other species in order to expand their pool of genetic material. The Oankali want to breed with Lilith and the other humans they've rescued from Earth, which the aliens can make habitable again, but will the humans be willing to have Oankali hybrid offspring?

If you're a Leo: Bødy by Asa Nonami

Poor Leo. Charming as you are, you just can't stand to be ignored or unliked. You want to make your mark on society, and you want everyone to know your name. Your self-confidence and flair for the dramatic aren't horrible traits to have, but they might make you a bit easy to scare.

Asa Nonami's Bødy isn't a horror novel, per se, but it will scare the bejeebus out of you, Leo. The stories in this horror collection in translation take on society's vanity and obsession with image. In each one, a person who loves or hates a particular aspect of their body goes to somewhat extreme lengths in order to protect or correct it — with potentially disastrous results. Not only will you cringe at the conclusions to Nonami's short stories, but you'll also empathize with her characters all too well.

If you're a Virgo: The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff

Virgo is a perfectionist who values order and spotless performance above all else. As a Virgo, your deepest, darkest fear is that being less than perfect will leave you rejected and unworthy of affection. Aren't you glad I found a horror novel that plays to those deep-seated anxieties?

Alexandra Sokoloff's The Harrowing centers on a group of five college students — Cain, Lisa, Martin, Patrick, and Robin — whose only connection is that they have no families to return home to on the Thanksgiving break. Left alone on campus as a fearsome storm assaults the school, the students soon realize that they may not be the only entities inhabiting Baird College over the break. A sixth figure haunts the hallways — but what does it want with Baird's abandoned youths?

If you're a Libra: Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

Like many other signs, Libra fears being alone in this world. But this sign is unique in that, in addition to fearing an unbalanced life, which is just so Libra, it also worries deeply about breakups — both romantic and platonic.

In Elizabeth Hand's Wylding Hall, a group of former bandmates and their associates give their own accounts of the events that surrounded the recording of the band's final album. Years ago, the band rented out the titular Wylding Hall, an English country estate with a grisly history, and traveled there together to record what would become their most successful album. Each member went inside, but one of them, frontman Julian Blake, was never seen or heard from again. Now, a documentarian has plans to dig into the mystery of Julian's disappearance, but will Wylding Hall give up its secrets so easily?

If you're a Scorpio: You by Caroline Kepnes

Scorpios are an odd bunch, but they just want to be loved like the rest of us. They hate the idea of being betrayed, and so they generally keep people at arm's length, to keep their secrets to themselves. What frightens a Scorpio most is being seen, and intimately so.

Caroline Kepnes' You is narrated by Joe Goldberg, a quiet bookstore employee, who becomes increasingly obsessed with one of the shop's repeat customers. Beck is an aspiring author who has no reason to believe that running into Joe at the bar is anything more than chance. She doesn't know that he researched the name on her credit card to learn as much as possible about her, or that he's hacked her phone so that he can read all of her texts and emails. Beck can't see what's coming toward her, but the reader knows it's not going to be pretty.

If you're a Sagittarius: Spare Room by Dreda Say Mitchell

You're a free spirit, Sagittarius! Your worst nightmare is not being able to travel the world and do exactly what you want to do, when you want to do it. Being free, and staying free, is your top priority.

That's why Dreda Say Mitchell's Spare Room will chill you to the core. The story here focuses on Lisa, a woman haunted by her past, who thinks she has found a fresh start when she begins renting a room in a nice couple's home. After Lisa finds a suicide note that apparently belonged to a former tenant, she falls into a dreadful spiral. Her new landlords make it clear that the man who wrote the note never existed, and that Lisa is the first person to rent a room from them. As disturbing events begin to occur, however, the renter begins to worry that whatever happened to the person who wrote that note might happen to her as well.

If you're a Capricorn: Experimental Film by Gemma Files

As a Capricorn, I can tell you that the No. 1 thing a Capricorn fears is failure. We're afraid that we'll never live up to our full potential, and that we'll die small and insignificant, without leaving our mark on the world.

In Gemma Files' Experimental Film, film-history teacher Lois discovers a cache of films from a forgotten female director, A. Macalla Whitcomb, whose mysterious disappearance ended her career. Determined to use Whitcomb's archive to make a name for herself, Lois begins reviewing the films the other woman left behind. But there are dark forces at work in those old movies, forces that still inhabit the work Whitcomb left behind, and now they're free to prey upon Lois and her family...

If you're an Aquarius: Rabbits in the Garden by Jessica McHugh

If there's one thing an Aquarius never wants to experience, it's being just another face in the crowd. An Aquarius lives to stand out, and anything that puts a damper on that is simply anathema.

Twelve-year-old Avery Norton loses everything — her boyfriend, her home, and her happy family — when the revelation that her family's basement is a graveyard sets off a series of events airing her family's best-hidden secrets. Charged with murder, Avery is sent to live at the Taunton State Lunatic Asylum. She must work hard to prove her innocence — no easy feat, given that the person who committed the crimes with which she has been charged is also the person who had her sent to Taunton. As she spends more time in the asylum, however, Avery begins to wonder if what they say about her is true after all.

If you're a Pisces: Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Pisces, you're so creative! Like the Sagittarius and the Aquarius, you just want to be yourself. Anything that gets in the way of that, whether that's creative suppression, responsibility, or death, fills you with absolute dread.

Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream opens with Amanda, a dying woman in a remote, Argentinian hospital, who is accompanied only by a strange boy named David. As he begins to interrogate her about what has put her on deathbed, a horrifying tale emerges. David may want to hear Amanda's story, but she already knows his: a folk healer removed half of his soul in order to save his life from a waterborne illness. Their stories are horribly and inextricably linked, as it turns out, and as Amanda weaves her tale, guided by David's insistent, probing questions, it becomes clear that someone — or something — is responsible for their illnesses.

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