These can be settings that exist in books or ones you'd like to see in books. Also, if you are like me, you don't really have to make this about horror or scary settings. You can also use eerie, atmospheric settings. Macabre settings. Eclectic settings. I'm not a scary horror person either, but I do enjoy the latter.
1. Home
The idea of your own home being unfamiliar, uncanny, creeps me out. House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski does this brilliantly. Johnny Truant finds a manuscript written by his recently dead neighbour, a blind man called Zampano. The manuscript is titled The Navidson Report, and is a detailed description and analysis of a film by the same name that does not exist. The Navidson family move into a house that changes. Walls grow and shrink, huge caverns appear in the hallway... but the outside remains the same. Even the text of the book reflects the changes the characters and environments are going through. I read this in one sitting, and it still remains one of my favourite novels; there is no real sense of closure, but for me that adds to the tension.
2. Forests
Forests are scary. Getting lost is as easy as turning slightly left, and I have the worst sense of direction ever.
(Fun story: I once got on a bus with a friend and it took us a few stops to realise we were going the wrong way... and a further few stops to actually change routes.)
I love the grounds of Hogwarts for their endless possibilities. One tree, the Whomping Willow, can even kill. That is most definitely scary.
3. History
The past is a terrible place to be, it really is. Even just half a century ago, a simple infection could be lethal. The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness does this really well, as does The Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor. Both show brilliantly well how terrifying the past can be, without being horror. I love it.
4. Locked rooms
This isn't just a single room, but the idea that you are stuck with people you cannot escape. Agatha Christie does an excellent job of this in several of her works. Imagine being in a place you'd rather not be, with people you'd rather not be with, and having no escape from either.
5. Dystopia
I'm not overly optimistic about the state of humanity, but I like to have some degree of hope that we won't let everything go to waste. Dystopian settings, especially when done well, are truly terrifying because they show the potential of humanity and its destructive nature. I've recently read Human Universe by Professor Brian Cox, and I think it sums it up well when he talks about how quickly civilisations can fall.
What are your favourite spooky settings?
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