Hogwart’s. The Overlook Hotel. The Pequod. Novels are filled with settings that are so integral to the story, they seem to have the essence of an additional character. In an article for CrimeReads, Alice Henderson looks at a few novels where the setting moved the plot to see how their writers pulled it off.
“The physical environment, either human-made or natural, can profoundly affect the course of a story and the choices that characters make,” Henderson says. “With human-made settings, for example, characters can be trapped in rambling houses or castles or jails. In natural settings, rugged topography and weather can affect characters, limit or expand their choices, or even take their lives.”
