Welcome to my first Hype or Like Friday: a meme that was created on Goodreads by Jill @Rant And Rave About Books,  Larkin @Wonderfilled Reads, and Britt @Geronimo Reads. The focus of the group is to talk about hyped books and whether they deserve such high praise or not. Each month, there’s a Book of the Month that will be reviewed on the last Friday of said month. To join the group or find more information about it, please go to the Goodreads page HERE.

This month’s theme is I Ain’t Scared Of The Dark. The topic for this week’s Hype or Like Friday was a bit of a wild card, apart from having to choose from a provided list of topics. I went with Donna@Chocolatenwaffles‘ idea of:

It’s Locked: The Scariest Settings/Places Where You Would Not Want To Be Stuck

I haven’t read many scary books during the past couple of years. Not because I don’t like scary books but because my anxiety has been flying through the roof enough already without the help of any external factors. Which is why this list won’t solely have horror books/thrillers to it, but simply scary settings from books I’ve read in the past two to three years that I do not want to be stuck in.

My top 5 in no particular order
(if I’ve reviewed the book, clicking on the image will take you to the corresponding review):

#1

Dark Age Fantasy shrouded in mystery and horror! I gave this book 4.5 brownies which is practically as good as it gets over here. There’s a plot twist. You won’t see it coming. Read my review is all I can say here. But yes, I definitely do NOT want to be stuck inside the setting of this book. A living nightmare for sure.

#2

Although this dystopian setting won’t be a shiny example of a massive shindig to anyone, it is one of my worst personal nightmares of all time. Global warming has reached its toll. Genetic manipulation and trying to play God also hasn’t fared well. Most people are living in domes. And when the creme de la creme of catastrophes takes place (the book goes back and forth using flashbacks, so this isn’t a spoiler), there is only one survivor. With barely any food left, and a crazy climate with unbearable hot humidity during most of the days, I would probably rather be dead than alive in it.

#3

While I loved this book, I absolutely do not want to trade places with Richard Mayhew when he’s trapped in London Below. Not only is London Below a horrifying place to live in with all the darkness, crazy people and murderers lurking around every corner; the life you knew on the world Above ceases to exist. You become invisible to every person and can never go back to your family and friends. If I remember correctly, it’s like you’ve never existed to them in the first place. Scary thought!

#4

The Dark Tower world is actually not just one world, but a vast collection of parallel worlds to our own. And they are all slowly dying because the one place that binds them all, the Dark Tower, is falling apart and being corrupted by external factors. I’ve only read the first five books in the series but the number of times Roland has almost died by the hand of hunger, thirst, or mutants can’t be counted on one hand anymore. And then there are the giant crabs that eat you alive if you’re already dying. Awesome books, but not places I’d like to visit, let alone be stuck in *shudders*.

#5

This was one of the first ARC’s I was lucky enough to get approved for, and while it’s a Middle-Grade book, I soon found out I shouldn’t read it right before going to bed. When Max and her little brother are being transported to a creepy island, it turns out no one wants to be there after sunset. The days are ‘wonderful’, the nights a major creep fest when all the evil creatures on the island come alive. Three, four, better lock your doors!

‘Fun’ Fact: I had no idea that a peddler was an already existing word, so watch me go out of my way when it comes to describing the Peddler’s job description from this book in my review (okay, so I just checked and it was only half a sentence, but in my head, I wrote an entire paragraph on it)!

BONUS SETTING

I would NOT want to get stuck in one of Christian Grey’s BDSM devices. Not even if he fed me pancakes while dangling from the ceiling…

This kind of happened to me while playing Second Life many years ago. It really isn’t as much fun as it seems.

Have you read any of these books? What are your scariest settings? Do you have a safe word?