Where It All Goes Down
Swampsea, England, Early 20th Century
Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It's 1900 Something
Okay, so it's probably hard to imagine a time before lights and cars, but believe us when we say it wasn't really that long ago. Chime takes place during the exciting time period when many of the everyday conveniences we enjoy (lights in the house, a quick airplane ride to Disney World, a paperclip to hold your English essay together) are just starting to become possible.
Set in the early 1900s, Briony's little town has still not seen many modern inventions. Briony and her fellow citizens of Swampsea have definitely heard of them, though, but because they live in a time before many of our everyday technologies are commonplace, the residents of Swampsea live a harder and simpler life. They still party at the Alehouse and get in trouble for sneaking out at night like the rest of us, but they don't get to beg mommy and daddy for a car on their sixteenth birthday, and they go to the bathroom in the dark (which is a bit scary if you ask us).
True Life: I Live in a British Swamp
Billingsley based her supernatural swampland on the British Fens, an area known for controversies around swamp life and drainage efforts. This means you, dear reader, get to witness a pretty cool (okay, and sometimes gross and scary) swamp where Horrors and spirits talk, attack, and ask politely to have stories written about them.
Not to be mistaken with a barren wasteland, Swampsea has a rich town life that centers around Hangman's Square (named conveniently after their practice of hanging witches) and the adult and teenage drinking spot (a.k.a. bar or club in our world), aptly called The Alehouse.
Briony's many swamp adventures include in depth descriptions of the oozing, swaying, pulling, crying, drifting, and killing that a swamp can do. Through her connection to the swamp and the spirits that inhabit it, we get to know the swamp as intimately as a Chime Child would.
From the forest—or the Slough—to the Flats, which are "all reeds and shallows" (4.25), to the Quicks that seem to be a dangerous "bit that likes to gobble you up" (4.28), Briony leads us through a swamp world full of Reed Spirits, Snickleways, Boggy Mun, Mucky Face, Dead Hand, and Bleeding Hearts. It's a good thing she takes the lead too, because we sure wouldn't understand what all these things are without her.