Sometimes, as I read, every word grows my longing to visit the place in the pages. I’d love to live in a world where those flora and fauna live, where those powers exist, where those people talk and make decisions. But some places, thankfully, are only accessible through books. I might devour the stories of those who live there, but I have no dreams of calling their setting my own. Even a company-sponsored moving truck couldn’t entice me to pack my bags and move to one of these cities.
Daevabad (The City of Brass and the Daevabad series by S.K. Chakraborty)
While The City of Brass begins in Cairo, its heroine eventually lands in Daevabad—the titular city of the djinns and a place of history, culture, and danger. Daevabad has glittering mosques and gardens to shame Babylon’s, but it is ruled by a cruel and cold dynasty. Its opponents have just as few qualms about sacrificing truth for power. Every political risk could lead to the slaughter of innocent people. Mapping the future requires a thousand impossible choices.
Political intrigue makes for a fascinating story, but not for a safe or pleasant home. Difficult decisions make for engaging books, but I could never invite them so willingly into my real life.
The One Perk: Oh, the people. Complicated, complex people, sometimes with genuine faith, honest conviction, or a determination to survive despite the pains of their past.
New York City (The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin)
Wait, you say: isn’t New York City a real place? Couldn’t you move there in real life? But N.K. Jemisin’s New York City is both a reflection and an expansion of the real metropolis, with the five boroughs embodied by five different people. Many of the terrors of N.K. Jemisin’s NYC mirror the real city’s troubles: gentrification, racial and gender disparities, the traumas of past and present violence. Those foes are difficult enough to battle in real life, let alone in fiction. Besides, my Midwestern self would need enough help to assimilate into the real NYC, let alone one where the Woman in White might attack.
The One Perk: Well, if you live here, your life will be narrated by N.K. Jemisin. So your life might be terrifying, but described in stunning detail. Almost worth the risk.
The Capitol (The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins)
Home of the villainous President Snow and thousands of vapid citizens, the Capitol serves as both the ominous setting and the metonymic antagonist for much of Suzanne Collins’s bestselling series. While surrounding districts starve, the residents of the Capitol force themselves to vomit—so that they can eat course after course of delicacies. Those who live in the Capitol are blissfully or intentionally ignorant of the sufferings of others. Or they are actively orchestrating those sufferings.
Even as rebellion begins, the Capitol remains mentally and politically lethal for even the story’s strongest characters. I have no desire to call a dystopia home. I’ll stay in my city and try to prevent it from becoming one.
The One Perk: The fashion, I suppose? Though, like everything else in the Capitol, the gorgeous clothes and hair come at a cost. Better make sure your stylist cares about you—and better make sure he has a good bodyguard.
Chattana (A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontorvat)
Christina Soontorvat’s middle-grade retelling of Les Miserables opens in a prison, where a young boy dreams of escaping across the water to the glowing city of Chattana. One day, Pong finally gets the chance to make a new life in Chattana—and discovers that the city is just as cruel and unjust as the prison he left behind. The Governor creates the lights, but only the rich and powerful can afford to buy enough to live well. Everyone else lives in darkness and fear.
The One Perk: As the setting of a children’s novel (where even darker stories tend to conclude on a hopeful note), this city transforms into something brighter by the end of the story. So, if I can choose my landing spot in the narrative, I’d happily move to Chattana. I’d probably head straight to one of its outdoor markets, since all the descriptions of food in A Wish in the Dark made my mouth water.
Most Historical Cities (Most Historical Fiction by Most Authors)
I’d like to visit the past, but stay there? In the tenements of nineteenth-century New York? In the villages of plague-ridden medieval Russia? In the glamorous but foolish parties of 1920s Mexico City? No, thank you. I admire the bravery and resilience of people in the past, but I’ll stay put in 2023. I’m ill-equipped to survive in the times before accessible vaccines and democratized voting and modern-day plumbing. Complicated as it is, I’ll keep making a life in my own time and place, where I have privileges, choices, and freedoms my historical predecessors would urge me not to trade away.
The One Perk: Well, you’ve lived in 2023. You’ve probably daydreamed about time travel. Name your favorite current event to leave behind.
Courtney Zonnefeld graduated in 2018 with a degree in writing. She currently lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she works for Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, and saving up for more herb plants. You can usually find her wandering a farmer’s market, hunting for vintage books, or browsing the tea selection in coffee shops.
