I grew up in South Dakota. SD isn’t a place that’s typically written about in romantic fiction (though it should be. SoDak is amazeballs…as long as you don’t have to live there in the winter). When I come across a book set there I’m all kinds of excited. Except, I have certain expectations for stories set there.
Take, for example, Black Hills by Nora Roberts. I was crazy excited to read that book when it was first released because it’s set in the exact place I grew up. I was feeling nostalgic and homesick at the time and dove right in…only to be severely disappointed in how little resemblance the story bore to the actual place.
Not that it was completely off base, but it was obviously written by someone who had visited (or researched) the area rather than lived there. Small things, like referring to the creek in the wrong way, really pulled me out of the story.
Dean Koontz is another great example. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Palm Springs, CA., and it’s obvious he has, too. Several of his books take place there, or his characters visit, and each time local joints, back roads, etc. are spot on.
Of course, I’ve read many books set in places I’ve never been, and I often come away feeling like I’m a local.
It’s interesting how small details can effect the overall reading experience.
Have you ever read a book set where you live? Did it live up to your expectations or completely let you down?
I live in the SF Bay Area so there are lots of books set here. Usually it’s obvious when the author has lived here or at least visited a lot vs. just googling it. I’ve also traveled pretty widely and I’m always looking for new places to visit so I love reading books that do a good job at evoking a sense of place. Some books are so generic that they could have been set anywhere and those are always a bit disappointing.
I recently read a mystery series by Zoe Ferraris set in Saudi Arabia that was so good – you could literally feel the oppressiveness of the heat and the desert as well as the closed society that they live in. The atmosphere and setting were an integral part of the story.
I live in the Chicago area, and I love books set there. Julie James is the absolutely best example of using the setting properly. It FEELS right and she uses real details that feel like little in-jokes for locals. For instance, there’s a scene in one of her earlier books where a character goes to a restaurant, and James uses the name of a real restaurant. Nothing big or well known, just a little neighborhood place I happened to have driven past many times, but when I read that scene my mind snapped to the restaurant and the people I’ve seen there and the whole picture clicked in my head. That’s an example of why I love reading her! I actually love any author that uses the setting well, even if it’s not a place I’m familiar with. I enjoy it when the setting matters, not when it could be exchanged with pretty much any other place and nothing would change in the story.