It is Chinese New Year, and the dragon will reign this year. The Chinese believe that children born under this sign will have a tendency towards being highly ambitious, energetic, intelligent, imaginative, charming and a bit mysterious. They will also be very lucky, but this luck if misconstrued could lead to their greatest weaknesses – arrogance, relentlessness and elusiveness. 

After researching the Dragon, I wondered if best selling books fit the characteristics of the sign under which they were written, so let’s rewind to 2012. The bestsellers were Flynn’s Gone Girl , Collins’ The Hunger Games series and James’ Fifty Shades of Grey series. 

Flynn’s Gone Girl

Amy and Nick Dunne’s fifth anniversary ends with Nick reporting Amy as missing. From the alternating points of view, we learn that Amy (from her diaries) resents Nick for moving her from New York to Missouri, making her a housewife, and using what was left of her trust fund to open a corner bar with his sister. Nick is also unhappy in the relationship — he dislikes that Amy has spent half of her trust funding supporting her parents, and he finds Amy to anti-social, needlessly difficult and a controlling perfectionist. Amy’s diaries lead detectives to make Nick their number one suspect.

In part II readers learn just how unreliable Nick and Amy are. Nick is having an affair with one of his college students. Amy is alive, living with an ex boyfriend. She has manufactured Nick’s guilt through creating credit card debt, increasing an insurance policy, writing a false narrative in the diaries, and manipulating a gullible neighbor. So, what could possibly go wrong for Amy?

Amy did not count on Nick’s ability to manipulate the public through a series of interviews. When Amy discovers that the public opinion against Nick is waning, she “miraculously” escapes to return to Nick. But who will win between these master manipulators? 

Who is the dragon? Clearly, Amy is the dragon with her ability to manipulate and charm others into believing her story. The problem is Nick has a little dragon in him to. 

Collins’ Hunger Games series

The Hunger Games series is set in a dystopian, future America called Panem. The Capitol forces the districts to send one boy and one girl to the annual Hunger Games, a gladiator style competition which results in the deaths of twenty-three teenagers. 

Katniss Everdeen, who has suffered more than most, witnesses her sister’s name drawn for the games, but Katniss volunteers to take Prim’s spot. Katniss believes that she cannot possibly survive the games, but she promise Prim that she will return home. Adding to the pressure, Katniss has provided food for her family since he father died in a mine accident, and she fears that they will starve without her. 

Katniss excels in training for the games and earns one of the highest training scores, which makes her a target. She has also managed to catch the attention of the gamemakers. She believes that they hate her because she and her partner have managed to gain public support and made the gamemakers look like fools. She has no clue that the pin she wears indicates that she is a rebel. 

Dragon? Certainly. Katniss is ambitious, energetic and intelligent. She is also a natural leader despite her reluctancy. 

James’ Fifty Shades of Grey series

We all know the story… It was all that women were reading and discussing for years. Even men were picking up the books to see what all the fuss was about. 

But James writes about the enigmatic Christian Grey falling in love with Anastasia Steele. The highly successful Christian is a 27 year old business man, who likes to dominate in the bedroom. At a chance meeting, Christian falls for Ana, who is graduating college at the end of the month. He simultaneously injects himself into her life while still rejecting her, leaving her confused. 

Eventually Christian reveals his kink and introduces her to the lifestyle he is willing to live. Ana believes that Christian is capable of much more, and she constantly challenges him to a deeper relationship. They both experience some significant moments of doubt, and considering there is more than one book, you can guess how this plays out. 

Dragons? Yes, both again are dragons, which leads to some significant quarreling, but as the Dragon Love Compatibility chart says, they will not stay angry long. 

So maybe there is something to the Chinese Zodiac signs. Do you represent yours? Did the last book you read represent the sign it was written under?