Fantastic Book Settings & Where To Find Them: Part 1

I know that the post title is a really cheesy pun but I love it and for some reason I thought it fit well for the theme I’m doing! Let me know what you think, I just wanted to spice it up a bit instead of just titling it “Favorite Book Settings” which is kind of boring.

Anywho! These are just a couple of my favorite book settings that I enjoyed reading about and also thought were unique and not a run of the mill type of setting.

**** P.S. NONE of these are fantasy books or settings, I may save that for another post but these are all contemporary, historical fiction, or realistic sci-fi settings! ****

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Bad Blood by Demitria Lunetta

I’m sure there are plenty of other books set in Scotland but there don’t seem to be a ton in YA. I loved how Lunetta described a lot of the buildings, architecture, and scenery in Scotland when the character arrives and explores. It was just so much fun and I have always wanted to visit Scotland so that probably helped me love it more! The added witchery also made the book more interesting, if you’re looking for a decent YA book set in Scotland and has some witchy happenings I’d check this out! Trigger warning for self harm though.

(You can read my full review here.)

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The Hollow Girl by Hillary Monahan

Why are there never any YA books set in Wales? Why aren’t there any YA books set in the United Kingdom that aren’t just in England? This book takes place in an older time period (it’s never specified) and is set in Wales with a Romani main character. This is an #OwnVoices book so the culture represented is accurate and was very fun to learn about especially with the witchcraft and revenge story mixed in. This story is a bit gory and there is an off-page rape scene so it really isn’t for the faint of heart but if you can handle horror then I recommend checking this one out!

(You can read my full review here.)

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The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

This book actually has multiple settings which was super fun, I haven’t read any other “Tour of Europe” style books and especially not in historical fiction. We start in England a bit then move onto France, Spain, and Italy! We don’t get to see much “scenery” when the characters are in these pages which was a little disappointing but as I said it was still a lot of fun. My favorite part was definitely Venice, Italy though.

(You can read my full review here.)

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Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

This is a very unique setting seeing as how it all takes place during a convention, Supacon (basically Comic Con)! I personally am a huge geek about everything in pop culture so I thought the setting was so entertaining and I could geek out about it all! Also the characters are highly diverse and the anxiety rep is spot on, I recommend reading it.

(You can read my full review here.)

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Want by Cindy Pon

While I didn’t love this book as much as I wanted to I really loved the setting of a futuristic Taipei, Taiwan. This is definitely a setting you don’t see very often and I really enjoyed it! We didn’t get too much description or cultural aspects though which was a bit of a bummer.

(You can read my full review here.)

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Dreamfall by Amy Plum

Dreams, that’s a pretty unique setting am I right? This book takes place in the different nightmares of each dreamer’s mind, so of course it’s terrifying on top of being really neat. I haven’t read anything close to this but let me know if there are any other books with dream settings!

(You can read my full review here.)

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The Martian by Andy Weir

Mars! I don’t think a setting gets much more unique than that outside of fantasy….well and other science fiction but this is science fiction that’s a little more realistic. So. Pretty cool! I personally thought it was very exciting reading about someone being trapped on Mars and it kept me on the edge of my seat.

(You can read my full review here.)

Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

Do you think any of these settings are unique or interesting?

Have you read other books with these settings?

What are some of your favorite book settings?

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