Why Urban Fantasy Works for Me...
There's something about falling into a world that could be ours if you stripped away the demons or the faeries or the vampires. It can be frightening or beautiful, deadly or peaceful. Throw in a little murder and mayhem and I'm as happy as a clam.
What is it about Urban Fantasy that captures my attention? Is it the characters? They *are* generally badasses with a chip of their shoulder and fighting skills that leave their enemies gasping. Gin Blanco, I'm looking at you on this one. The women are strong, the men are alpha (oh, are they!), and the bad guys have a tendency to gut people for looking at them wrong.
I think the thing that draws me in is that these worlds are so wonderfully like ours yet there's no way in hell I'd ever be able to survive in them. I'd fall like a house of cards if someone breathed on me too heavily. I'd run crying to my mama if I ever had to work a murder scene where an unhinged magic user had flayed his victim alive to harvest their power. Thank you to Kara Gillian and her wacky magical shenanigans for that visual.
Urban fantasy tends to lean toward fantastic mysteries. And when I say "fantastic" I mean that they involve both paranormal elements (what was the last UF you read with a plain old everyday human as the killer?) and they tend to be wonderfully gruesome. Many have an overriding mystery arc - What sort of creatures are our good guys up against? Who is the shadow-clad stranger who keeps popping up to dispense timely advice? Why is our hero or heroine being targeted?
The appeal of Urban Fantasy is in the darkness it surrounds itself in. It's deadly and seductive. It fights and it loves. It kills things without warning.
Who doesn't get a kick out of that??
I love the darkness of the UF books. The ones where the world is going to END until the hero(ine) saves it. LOVE.
ReplyDeleteI'm still lol'ing over your "there's no way I'd ever be able to survive in them."
IT'S TRUE! I would be SO dead if I were ever plunked into the middle of an Urban Fantasy novel. DEAD DEAD DEAD!
DeleteI've just been getting into urban fantasy books and they're great! I can handle dystopian books, but sometimes they get to be a bit much. I love the almost alternate-universe that is urban fantasy reads -- where there are vampires and werewolves and other supernatural creatures and it's just totally normal. Or a well-known city turned into something totally mysterious and captivating.
ReplyDeleteAnd the characters! They're always so tough! I'd be like you -- I wouldn't last a day!
I think you can overload on ANY genre if you read it too much. I find myself flipping back and forth between my faves (paranormal romance, UF, sexy sci-fi, ya) just so I don't burn out.
DeleteOh man I love UF! I think it is probably one of my fave genres. I too love the worlds and the kick ass heroines. Oh and the alpha men. No, never forget them! :)
ReplyDeleteWho'd *want* to forget the alpha men? NOT ME! RAWR!
DeleteThe thing that I love about UF, and this will totally expose me for the weirdo I am, is that I actually could be one of the characters in the book. I could be bad-ass. I could have a secret family member way back in the line who is fae. My neighbor could be a vampire (although with my hubs working nights, I think he is sometimes).
ReplyDeleteThey are really just so easy to get lost in b/c most of the time you can look up the location or picture it in your mind. And then I get to pretend for a few hours...
yes, SAHM here... bored...
When we unceremoniously get dumped into an alternate UF setting, I'm totally going to join your group! You'll have to teach me all your tricks, though, because the only thing I can do is scream REALLY loud to scare the bad guys away.
DeleteI think I commented in my head but evidently that did not make it to here LOL (I would not make it as a UF leading lady)!
ReplyDeleteUF is growing on me! I think I might have a read a bad couple in the beginning and thought they were all the same. I am still super picky (aka I don't want triangles, the lead has to be snarky, AND they can't be "woe is me" all the time) but I have found that I really love the world building.
Oddly enough it is the male lead UF that got me back into reading them and that has translated to me picking up the female ones again!
So yeah UF!
The world building tends to blow me away. I am in awe of it. To take things that we see everyday and tweak it *thismuch* so that it's fresh and new... wow. Just, wow.
DeleteThat is what I love! Especially if it is somewhere you know: New Orleans, New York, Las Vegas. You can "see" it happening but then you just wonder how they thought it up!
DeleteThe minds of writers... they are amazing places.
Delete