Welcome to Night Vale

Welcome to Night Vale

Authors: Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

Genre: Weird Stuff Happens

Grade: B

Night Vale is a town where strange things are the normal. Angels exist, there’s this glowing cloud, the library is deadly and the nightly newscasters talk to you. Time, reality and history are generally whatever you want them to be in Night Vale. Jackie is perfectly happy and endlessly nineteen when she has a run in with a man who gives her a piece of paper with King City written on it. Perfectly reasonable but she literally can’t get the paper out of her hand. Diane meanwhile is starting to see her ex-back in town. Everywhere. Doing everything and searching for a co-worker no one remembers.

Just your average time in Night Vale.

Overall I liked the book. I’m semi-familiar with the podcast and yes, Cecil the radio broadcaster shows up throughout giving his reports.

While I found Jackie’s struggle and her life very interesting I was bored by Diane. But I will admit that’s a personal thing as I sometimes feel like my life’s not advancing and having something stuck to my hand would drive me completely batshit insane.

It is written very much in the same style and honestly I’m fifty-fifty on that. He loved her always. Then he didn’t love her. There was always a house. There was never a house. She had thought about it all the time until she realized she had never thought about it at all…

That kind of thing.

But the weird thing for me is that it never really goes anywhere. Not the ending and not the writing. There’s no real character connection to what could be some interesting musings about time, space, reality, the people you surround yourself with and in book format I was hoping there would be. I always liked the podcast but I expected a little more from the book.

It’s a series of strange things happening. Honestly, I have the same reaction to the book that I do the podcast. I enjoy Night Vale when I think about it but it never really seems to stay with me and I don’t think the book will either.

Recommend: I’d definitely say this is a niche thing. Fans of the podcast and the Twilight Zone will enjoy (I think it’s a lot tamer than the Twilight Zone) and I would definitely recommend checking out the podcast first if you are interested in the book.