What do you think?
Rate this book
The Dire Circle
The circle is dire, much like the outcomes of these stories. In this black zodiac themed anthology, you may come to dislike other people......maybe even yourself. Stories Nat Whiston Ruthann Jagge John Cady Sunni Ellis Brianna Malotke Patrick Barb R.M. Breslin Nathan D. Ludwig Daniel R. Robichaud Jason Gehlert S. Feaker Gary McDonough
178 pages, Paperback
Published October 28, 2021
2 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Ruthann Jagge
34 books37 followersRuthann grew up in Upstate New York, where her favorite month of October is magical.
She writes speculative, gothic, fantasy, and horror fiction.
Her work is published in numerous successful anthologies, solo work, and collaborative writing with Natasha Sinclair.
Extensive travel, superstition, and backyard boogeymen influence characters and settings.
She lives on a cattle ranch in Texas with her husband and his animals.
A large, blended family keeps her sane most of the time.
Member HWA?BFS
She writes speculative, gothic, fantasy, and horror fiction.
Her work is published in numerous successful anthologies, solo work, and collaborative writing with Natasha Sinclair.
Extensive travel, superstition, and backyard boogeymen influence characters and settings.
She lives on a cattle ranch in Texas with her husband and his animals.
A large, blended family keeps her sane most of the time.
Member HWA?BFS
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 1, 2021
Horror Bookworm Reviews
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/
Capricorn: A man signs his daughter’s rights away to an underground organization specializing in “treating” mental illness. Scorpio: A deity has skittered its way to renewal by unearthing an endless sacrificial food supply of tasty mortal morsels. Pisces: A reliquary power emerges from a bewitching service to society by means of voodoo lore and seduction. Libra: Rats, poisonous toxins and cringe worthy blackmail are just the beginnings to a ravenous revenge that is best served cold by the unstable.
The Dire Circle is an anthology centered around Black Zodiac symbolism, the evil counterpart to Zodiac signs. Each of these talented authors have created a clever representation of the immoral and cruel side of humanity. Among these twelve tales of dark traits and compulsive qualities you will find nightmarish curio shops, a tantalizing wine that oozes the juices of the seven deadly sins and a fiend that feeds on despair, sadness and betrayal.
No doubt the first several sentences to each work of fiction will pull the reader instantly into a world of unknown spectral existence. These nightmarish zodiac literary works based on earth, air, fire and water will leave a wake of infernal symbolism and brutal chaos that even a spirit board planchette would be proud of.
The horoscope horrors that flow evenly from story to story is a testament of the talent gathered in this book of sinister sensuality and dark dominance of deviant souls. D&T Publishing has allowed the reader to plunge within The Dire Circle and choose their astrological sin within its pages of numbers, letters & symbols. Which black zodiac symbol are you, and what will it reveal about your shadow personality…
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/
Capricorn: A man signs his daughter’s rights away to an underground organization specializing in “treating” mental illness. Scorpio: A deity has skittered its way to renewal by unearthing an endless sacrificial food supply of tasty mortal morsels. Pisces: A reliquary power emerges from a bewitching service to society by means of voodoo lore and seduction. Libra: Rats, poisonous toxins and cringe worthy blackmail are just the beginnings to a ravenous revenge that is best served cold by the unstable.
The Dire Circle is an anthology centered around Black Zodiac symbolism, the evil counterpart to Zodiac signs. Each of these talented authors have created a clever representation of the immoral and cruel side of humanity. Among these twelve tales of dark traits and compulsive qualities you will find nightmarish curio shops, a tantalizing wine that oozes the juices of the seven deadly sins and a fiend that feeds on despair, sadness and betrayal.
No doubt the first several sentences to each work of fiction will pull the reader instantly into a world of unknown spectral existence. These nightmarish zodiac literary works based on earth, air, fire and water will leave a wake of infernal symbolism and brutal chaos that even a spirit board planchette would be proud of.
The horoscope horrors that flow evenly from story to story is a testament of the talent gathered in this book of sinister sensuality and dark dominance of deviant souls. D&T Publishing has allowed the reader to plunge within The Dire Circle and choose their astrological sin within its pages of numbers, letters & symbols. Which black zodiac symbol are you, and what will it reveal about your shadow personality…
December 19, 2021
This collection centers around the Black Zodiac, a set of signs that represent the darkness that dwells within the human spirit. Each story uniquely represents one of these signs, ranging from the stories about the sign itself (The Poison Dart) to the character traits each sign entails (Don’t Judge a Book).
Something that really stuck out to me is just how smoothly one story flows into the next. For me, I usually have to read one story at a time, that way they don’t get mixed up in my head, as well as sometimes they have clashing writing styles that make it hard to read in a row. This is not the case in The Dire Circle. Each story brings the same sort of energy, making this anthology feel more like a group effort instead of stories thrown together that have similar themes. Each story commands the reader’s attention, creating a captivating world within the first few sentences. The Dire Circle has no stories that feel weaker than the others, which really shows you the amount of talent that this group of authors brings.
I throughly enjoyed the experience this book has to offer, and a lot of the authors peaked my interest, making me want to seek out more from them. Some of my favorite stories include “Don’t Judge a Book” by Ruthann Jagge, “Tempest Test” by Gary McDonough, and “Taking Possession” by Daniel R. Robichaud.
Whether you’re interested in your own Black Zodiac, or looking for an anthology that will knock your sock off, The Dire Circle has what you’re searching for. This is my first of D&T Publishing’s anthologies but it won’t be the last!
Something that really stuck out to me is just how smoothly one story flows into the next. For me, I usually have to read one story at a time, that way they don’t get mixed up in my head, as well as sometimes they have clashing writing styles that make it hard to read in a row. This is not the case in The Dire Circle. Each story brings the same sort of energy, making this anthology feel more like a group effort instead of stories thrown together that have similar themes. Each story commands the reader’s attention, creating a captivating world within the first few sentences. The Dire Circle has no stories that feel weaker than the others, which really shows you the amount of talent that this group of authors brings.
I throughly enjoyed the experience this book has to offer, and a lot of the authors peaked my interest, making me want to seek out more from them. Some of my favorite stories include “Don’t Judge a Book” by Ruthann Jagge, “Tempest Test” by Gary McDonough, and “Taking Possession” by Daniel R. Robichaud.
Whether you’re interested in your own Black Zodiac, or looking for an anthology that will knock your sock off, The Dire Circle has what you’re searching for. This is my first of D&T Publishing’s anthologies but it won’t be the last!
October 30, 2021
The Black Zodiac, the other side of each sign. These twelve tales will make you question what you know about your sign. Are you Aries or are you Tyrant?
I loved every single story in this collection. Stories about people who give in to the black side of their sign.
I loved every single story in this collection. Stories about people who give in to the black side of their sign.
August 19, 2022
As it is common with any anthology, it has it's ups and downs. This one for me was a mixed bag, but one I don't regret reading.
My favorite tales in this collection are the stories about Tauro, Pisces, Libra and Sagitarius.
Tauro is about an antiquity that hosts a vengeful demon that helps a broken man in his journey to retribuition. It written in a noir style but with a supernatural twist, very creative.
Pisces is about an ancient goddess that feeds on human misery but she's been long forgotten so she goes to the only modern place where she can get a constant supply of broken an desperate humans, obviously, AA reunions!
Libra is a very grounded and meticulous revenge story that tells you that the devil's in the details. It also has a clever twist at the end that makes you root for the main character even more.
Sagitarius is a tale about chasing control over your own life. However, who can guarantee you that control will take you to good places?
Not to say that the other stories are bad, but most of them feel like a great premise that ends way too soon, like the Capricorn or Scorpio story that seem to end at a crucial point in the story.
I only think there's one really bad story in this, and that's the Leo one. It is about two paranormal detectives that are frentetically chased by an ancient lion god through the streets of manhattan and must stop it from reaching a certain person to stop doomsday. This felt disjointed and overall made me feel like I'm missing a vital part of context, as if the author is assuming that I know this characters. Well, I don't, and I couldn't care less about them. The story also ends in a cliffhanger that feels like a Marvel post-credit's scene that supposed to excite me for a bigger story that I won't be reading any time soon. Sorry.
Still, a very interesting concept.
My favorite tales in this collection are the stories about Tauro, Pisces, Libra and Sagitarius.
Tauro is about an antiquity that hosts a vengeful demon that helps a broken man in his journey to retribuition. It written in a noir style but with a supernatural twist, very creative.
Pisces is about an ancient goddess that feeds on human misery but she's been long forgotten so she goes to the only modern place where she can get a constant supply of broken an desperate humans, obviously, AA reunions!
Libra is a very grounded and meticulous revenge story that tells you that the devil's in the details. It also has a clever twist at the end that makes you root for the main character even more.
Sagitarius is a tale about chasing control over your own life. However, who can guarantee you that control will take you to good places?
Not to say that the other stories are bad, but most of them feel like a great premise that ends way too soon, like the Capricorn or Scorpio story that seem to end at a crucial point in the story.
I only think there's one really bad story in this, and that's the Leo one. It is about two paranormal detectives that are frentetically chased by an ancient lion god through the streets of manhattan and must stop it from reaching a certain person to stop doomsday. This felt disjointed and overall made me feel like I'm missing a vital part of context, as if the author is assuming that I know this characters. Well, I don't, and I couldn't care less about them. The story also ends in a cliffhanger that feels like a Marvel post-credit's scene that supposed to excite me for a bigger story that I won't be reading any time soon. Sorry.
Still, a very interesting concept.
June 28, 2025
Great collection of authors are evolving around the zodiac signs. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews