A Change of Scenery: Lucy from Moonlight Gleam's Bookshelf

Why, hello there!

Today on the blog, I have one of my very awesome blogger friends (and one of the gals that convinced me to get a blog in the first place) Lucy from Moonlight Gleam's Bookshelf! I adore her and have been inspired by her blog and I'm so excited for her to be here today! 

Hello everyone!

Before I begin, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Ciara for inviting me to be part of “A Change of Scenery” this week! When Ciara asked me to guest post, I immediately loved the idea and couldn’t resist accepting the invitation! I also had some difficulty selecting one specific book for this guest post, so I decided to keep it more generalized and I’ll describe more than one genre.

Sorry for getting sidetracked lol. Now, let’s get down to business!

After having finished reading a novel, there are many elements that I consider when determining my overall impressions. I ask myself questions such as:

-         Where the characters engaging?

-         Did I feel some kind of connection to the characters and the story?

-         Did the ideas flow?

-         Was the story too long or too short?

-    Did the author go into enough depth in describing the character’s backgrounds?

Although these are some of the questions that I consider important in forming my overall opinion, another very important element that I consider is the story’s setting.

I definitely believe that the setting sets the tone of the novel and plays a key role in the story’s plot. I also believe that the book genre will influence the settings that are presented within each novel. For example, a common setting in mystery and suspense novels will be large cities that have high crime rates and where the story normally takes place at night for more dramatic scenes; in historical romances the dress code as well as the character’s language and behavior become important as the details need to be more historically accurate given the era that the author selects to portray; and a common setting in contemporary young adult novels is that of a high school ground.

**I’d also just like to quickly point out again that these are just examples of common settings for different genres, and in no way am I suggesting that these settings are the same for all novels within the genres that I mentioned.**

Let’s take the Harry Potter series as another example of how the setting influences the characters, tone, and plot. Within this series alone, the settings vary given that the characters travel to different locations quite rapidly from scene to scene. If we take the setting of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there is an incredible amount of detail and setting descriptions for this very location alone. (Moving staircases, pictures that capture a moment rather than a still frame, headquarter alleys, floating candles, common room, school grounds, games, classrooms, different creatures that roam the school grounds, sounds, magical abilities etc. the list goes on and on!) These different elements within the setting shape how the characters will be presented within the novel. The students and teachers will behave in different ways dependent on their roles, but of course their roles are limited (or in this case not limited due to magic) by the setting. The plots in each Harry Potter novel go hand in hand with each carefully selected setting, as the story progresses and as the characters grow up, the settings become even more important. As each setting in the Harry Potter series is so complex, and with many different ideas being thrown at readers all at once, the author had to pay careful attention to detail in making the novel flow. I believe this is a great example of how each setting within the series is so well executed, that readers are instantly immersed into this magical story.

I hope you all enjoyed my take on settings that influence characters, tone, and plot of the novels we read! Thank you all for visiting and thank you again to Ciara for the opportunity!

Happy Reading!

Lucy

 

  Eep! Thanks so much, Lucy for your detailed post about setting! It was really interesting to read! Hope you guys enjoyed it as well!

Tomorrow's post is from Kathy who talks about her top five favorite settings!

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight)