Young Adult Literature Horoscope for Your Spring Break Return

Mondays. They’re horrible. But the Monday returning from Spring Break has to be one of the worst. Instead of laying on the beach or napping on your parents’ couch, it’s time to return to the daily schedule of a stressed and sleep-deprived college student. I will shamelessly admit that one thing that makes my Mondays less awful is checking my weekly horoscope. I think hearing that I have good luck and love coming my way just puts me in a better mindset for the week, not to mention I can also blame the universe if my week goes bad. There’s only one more guilty pleasure that brings me as much excitement as horoscopes: young adult literature. Maybe it’s just the future English teacher in me, but I have a soft-spot for YA novels. Even after growing up, it’s still one of my favorite genres. Throughout my summers off, I spend a ridiculous amount of time reading novels from Barnes & Noble’s Teen Top 100 list. The characters are interesting, the plots are diverse, and there’s a lot of humor. As I’ve gotten older, I have seen a shift in the genre to include books that deal with tough topics. Eleanor & Park focuses on bullying, child abuse, and stereotyping based on race. All the Bright Places discusses mental health and suicide. YA literature really doesn’t get enough recognition for all the gritty topics it covers that are sometimes deemed as “too mature” for young adults. For that reason, I have decided to combine my two favorite pastimes to create a YA literature horoscope to get you through the week back from spring break. Each zodiac sign has a horoscope that contains a quote from a YA novel based on a YA author that shares the same zodiac sign.

Aquarius - Stephen Chbosky author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”

Pisces - Rainbow Rowell author of Eleanor & Park

“You look like a protagonist.”

Aries - Ned Vizzini author of It’s Kind of a Funny Story

“I don't owe people anything, and I don't have to talk to them any more than I feel I need to.”

Taurus - Jennifer Niven author of All the Bright Places

“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.”

Gemini - Gayle Forman author of If I Stay

“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal”

Cancer - Markus Zusak author of The Book Thief

“...one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death.”

Leo - J.K. Rowling author of the Harry Potter series

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

Virgo - David Levithan author of Every Day

“Answerless questions can destroy you. Move on.”

Libra - Nicola Yoon author of Everything, Everything

“Everything's a risk. Not doing anything is a risk. It's up to you.”

Scorpio - Becky Albertalli author of Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda

“And you notice things and listen to things, but not in a nosy way. In a real way.”

Sagittarius - Jason Reynolds author of All American Boys

“History can only teach its lesson if it is remembered.”

Capricorn - Ally Carter author of the Gallagher Girls series

“I thought the morning would bring change. But I should have known that it doesn't take that long for change to happen - it takes a second. A moment. In a single breath, reality as you know it can simply fall away.”