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8 Extravagant Horror Books to Read for Taurus Season

Extravagantly haunting psychological horrors for the sensible homebodies of the zodiac.

horror books to read for taurus season
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  • Photo Credit: "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

April 20th to May 20th marks the season of Taurus—the sign of the Bull. This earth sign is fixed, making them naturally resistant to change and complications. While they are uncompromising, they are also deeply devoted. Though practical in action, they have wildly sensuous desires. And don't forget that while they may have the patience of a saint, they have a possessive streak a mile wide.

Since Tauruses are such particular creatures, it doesn't really take all that much to rile them up. But what wracks them to their core and sends them running scared back to the comfort of their carefully crafted worlds? Here are eight horror books that will terrify a Taurus like nothing else.

Come Closer

Come Closer

By Sara Gran

Among Taurus's more difficult traits is their tendency to be extremely possessive. Imagine how horrifying it would be for them if even their very self was taken away...

This is not how Amanda is supposed to be. She's a talented architect in a loving marriage, not someone sending obscene memos to her boss. But as a strange noise in her apartment plagues her, her life is falling apart at the seems. She's started smoking again, and for no tangible reason she burns her husband with a cigarette. She steals. She meets strange men in bars. And she dreams nightly of a gorgeous, sharp-toothed woman amidst a sea of red. Is the voice taking root in her head a sign of possession, or the first step toward insanity?

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In terms of their better traits, Tauruses are known for being reliable. They are deeply grounded, sensible individuals who take pride in their dependability. So what happens when they start to lose their grip and their reliability?

A woman is diagnosed by her physician husband with hysteria and nervous depression after she gives birth to their baby. To combat this, she's urged to spend the summer resting in an old mansion, swearing off all forms of work. She is confined day in and day out to the home's old nursery, complete with barred windows, scratched floors, and peeling yellow wallpaper—wallpaper that vexes her. Buried deep in its pattern appears to be the figure of a human. And as her narration grows more unreliable, she becomes only more devoted to unraveling the mystery of this horrid wallpaper. But what if there is no truth, only madness?

The Cement Garden

The Cement Garden

By Ian McEwan

Tauruses are practical thinkers who take quiet delight in the act of gardening. But as The Cement Garden shows, sometimes gardening can be macabre, and sometimes practicality can be sinister...

Of the four siblings, Julie is the oldest, nearly fully grown. The youngest is Tom, practically a baby. Sue is a lover of books and keen observation. And Jack, on the cusp of adolescence, is brimming with curiosity. But it's not such an easy world for these children to grow and explore in. The city is dying all around them, and with it, their family.

When his garden becomes too difficult to control, the children's father paves it over with cement. Unfortunately, the man suffers a heart attack in the process, passing away and leaving the children with nothing but their mother and a half-covered garden. When the children suddenly find themselves orphans, they decided to conceal their parents' death from social services, burying their mother in the cement garden. The children all seem to adjust to this secret existence all too well—until Julie's boyfriend starts asking too many questions.

Dracula

Dracula

By Bram Stoker

Don't be entirely fooled by this Earth signs practical approach to action—while they may be sensible in behavior, their tastes lean toward the beautiful, the extravagant, and the sensuous. What exemplifies these ideals more than the chilling tale of Dracula?

When young solicitor Jonathan Harker journeys to Transylvania to meet with an important client, he is not prepared for the intensity of the mysterious Count Dracula. The count's well-cultured charm and regal manner draw Jonathan in, but all too late he learns that he is Dracula's prisoner, at the mercy of the vampire and his three ravenous women.

When Dracula travels to England, Jonathan makes his escape. But Jonathan's fiancée, Mina, stands in the path of Dracula's nefarious machinations.

Rockabilly Limbo

Rockabilly Limbo

By William W. Johnstone

Among the great many things this sign of the Bull loves, music is near the top of the list. So why wouldn't they want to read about a tale centered around an enthralling melody, even if it's deadly...

A wave of violence sweeps across America, tearing the country apart. Brother against brother, mother against daughter—no one is safe from the rising tensions. As rioting, looting, and killing take over the streets, preachers turn to the radio, proclaiming that the end of the world has come on the heels of rock and roll, just as they always said that it would.

Ex-Deputy Sheriff Cole Younger isn't so sure about that. But earth is quickly going to hell as he's on the run with a priest, a former marine, and a beautiful woman. And if it isn't the forces of evil pushing madness through music, then what is it?

female horror writers

My Soul to Keep

By Tananarive Due

For all that Tauruses are stubborn, sensible earth signs, they are true romantics deep down at their core. But just how much are they willing to sacrifice for that love?

David is everything Jessica has ever wanted in a husband: smart, loving, and full of youthful energy. But why does he feel so out of reach? As the people around her fall victim to mysteriously gruesome deaths, David makes a stunning confession. He is one of the members of an Ethiopian sect who traded their humanity away 400 years ago so that they may live forever. It's a dangerous secret he is bound to protect at any cost, and now his immortal brethren have called on David to abandon his family in Miami and return home.

David has other plans. It would only take one forbidden ritual to keep his wife and daughter with him forever. But is the life Jessica has come to know with David worth her very soul?

the grip of it jac jemc female horror writers

The Grip of It

By Jac Jemc

Like a true earth sign, Tauruses find the most peace when wrapped up in the comforts of home. Unless, of course, that home is haunted...

Julie and James are walking through what may well be their new home when a noise stops them in their tracks. It's a deep, groaning ring, far off and rasping. The realtor assures them it's just the house settling. He couldn't be more wrong.

It's James's love for gambling and impulsivity that pushes the couple to move, but the both of them can't deny they're looking forward to a fresh start. The house has something different in store. As James and Julie try to settle into a routine, the framework of the house decays before their eyes, hidden rooms reveal themselves, and stains shift and swell on the walls until they paint themselves over Julie's skin in painful bruises. Will this couple ever free themselves from the torments of these dreadful walls?

alphonse bertillon

It

By Stephen King

One of Taurus' most admirable traits is their patience. Patience that lends as well to a great evil biding its time as it does to a reader who flips through a book with nearly 1,000 pages...

Derry, Maine is just like any other small town you might find. Except for the ancient evil haunting its sewers. Seven teenagers face this awful child-killing beast of tragedy and fear and live to grow up to be successful and happy adults. But a promise they made all those years ago brings them home 27 years later. As children are being slaughtered once more, the group's repressed memories rise to the surface, instilling them all with the brutal, painful terror of the past.