I cringe every single time this prompt comes up, which seems to be a minimum of once per year! I seem to be especially burnt out on it right now because several of the reading challenges I’ve been planning to do for next year include multiple geography-based prompts, and I’m a bit tired of it. I know a lot of readers have goals to read one book for each of the US states or one from every country of the world, but that’s never been something that I’ve been interested in. I like to read and learn about different cultures and places, but I also don’t like choosing my books strictly based on their setting. This prompt is a little more open since it involves fictional places, so it includes fantasy settings as well. Every time this kind of prompt comes up though, I find my mind gets a little stuck on remembering the setting only in the context it was in during the book — so if the story took place during some kind of war or revolution, then that’s what I associate it with and I don’t want to visit! For some reason, it’s very hard for my brain to separate the setting from the plot. Aside from that, I find that I don’t necessarily remember settings so clearly in general. I’m a lot more likely to remember the characters or plotline than the setting, even when I like where the book is set. What makes it even more complicated is that this kind of prompt comes up at least once per year, so even if I do find settings I like, I tend to have already used them! I’m doing my best not to repeat any settings I’ve already chosen here, but the search function on WordPress isn’t the best so I’m not sure I caught all the posts on a similar topic to double check.
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) Graves Glen, Georgia from The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling – I love the small town vibes of this place and especially all the witch-themed shops they have (mainly the bookshop)! I was especially interested in the Fall Festival and also Rhys’s gothic house, mostly because it reminded me of The Addams Family. I wouldn’t want to be in this town when it is cursed like in the book, but otherwise it sounds just adorable.
2) Charon’s Crossing Tea from Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune – Even though this teashop is mostly a place for spirits to cross over, it does function as a regular teashop as well. I don’t even like tea but I’d still want to visit this place for the atmosphere, especially because of Hugo himself, and to try some of the baked goods they might also offer.
3) The Great Libraries from Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson – I’m probably too much of a coward to actually want to visit this place because of the potential for magical dangers, but it’s a giant library so it would be hard to resist. I love the concept of a gothic-ish library full of magical knowledge, and this is one book where I do remember the setting being one of the things I loved most!
4) Willow Creek from the Well Met series by Jen DeLuca – This is the one setting that I think I may have repeated from earlier posts because I remember mentioning the Renaissance Faire before! I know Ren Faires are real so it might be a stretch to call this a fictional setting, but the specific town of Willow Creek is fictional, and it just seems like such a fun place to visit.
5) The private island in the Caraval series by Stephanie Garber – I’m not entirely sure what this setting is called, but I love the whole concept of the circus-like private island where Caraval is held. I wouldn’t want to be participating in the games, but I think it would be fun to watch, or maybe to tour the island when the games were not being held just to see it.
Abyssal Librarian 