Not that the characters necessarily need to perfectly behave themselves throughout the story– that would be odd– but
I do NOT want:
– to discover midway through that the monsters were a dream, or a metaphor, or a drug induced fever, or a hallucination
– the goal to be a story with an intentional moral that beats you over the head, either
– the point of the story to be a quest or learning lessons (Maybe those occur, but they’re not the end goal)
– an apocalypse story where the whole city, country, or world are affected
– a macrocosm story
I DO want:
– a story where normal life is occurring somewhere, and then it’s interrupted unexpectedly by some kind of unfortunate creature or essence (e.g. a creepy fog, a vampire, an alien invasion, etc) & the characters need to vanquish whatever it is, to get back to their regularly scheduled programming, so to speak.
– interesting characters
– an even more fascinating, unexpected monster that’s not analogous to the monstrous side of humanity or some such
– ideally not a gov’t military engineered creature
– characters who are average people, who aren’t impenetrable; not super heroes or plot protected morons. If the main character gets stabbed, it’s no different than if the least important side character does.
– a plot that is not driven entirely by family dynamics or romantic relationships/ couples. It would be ideal if the regular people were coworkers, people in a book club, gamers at a board game event, maybe even strangers on a subway train or in a grocery store.
– incredibly detailed (think Nathaniel Hawthorne style detail)
It can be/ involve:
– some sense of camaraderie amongst the humans/ “band of misfits work together”
– historical or modern day
– cryptids (though they don’t need to be villainous)
– any country really, though bonus if it’s Canada, or anywhere that’s not the US
– a book that’s “for teens” or “for kids”; the age intended audience doesn’t matter to me
Ideally reminiscent of the films:
– Pride and Prejudice and Zombies but with fewer romantic interests
– Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight 1 & 2
Thanks in advance! Feel free to ask follow up clarification questions if needed.
by TechnicalTerm6