A Conversation with Carinn Jade on "The Astrology House"

By Sara Cutaia on July 17, 2024

I am a Sagittarius. And that's about all I know about astrology, and the zodiacs as they relate to me! Even then, when I ask people who say they're into astrology to guess my sign, Sagittarius doesn't come up even within the first three guesses. I was already skeptical, and each instance of this happening just convinced me that it was all made up. And although I'm still only one-toe deep into knowing anything about astrology, it wasn't until I started to learn about all the layers involved—moon sign, rising sign, etc.—that I realized astrology isn't just one thing, the way novels aren't just one thing, and people aren't just one thing.

This is what Carinn Jade's debut novel The Astrology House aims to explore as a group of wealthy friends and family escape for a weekend at Stars Harbor Astrological Retreat. With promises of picturesque views, luxurious accommodations, and astrology readings that will answer all of our characters' burning questions, what's not to love? Their astrologer host Rini has prepared a weekend tailored to their charts, intent on drawing secrets out into the open, and ultimately culminating in someone's death.

I was honored to speak with Carinn Jade about her origins with astrology, how she managed to juggle multiple points of view in a suspense novel, and if she thinks human beings have choice or if everything is already written in the stars.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Sara Cutaia

What's your sign, and do you think it represents you well?

Carinn Jade

I'm an Aries sun, and I probably should stop there, but I have to tell you also that I'm a Capricorn moon. And I think once I realized that there was more than just your sun sign, I became really fascinated by astrology, because I have always related to Aries. They're kind of impulsive and jump in and just do it. They're the first sign of Zodiac. They're just ready to always go, but Capricorn moon, they are so disciplined. They are persistent. They don't let go of things. And I feel like, once I got that complexity, I'm like, yeah, now this makes more sense. When I found out your sun sign represents your personality, and your moon sign is more about how you're thinking about things, I was like, okay, this makes sense, and why I always feel at war with myself. Astrology is more than just a few cute lines in Cosmo.

Sara Cutaia

How did you get into astrology?

Carinn Jade

It was my roommate in college. I had always had a superficial interest, like in the back of your teenage magazines, and so I always was aware of and interested in it. But then my friend in college was like, No, you can buy an entire book that helps you know more about how Aries function, how Aries are at work, at school, how you are with authority, how you are in relationships. And it was so much deeper than anything I'd ever discovered. And so that got me really deeply into my sun sign. And then from there, I found out how much your moon sign and your rising sign also influence you, and it just kind of spiraled from there.

Sara Cutaia

So is it something that you were continually obsessed with? And then you had a book idea? Or how did those two things combine?

Carinn Jade

They existed parallel to each other. In fact, I would look up astrology to see if it was a good day to write. But it always was on the side. And then finally—this is somewhat embarrassing to admit—during the pandemic, I watched an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills where they were having an astrology party. And I saw so much drama. I thought, Look at them in this room talking about these things, the astrologers telling them juicy stuff. And you could see what they were immediately rejecting, what they were absorbing, basking in… and all from this stranger, the astrologer. Once I saw that play out in a dramatic way, I just knew this is an outsider character I had to explore. So those ideas just kind of all collided. And then it was boom, magic started happening on the page.

Sara Cutaia

Did you think of individual characters and then decide to assign them astrology signs and charts according what would work best in the novel? Or did you do it opposite where you needed characters that fit specific traits and signs to make sure you covered the spectrum?

Carinn Jade

It was both: I couldn't go forward without assigning characters to their signs. However, I changed the signs around as I wrote. No one (except for one person) has that same assigned zodiac sign I had assigned in the beginning. And I learned so much more about astrology as I went along. I had given everyone sun signs, but I hadn't given moon signs and rising signs, and I hadn't talked about synastry and how charts work together. And so it evolved over the course as my characters did as well.

Sara Cutaia

On the web page for your podcast "Pop Fiction Women" you declare, "we're complicated," meaning women. And then you explore what that's meant in popular entertainment. I'm curious if you took that mantra to heart as you were crafting the backgrounds for all the women characters in The Astrology House.

Carinn Jade

Four of the five points of view are women's point of view. And I just thought that was absolutely perfect. None of them are the same person, right? And yet they're all women. So what does that mean? What can I tease out? That was a great part of astrology, because I knew: you're Cancer and you're a Pisces. You're both water signs, you both think you're so nurturing and all about family. But how does that actually play out? One is more controlling about the future, one is more backward looking. I felt like I could add so much complexity to each character and have four people that were so different, and yet all under this umbrella of woman, which, you know, 10-15, years ago, might have just been condensed down to, you are the career woman, you are the mother, you are the wife… but each of these characters are, in essence, all of those things. It was really important to me to showcase how multidimensional they are.

Sara Cutaia

I imagine it's hard enough keeping the suspense going through a thriller like this, and even harder when you're switching between multiple points of view. How did you manage to juggle all the characters and still keep the rate of reveal tantalizing?

Carinn Jade

It was kind of easy for me. It was that each person was holding secrets. It is a bit of a slower burn. You have to get invested in these characters, and you have to give each one of them time to reveal themselves. But that is the promise; they are all holding secrets, and all of those secrets are going to not just live in their brain by the end of the weekend, and they are not only going to come out in a confession, but they are going to come out in a confession that is going to have repercussions and consequences far beyond what they could have understood when they were just kind of ruminating in their mind.

Sara Cutaia

Let's talk about secrets. Some people have secrets and some have like, Horrible, Evil Capital-S secrets. And I'm just curious if there was a line that you were conscious of not to cross in terms of how dark it was going to get.

Carinn Jade

I had to tease it in and out, for sure. This was my obstacle going in, right? I have people who are related to each other, who have known each other a long time. If this weekend is going to end in someone's death, something really dark has to come out. This can't be like, oh, you know, you betrayed me, and be able to just walk away right? I was talking about ending a life and—yes, it's fiction—but I knew that it would have to go really dark and be much more complicated. So, yeah, I thought that was necessary when the characters all know each other.

Sara Cutaia

The conflicts the characters face are nearly all tied up with family relationships in some form or another—whether it's parents, children, or siblings. Can you talk about the significance of these family ties in this novel?

Carinn Jade

It's multifold. For one, you can't get away from your family, right? You can, to some extent, but certainly not if they're planning this weekend away together. And that has its own feeling of trappedness to it, and the roles we fall into when we're with those people. It's a fascinating thing to see someone who you respect at work, someone who can lead a room, and, on the fly help you with something, and then they are reduced to something different in front of their wife or their husband, or their parents, or how nurturing they are around their kids. They are the same person, and then all of a sudden you put them in different contexts, and you're like, wow, I never saw that coming.

It's also great drama. Family provides that kind of cloak of comfort; you think you can fight with these people, you think you can say things that you maybe wouldn't say, certainly wouldn't say to a stranger or a colleague. You feel you can cross lines. Often people feel there are levels of outward harm that are acceptable in families that aren't in any other relationship. And I am fascinated by that.

Sara Cutaia

The idea of fate vs choice is also a guiding principle in this novel. We can see how the tension between the two plays out in the book, but I'm curious how your own thoughts on the debate informed your writing?

Carinn Jade

Oh, it's everything. What even is choice, really? It's something I explore in the book a lot, within the framework of astrology. If I make a choice under context that I believe to be true, but isn't true, is that even a choice? And what if I make a choice in reaction to what someone has done to me. Is that a choice, or a reaction?

We all like to believe —myself included—that we are in control. And even when we accept that there are some things we can't control, how much of that is perspective? What we think is, oh I can control my perspective at least. But is that actually any agency? Is that actually any control? This stuff keeps me up at night.