I recently started wondering how would my favourite books have gone if they had been set during COVID. Take Harry Potter for example, presuming wizards couldn’t cure it, imagine trying to social distance in a boat or a giant room packed with people. The romance stories I like would be ruined. Instead of meeting at a party, talking all night and ending the night with a kiss. It would be they went to a gathering of six people or less, saw a hot woman but couldn’t get too close, said a few words to each other and what then? I saw a book titled Love During Lockdown and I can’t imagine a less exciting story. How would your favourite book have to change if it was set in the current climate?
Hi Loves books, Cool idea. I don’t know about my favorite books, but one I liked reading recently was “Openly Straight” by Bill Konigsberg. I’ll quote part of the description: “Rafe is a normal teenager from Colorado. He’s been out since 8th grade, accepted by his peers & championed by his progressive parents. And while that’s important, all Rafe really wants is to be a regular guy. To have his sexuality be a part of who he is, but not the headline, every single time. So when Rafe transfers to an all-boys' boarding school in New England, he decides to keep his sexuality a secret...” But in COVID-19 it turns out Rafe’s all-boy’s school closes down for the whole spring term, so his budding relationship withers and dies. And the boys (friends and antagonists, all relevant to the plot) never come back the next term because their families don’t think it is worth it to pay their child’s tuition just to be stuck in a dorm room doing all classes online. He never joins the sports team, or go on any daring escapades. Instead, Rafe’s parents buy him a new laptop, and he goes to the ophthalmologist to start wearing glasses as his eyes get weaker from staring at the screen all day. The New York Times hails the COVID-hampered story as “A post-modern cautionary tale which never inspires, but realistically tells the devastating side effects of lock-down on families and especially teens.” The sequel never gets published due to the lack of sales, and nothing much else to write about.
The Hunger Games would have been way scarier. The rich in the capital would all be in lockdown in their homes while the poor in the districts struggle to work and not die. The actual games would be a race against time and what kills the tributes first: Covid or each other? Horrifying.
The Legend of Drizzt wouldn't have changed much, a lot of isolation in those books anyways or small group travel. one of the companions is a magical beast with immunity to all mortal disease anyway. however it would have been interesting to see the cities try to isolate the virus and find a way to purge it. I don't think barbarian camps, orcish settlements, goblin dwellings, or pretty much the entire city of Menzoberranzan would care though so they may be hit hardest while claiming its a weak virus or doesn't exist.
Most of novels I've read are set in the past. Being set during COVID or some plague is fine. But not with quarantine thing. So terrible. Anyway: I guess powerful persons in big cities would try to move to villages and other less risky places. There would be some social/religious movements like what happened after black plague. It would be assumed (either wrongly or not) that COVID has been made by an evil nation/group/person or maybe there would be a good person accused of that. Some hero to destroy this evil COVID. Priests would try to use their sacred power to heal people from COVID, But that'd be not so easy. That's because I've read such things has happened in history and those novels get many ideas of their plot from human history.
I haven't read many novels. But I've read part of Wolf Hall that is set during some small plague waves. But I guess I missed the point of the OP. There wasn't lockdown back then I think.
My most favorite book has events like this. My “trashy novel” would have vampires dying off after tasting the infected OR vampires are spreading it with mouths not sterilized after every feeding. My accepted series would have Lincoln Rhyme either falling deathly ill among first cases in NYC or being able to social distance he goes back to NYPD since so many Officers get sick.
