I work in set design and whenever I read I’m always drawn in by the locations and ‘sets’ of the book. So I wondered what places from books have really drawn other people in and stayed with them, that if you took away the characters and plot the setting would still be amazing. It could be a single room or a whole world.
I have many, but my two favorites are:
- the pre-Columbian Native American cities & villages in W. Michael & Kathleen O’Neal Gear’s People series & The Anasazi Mystery Trilogy.
- Appalachicola, FL in Florida’s Forgotten Coast series by Dawn Lee McKenna. My family & I used to go there before it became so touristy, & way before the books’ timeline, but I still recognize places she talked about.
The Shire from the Middle Earth. It just feels so peaceful, green, idyllic, pure, which is what I’m sure Tolkien was going for. Also, I have to mention Redwall from the Redwall series, for similar reasons. There’s just something comforting and cozy about places like that. You wish you could live there.
Mentally I’m always in the Overlook Hotel
Erin Morganstern has gorgeous settings (honestly better than her plots). I’d happily run away to the Night Circus or the library in The Starless Sea
Narnia
Gormenghast
Mythago wood
Amber, from Roger zelaznys Nine Princes in Amber
Edit
The Wild Moors-Wuthering Heights
The virtual library from Cloud Cuckoo Land
I love the town of Derry, especially in IT. The town and the people in it are all one living thing.
Dory/Claire’s home in Karen Chance’s main series. The house is a huge old victorian built on a supernatural power source that fuels the spells on it. Claires uncle put a “housekeeping” spell on it so he wouldnt have to clean it, but it just made the house revert to the state the house was in at the time the spell was laid. Pros- any damage to the house fixes itself, cons - no changes can be made. No paint, no wallpapering, no furniture removal. The house has also developed a personality described as a fussy old matron. Spells are not meant to outlive the caster but he tied it to the power source the bouse is on so it has warped a lil over the years. Add a damphier, a half fay who becomes a dragon under stress, a family of trolls in the basement, and a host of fay soldiers camped in the backyard. The house has both character and wonderful characters
Avonlea, especially during spring bloom.
Emonds Field, Two Rivers
The library in The Name of the Rose.
Wonderland and Narnia. Also Britain in Susanna Clarke’s world in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Sky, specifically the palace, in NK Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
the world of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant.
the castle in Howl’s Moving Castle!
so many different locations in the second half of The Neverending Story.