Status
Checked out
Due 7/24/2022
Call number
Collection
Publication
Harper Perennial (2015), Edition: First Edition, 416 pages
Description
Fiction. Horror. Science Fiction. Humor (Fiction.) HTML: From the creators of the wildly popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes an imaginative mystery of appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to find ourselves...no matter where we live. "Hypnotic and darkly funny. . . . Belongs to a particular strain of American gothic that encompasses The Twilight Zone, Stephen King and Twin Peaks, with a bit of Tremors thrown in."�The Guardian Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge. Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "KING CITY" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels. Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it. Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "KING CITY". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member ashleytylerjohn
I try not to warn people away from books--even the worst book I've read has its passionate defenders, and tastes differ--and this book has apparently hit a chord with lots of readers ... but not me, and perhaps not you.
I haven't listened to the podcast that inspired this (maybe it would all make
I will make up something in the same style so you get the effect: "Martha wanted to cross the street, but was wary, because the last time she crossed the street it got its revenge. Instead, she continued down the block until the street ended at Fayette Park, a happy place (or at least she assumed it was happy, because it never cried torrents of tears like LaSalle Park on the west side of town)." And you can read as long as you like, but you will never find out why parks and streets have emotions--in fact, this made-up example is more consistent that Night Vale because I've established that places behave like people. In the actual book the weirdness is very random.
And it's such a disappointment because I love weird, and I love nonsense. I'm a huge fan of Lewis Caroll and Catherynne Valente's Fairyland series, but in both cases they take an unusual notion and then develop it.
You know those stand-up comics who deliver one punch line after another, rather than setting up jokes with characters and situations? It's like that. For me, a little is fun, but a lot is wearying. So I kept at the book for about 40% of its length (I'm reading on Kindle) until I realised my life and happiness would be ameliorated if I just moved on to book 2 of the Riyiria Revelations, so that's what I did.
And I'll quote Goodreads review N.K. Layne, because they summed it up best: "Reading this book was like when a friend tells you about their wild trippy dream and you have to nod to be polite, but in actuality you just want them to shut up because nothing could be more boring than someone else's weird dreams."
Two stars rather than one because at least it's inventive, even if it's virtually unreadable.
I haven't listened to the podcast that inspired this (maybe it would all make
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more sense if I had). This novel is a slow-moving account of two women's life in a small town that is weird and nonsensical to an irritating extreme, weird in ways that seem motivated by an easy joke, but not in a way that holds together to create a convincing environment. Librarians are evil, a son can assume any shape he likes, coffee is ground by hammering beans on the countertop, city council eats people, etc. This is a very small sample of the strangeness to be encountered, as a new strangeness is introduced about once a paragraph.I will make up something in the same style so you get the effect: "Martha wanted to cross the street, but was wary, because the last time she crossed the street it got its revenge. Instead, she continued down the block until the street ended at Fayette Park, a happy place (or at least she assumed it was happy, because it never cried torrents of tears like LaSalle Park on the west side of town)." And you can read as long as you like, but you will never find out why parks and streets have emotions--in fact, this made-up example is more consistent that Night Vale because I've established that places behave like people. In the actual book the weirdness is very random.
And it's such a disappointment because I love weird, and I love nonsense. I'm a huge fan of Lewis Caroll and Catherynne Valente's Fairyland series, but in both cases they take an unusual notion and then develop it.
You know those stand-up comics who deliver one punch line after another, rather than setting up jokes with characters and situations? It's like that. For me, a little is fun, but a lot is wearying. So I kept at the book for about 40% of its length (I'm reading on Kindle) until I realised my life and happiness would be ameliorated if I just moved on to book 2 of the Riyiria Revelations, so that's what I did.
And I'll quote Goodreads review N.K. Layne, because they summed it up best: "Reading this book was like when a friend tells you about their wild trippy dream and you have to nod to be polite, but in actuality you just want them to shut up because nothing could be more boring than someone else's weird dreams."
Two stars rather than one because at least it's inventive, even if it's virtually unreadable.
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LibraryThing member jms001
A weird story for people who like weird things.
There's a funky cast of characters that populate the world of Night Vale. You have the spunky always-nineteen-years-old Jackie who finds herself stuck with a piece of paper in her hand that she can't get rid of. You have Diane who is seeing her ex all
I can appreciate the book for what it's worth, and understand that the podcast is wildly popular. I've only listened to a handful of the Podcasts, and it's instantly apparent how the spoken version makes such a difference in the reading experience of Welcome to Night Vale. So...should I ever decide to re-read the book, I think I might as well listen to the entire Podcast library from the very beginning. Or perhaps the audiobook.
There's a lot going for Night Vale. One thing I appreciated was the way sexuality was handled. Or rather, it wasn't handled at all. People are people, and people like people, and that's all people are. Their sexuality wasn't pointed out as a major plot point, but just added some complexity to these already weird characters. There were so many other strange things going on, that it's not really something worth getting ruffled about.
If you're into the weird style of Welcome to Night Vale, then by all means read and listen. Me personally, I found it a little hard to get into at first. It felt spastic and and all over the place, at least until I found my footing. The thing is, your footing is always relative to what you believe is normal. And that will have to constantly change as you plunge deeper into the heart of Night Vale.
“She understood the world and her place in it. She understood nothing. The world and her place in it were nothing and she understood that.”
There's a funky cast of characters that populate the world of Night Vale. You have the spunky always-nineteen-years-old Jackie who finds herself stuck with a piece of paper in her hand that she can't get rid of. You have Diane who is seeing her ex all
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over town. Diane's son Josh who is a moody shape-shifter. And of course your friendly neighborhood radio announcer. As weird as things are, things get weirder when memories become unreliable and angels named Erika join you for conversations. Yea...it's weird.I can appreciate the book for what it's worth, and understand that the podcast is wildly popular. I've only listened to a handful of the Podcasts, and it's instantly apparent how the spoken version makes such a difference in the reading experience of Welcome to Night Vale. So...should I ever decide to re-read the book, I think I might as well listen to the entire Podcast library from the very beginning. Or perhaps the audiobook.
There's a lot going for Night Vale. One thing I appreciated was the way sexuality was handled. Or rather, it wasn't handled at all. People are people, and people like people, and that's all people are. Their sexuality wasn't pointed out as a major plot point, but just added some complexity to these already weird characters. There were so many other strange things going on, that it's not really something worth getting ruffled about.
If you're into the weird style of Welcome to Night Vale, then by all means read and listen. Me personally, I found it a little hard to get into at first. It felt spastic and and all over the place, at least until I found my footing. The thing is, your footing is always relative to what you believe is normal. And that will have to constantly change as you plunge deeper into the heart of Night Vale.
“She understood the world and her place in it. She understood nothing. The world and her place in it were nothing and she understood that.”
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LibraryThing member dtw42
Note: I have no experience of the radio show/podcast so read this novel entirely on its own merits.
Weeeell … I wasn't sure how I felt about this book while I was reading it, and I'm still not. The self-consciously quirky style grated in the opening chapters, and I found myself hoping the authors
Some other reviewers here have made comparisons with the Hitchhiker's Guide – as a BIG Douglas Adams fan, let me say I really don't see it. Very very different styles. Maybe a little more like Flann O'Brien for the everyday-absurd? Jeff Noon meets Vonnegut for the trippy surrealism and tricksy language style?
Weeeell … I wasn't sure how I felt about this book while I was reading it, and I'm still not. The self-consciously quirky style grated in the opening chapters, and I found myself hoping the authors
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would let that recede a bit after the actual plot got underway. It didn't really, but I suppose I got used to it and it stopped bothering me. The plot itself is fairly insubstantial, and if the ending had been one of those open-ended "you decide" or "and everything continues more or less the same" types I might have thrown the book across the room as a massive waste of my time. Thankfully it did at least come to a relatively proper conclusion, which earned it at least one star. The relationship between the two protagonists was quite nicely developed.Some other reviewers here have made comparisons with the Hitchhiker's Guide – as a BIG Douglas Adams fan, let me say I really don't see it. Very very different styles. Maybe a little more like Flann O'Brien for the everyday-absurd? Jeff Noon meets Vonnegut for the trippy surrealism and tricksy language style?
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LibraryThing member dreamweaversunited
I listened to this to the end only because I like Cecil Baldwin's voice so much, and the "Voice of Night Vale" excerpts were as fun as the show itself always is.
Here's the problem with this book. The authors are used to writing for a twenty minute, highly stereotyped podcast format. When it comes
Here's the problem with this book. The authors are used to writing for a twenty minute, highly stereotyped podcast format. When it comes
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to writing a full-length novel, their pacing was wildly off. One of the main characters didn't have an actual motivation until more than halfway through the book - in fact, basically nothing happened in the entire first half of the book, then toward the end, everything happened at once. Which meant that the book dragged for the first half, then everything was rushed and unsatisfying at the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member literogo
As a relative newcomer to Night Vale, having only listened to a few of the podcasts, I approached this book with few expectations other than the giddily shared excitement of Night Vale-obsessed friends. I thought it would be a story about some weird small town, with a few odd things happening, in
"Based on what the news told her, the outside world seemed a dangerous place. There was always some world-ending cataclysm threatening Night Vale. Feral dogs. A sentient glowing cloud with the ability to control minds (although the Glow Cloud had become less threatening since its election to the local school board). Old oak doors that led to a strange desert otherworld where the current mayor had been trapped for months. It seemed safer not to have friends or hobbies. To sit at work, head down, doing her job, and then sit at home, glass after glass of orange juice, radio on, safe from anything that might disrupt her routine."
Set in the surreal, bizarre and comically strange little desert town of Night Vale, where the Dog Park is forbidden and Angels are neither real nor legal, Jackie has been a 19 year old for a long time, and has run the pawn shop for as long as she can remember. Decades, perhaps. Diane, the treasurer of the PTA, and her son Josh, who is having the usual teenage identity crisis with the unusual result of constantly changing his physical form, struggle to relate to each other beyond their tradition of going to the movies, as they grow further and further apart. A man in a tan jacket with a briefcase hands Jackie a note which she can’t remove from her hand, and a helpful blonde man does every job in town, appearing in more than one place at the same time. Nearby, King City exists, and doesn’t. Cecil features his boyfriend, Carlos, the handsome scientist on his radio show. And Old Woman Josie warns us not to touch the flamingos, which scare the Angels. As the mystery of King City, the man in the tan jacket and Diane’s relationship with her son develop, the story comes together to a startling (and satisfying) conclusion; it stands alone from the podcast and can be enjoyed by someone who is entirely unfamiliar with it. However, if you are familiar with the podcast, you will appreciate a lot of inside jokes, such as the consequences of a town-wide ban on wheat products.
“Here’s your croissant.” She handed Diane a cup full of melted butter, yeast, salt, and cold water as well as a spoon and napkin. After wheat and wheat by-products became illegal in Night Vale, Patty continued to make her pastries using the same ingredients and techniques, minus the flour."
My first impression of the book was one of confused amusement. The stranger the book became, the more I laughed – possibly out of fear – and the more engrossed I was. The authors have a way with words that creates the most fascinating contradictions, and the rhythms of the language lull you into the unnatural logic that prevails. Nothing in the book makes sense, but everything makes sense. It operates by its own rules and breaks all of them, all the time. The humour swings from zingy one-liners to caustic satire, with themes from existentialism, to Lovecraftian horror, to the fear of growing older. It plays with time and memory, and how those create our sense of identity. The Addams Family seem closer to Pleasantville on the spectrum of weird; that is how far Cranor and Fink have pushed the boundaries of the bizarre. It is masterfully done. It’s hilarious and it gave me nightmares.
"And now a word from our sponsors.
Having trouble sleeping? Are you awake at all hours? Do birds live in you? Are you crawling with insects? Is your skin jagged and hard? Are you covered in leaves and gently shaking in the gentle breeze?
You sound like a tree. You are perfectly healthy. Also, you don’t need to sleep. You’re a tree, a very very smart tree. Are you listening to the radio? Is a human assisting you? What plan do you have for our weak species? Please, tree, I beg of you to spare me. Please, tree. Spare me.
This message has been brought to you by Old Navy. Old Navy: What’s Going to Happen to My Family?"
The quiet, soothing tones of Cecil Baldwin’s voice on the podcast carry through to the tone of the novel, in the rhythms of the sentences, the repeated motifs and the pacing of the action. While the ending felt a tiny bit rushed, for the most part Welcome to Night Vale slowly pushed the story along. It is a labyrinth of descriptions of bizarre happenings, in that at times it felt like Fink and Cranor were being weird for the sake of being weird, but in the end it all pulled together and everything, every little detail, was significant. Furthermore, the funny one-liners, the odd “millennial hipsterese” phrase (which jarred at times) and thought-provoking philosophical musings jostle for your attention; however, the reading felt constantly rewarding. This is a novel for people who love a good tale, a good phrase, a good word, or an utterly terrifying monster.
"Jackie woke up confused, as is usual. Sleep is confusing. Dreams are baffling. The concept of transitioning from one perceived reality to another is a tolerated madness.
So far, normal."
Beneath the tightly woven lattice of contradiction and Lovecraftian oddities, the strongest feature of the novel, to me, was the portrayal of Diane and Josh’s relationship. The heartache of the growing distance between a single mother and her teenaged son was achingly real, woven into the surrealism of tentacled shadow-monsters and Josh’s ever-changing form. Fink and Cranor exhibit a wonderful talent for using language to describe the indescribable, and for creating a world that is full of contradictions but which holds together solidly. However, their strongest gift, as revealed in this novel, is their eye for human relationships, empathy and how our fears and sorrows motivate us. That solid portrayal of unconditional parental love, as well as the transformation of Jackie and Diane’s characters through the novel, hold the story together spectacularly.
"She had spent the night with open eyes, trying to will her mind to be just as open. There had to be something she had missed, some connection to be made in the events and individuals moving about in the memory of her day. But if there was, she couldn’t see it. Maybe she wasn’t smart enough. Or maybe the world wasn’t. Maybe the world wasn’t smart enough to put together a story that made sense. Maybe it could only stick together random elements randomly, forming, as Shakespeare had famously written, “a show of senseless movement and circumstance that ultimately doesn’t amount to much at all.”
Fink and Cranor are smart enough to have put together a story that makes sense. The apparently random elements come together in a tightly woven narrative with grace and a lyrical turn of phrase, hypnotizing the reader and drawing them into the nightmare. They mix social commentary, satire and suspense, seasoning it with blood and shadows, before letting it loose and seeing where it goes. The narrative spirals ever closer to an answer, pulling the reader along. You can’t escape. You don’t want to escape. Who is the man in the tan jacket? And why can no one remember him? Whether you’re a long-time fan of Night Vale Radio, or a newcomer to the world, this novel is a brilliant, eerie, disturbing and rewarding read.
I received the book as an eARC. To read more of my reviews, head over to Literogo.com
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an artistic, ironic way. To be honest, I thought it might be a little pretentious. However, the writing gripped me from the first paragraph, and, slowly clenching its fist around my throat, it refused to let go until I was pages from the end, and desperate for it not to be over."Based on what the news told her, the outside world seemed a dangerous place. There was always some world-ending cataclysm threatening Night Vale. Feral dogs. A sentient glowing cloud with the ability to control minds (although the Glow Cloud had become less threatening since its election to the local school board). Old oak doors that led to a strange desert otherworld where the current mayor had been trapped for months. It seemed safer not to have friends or hobbies. To sit at work, head down, doing her job, and then sit at home, glass after glass of orange juice, radio on, safe from anything that might disrupt her routine."
Set in the surreal, bizarre and comically strange little desert town of Night Vale, where the Dog Park is forbidden and Angels are neither real nor legal, Jackie has been a 19 year old for a long time, and has run the pawn shop for as long as she can remember. Decades, perhaps. Diane, the treasurer of the PTA, and her son Josh, who is having the usual teenage identity crisis with the unusual result of constantly changing his physical form, struggle to relate to each other beyond their tradition of going to the movies, as they grow further and further apart. A man in a tan jacket with a briefcase hands Jackie a note which she can’t remove from her hand, and a helpful blonde man does every job in town, appearing in more than one place at the same time. Nearby, King City exists, and doesn’t. Cecil features his boyfriend, Carlos, the handsome scientist on his radio show. And Old Woman Josie warns us not to touch the flamingos, which scare the Angels. As the mystery of King City, the man in the tan jacket and Diane’s relationship with her son develop, the story comes together to a startling (and satisfying) conclusion; it stands alone from the podcast and can be enjoyed by someone who is entirely unfamiliar with it. However, if you are familiar with the podcast, you will appreciate a lot of inside jokes, such as the consequences of a town-wide ban on wheat products.
“Here’s your croissant.” She handed Diane a cup full of melted butter, yeast, salt, and cold water as well as a spoon and napkin. After wheat and wheat by-products became illegal in Night Vale, Patty continued to make her pastries using the same ingredients and techniques, minus the flour."
My first impression of the book was one of confused amusement. The stranger the book became, the more I laughed – possibly out of fear – and the more engrossed I was. The authors have a way with words that creates the most fascinating contradictions, and the rhythms of the language lull you into the unnatural logic that prevails. Nothing in the book makes sense, but everything makes sense. It operates by its own rules and breaks all of them, all the time. The humour swings from zingy one-liners to caustic satire, with themes from existentialism, to Lovecraftian horror, to the fear of growing older. It plays with time and memory, and how those create our sense of identity. The Addams Family seem closer to Pleasantville on the spectrum of weird; that is how far Cranor and Fink have pushed the boundaries of the bizarre. It is masterfully done. It’s hilarious and it gave me nightmares.
"And now a word from our sponsors.
Having trouble sleeping? Are you awake at all hours? Do birds live in you? Are you crawling with insects? Is your skin jagged and hard? Are you covered in leaves and gently shaking in the gentle breeze?
You sound like a tree. You are perfectly healthy. Also, you don’t need to sleep. You’re a tree, a very very smart tree. Are you listening to the radio? Is a human assisting you? What plan do you have for our weak species? Please, tree, I beg of you to spare me. Please, tree. Spare me.
This message has been brought to you by Old Navy. Old Navy: What’s Going to Happen to My Family?"
The quiet, soothing tones of Cecil Baldwin’s voice on the podcast carry through to the tone of the novel, in the rhythms of the sentences, the repeated motifs and the pacing of the action. While the ending felt a tiny bit rushed, for the most part Welcome to Night Vale slowly pushed the story along. It is a labyrinth of descriptions of bizarre happenings, in that at times it felt like Fink and Cranor were being weird for the sake of being weird, but in the end it all pulled together and everything, every little detail, was significant. Furthermore, the funny one-liners, the odd “millennial hipsterese” phrase (which jarred at times) and thought-provoking philosophical musings jostle for your attention; however, the reading felt constantly rewarding. This is a novel for people who love a good tale, a good phrase, a good word, or an utterly terrifying monster.
"Jackie woke up confused, as is usual. Sleep is confusing. Dreams are baffling. The concept of transitioning from one perceived reality to another is a tolerated madness.
So far, normal."
Beneath the tightly woven lattice of contradiction and Lovecraftian oddities, the strongest feature of the novel, to me, was the portrayal of Diane and Josh’s relationship. The heartache of the growing distance between a single mother and her teenaged son was achingly real, woven into the surrealism of tentacled shadow-monsters and Josh’s ever-changing form. Fink and Cranor exhibit a wonderful talent for using language to describe the indescribable, and for creating a world that is full of contradictions but which holds together solidly. However, their strongest gift, as revealed in this novel, is their eye for human relationships, empathy and how our fears and sorrows motivate us. That solid portrayal of unconditional parental love, as well as the transformation of Jackie and Diane’s characters through the novel, hold the story together spectacularly.
"She had spent the night with open eyes, trying to will her mind to be just as open. There had to be something she had missed, some connection to be made in the events and individuals moving about in the memory of her day. But if there was, she couldn’t see it. Maybe she wasn’t smart enough. Or maybe the world wasn’t. Maybe the world wasn’t smart enough to put together a story that made sense. Maybe it could only stick together random elements randomly, forming, as Shakespeare had famously written, “a show of senseless movement and circumstance that ultimately doesn’t amount to much at all.”
Fink and Cranor are smart enough to have put together a story that makes sense. The apparently random elements come together in a tightly woven narrative with grace and a lyrical turn of phrase, hypnotizing the reader and drawing them into the nightmare. They mix social commentary, satire and suspense, seasoning it with blood and shadows, before letting it loose and seeing where it goes. The narrative spirals ever closer to an answer, pulling the reader along. You can’t escape. You don’t want to escape. Who is the man in the tan jacket? And why can no one remember him? Whether you’re a long-time fan of Night Vale Radio, or a newcomer to the world, this novel is a brilliant, eerie, disturbing and rewarding read.
I received the book as an eARC. To read more of my reviews, head over to Literogo.com
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LibraryThing member pegasus.rose.99
This review may contains spoilers. I read an ARC. Aren't you jealous?
It's weird. It's weird. 401 pages of weirdness. Try mashing the weirdest parts of Lovecraft, Doctor Who, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and maybe you could come up with something as weird and wacky as this. I mean, it's
It's weird. It's weird. 401 pages of weirdness. Try mashing the weirdest parts of Lovecraft, Doctor Who, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and maybe you could come up with something as weird and wacky as this. I mean, it's
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awesome. But weird. I need to read it 7 more times to make it make sense. Jackie Fierro, Diane Crayton. Troy Walsh. Man in a tan jacket holding a deerskin suitcase. Cecil and Carlos, who do their science and radio- things!! And continue to be adorable. Also: Beware the librarians! And the Library. KING CITY. Family is what you make of it. Love. and stuff. happens. Show Less
LibraryThing member LibraryGirl11
Dark. Twisty. Creepy. Bizarre. I'm still not quite sure what what happened, happened, but that's pretty typical of Nigh Vale in general. Listen to this one--there is not point in reading the book when you can have Cecil read it to you.
LibraryThing member AliceaP
Is podcast a verb or just a noun? I have no idea but I do know that after reading Welcome to Night Vale by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink that I'm likely to check out their podcast of the same name. (If you're interested in checking out the podcast before reading the book then you can go here and
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start from the beginning.) I had heard about this podcast and the book through the devoted community on Twitter and Tumblr. (I listened to a bit of the podcast but I have a problem committing to podcasts so I picked up the book instead.) It was strange right off of the bat but it was a good kind of strange. Anyone who has read a really intense sci-fi novel will understand the feeling that they have somehow missed a step and landed someplace entirely new. That's what this book is like. I get now why there is such a passionate fandom surrounding this desert community and its inhabitants. Where else could you read about a place where it's perfectly natural to open doors with a blood offering? If your son was a shapeshifter would you just shrug and say he was trying to find himself? Are those helicopters above your house a nuisance or a comfort? For the citizens of Night Vale the answers to these questions are no-brainers. The two main characters, Diane and Jackie, are two polar opposites who suddenly find themselves working toward the same goal.: King City. It's a weird tale of self-discovery and what it truly means to belong. ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD. Show Less
LibraryThing member les121
What a great listen! I was torn on whether to get this in print or audio format, but I’m glad I chose the audio. If you enjoy listening to the podcast, you’ll definitely enjoy this book. The writing is as creative and engaging as ever, and I loved getting to know characters and exploring parts
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of Night Vale that you don’t usually see on the show. For Night Vale fans, I highly recommend it. Newcomers to Night Vale might want to start with the podcast, which is free and provides a great introduction to this strange and wonderful desert town. Show Less
LibraryThing member Erika.D
Love love loved it!!! I laughed so much! The podcast is awesome and the novel based on it is just a continuation. I truly enjoyed the story and I'm thankful the creators came up with the town, characters and story. So good!
LibraryThing member Beammey
I'm one of those people that has never heard a podcast yet of WTNV, but has heard OF the podcast, so I decided to read the book. I adored it. It reminded me a lot of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in the effect that the book makes no sense until you get to the end. It's hilarious, well written,
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and will have you laughing on one page and totally confused on the next. I highly recommend this title to anyone. It's brilliant. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kellswitch
I feel that this book is for dedicated fans of the pod cast only. I can't even imagine trying to read this without already knowing who everyone is or the history of the story from the pod casts, there were a lot of moments that just came across a fan service, making sure to hit all the popular
The writing style that works so well for the pod casts struggles to work in book form, and I suspect a lot of the success of the the pod cast comes down to the combination of the writing and Cecil Baldwin's acting skills and delivery. And that is lost in the book.
I found the writing weak but the story and mystery were interesting and they were what kept me going through at least the first two thirds of the book and then the writing picked up and just started flowing in the last third, I especially enjoyed the part set in the library.
Overall I don't think I could recommend this book to non-fans of Welcome To Night Vale but I can see a lot of potential for future stories if they focus less on trying to cram in the favorite oddities of the pod cast and focus more on the story.
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places and quirks of the town. The writing style that works so well for the pod casts struggles to work in book form, and I suspect a lot of the success of the the pod cast comes down to the combination of the writing and Cecil Baldwin's acting skills and delivery. And that is lost in the book.
I found the writing weak but the story and mystery were interesting and they were what kept me going through at least the first two thirds of the book and then the writing picked up and just started flowing in the last third, I especially enjoyed the part set in the library.
Overall I don't think I could recommend this book to non-fans of Welcome To Night Vale but I can see a lot of potential for future stories if they focus less on trying to cram in the favorite oddities of the pod cast and focus more on the story.
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LibraryThing member EllsbethB
I decided to listen to this one on audio because...well...duh. Cecil Baldwin is great. I learned through listening to this book how much I appreciate Disparition's background music in the Welcome to Nightvale podcast. It was silent in the background during the narrative of the story, and then music
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would come up, startling and wonderful, during Cecil's radio segments. While I missed the music being present throughout, I appreciated it very much when it appeared. The story for me dragged a bit in places, mostly before the connections became apparent. There is good humor, and it was interesting to explore the universe of this podcast a bit more. Show Less
LibraryThing member MickyFine
Night Vale is stranger than your average strange small town. When nineteen-year old Jackie who runs the pawn shop and who has always been nineteen is given a slip of paper by a mysterious man in a tan jacket with a deerskin suitcase, she assumes it's just a typical pawn. Except she cannot put down
If you've listened to the Welcome to Night Vale podcast, this book will be an absolute delight. If you've never listened in a) you should but b) you can still read this book. Just be prepared to miss out on why some sections are truly awesome. I giggled regularly while reading the fantastic weirdness that is this book and was thrilled that there were no real spoilers for the podcast series as I'm still a few months behind. All hail the glow cloud!
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the paper. Ever. The paper's simple text of KING CITY seems to indicate just where Jackie might be able to get rid of the paper but leaving Night Vale can be dangerous. Meanwhile, Diane is trying desperately to be a good single parent, which is becoming increasingly difficult when her ex keeps cropping up everywhere and her son is desperate to actually meet him. When Jackie and Diane's paths cross the results might be devastating for both of them.If you've listened to the Welcome to Night Vale podcast, this book will be an absolute delight. If you've never listened in a) you should but b) you can still read this book. Just be prepared to miss out on why some sections are truly awesome. I giggled regularly while reading the fantastic weirdness that is this book and was thrilled that there were no real spoilers for the podcast series as I'm still a few months behind. All hail the glow cloud!
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LibraryThing member Beammey
I'm one of those people that has never heard a podcast yet of WTNV, but has heard OF the podcast, so I decided to read the book. I adored it. It reminded me a lot of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in the effect that the book makes no sense until you get to the end. It's hilarious, well written,
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and will have you laughing on one page and totally confused on the next. I highly recommend this title to anyone. It's brilliant. Show Less
LibraryThing member amanda4242
Not as good as the podcast, but still weird and wonderful.
LibraryThing member sturlington
I have never heard the podcast Welcome to Night Vale; I just bought this book based on hearing an interview with the authors on NPR and then seeing it in the bookstore. I really enjoyed the parts about the imaginary town of Night Vale itself and "the voice of Night Vale" sections, which are
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probably most similar to the podcast. Night Vale is a delightfully weird place, and I liked spending time there. The plot got too convoluted toward the end, though. I thought there was a touch of trying too hard. The standout scene in my memory is a bizarre and scary tour through the local library. That alone made the book worth reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member AlmostPerfectZen
Night Vale exists in a strange place - is it horror? is it comedy? is it some kind of mainstream bizarro? This review does not set out to answer that question. I'm happy that it sits on that weird in between line.
KING CITY the paper in my hand would probably say if it could speak.
In fact, I
KING CITY the note in my hand just actually said. It had a slight accent which was kind of cute.
See, this book is incredibly character focused. We get to see the inner workings of the PTA, why libraries are truly so terrifying, and we learn about KING CITY and a ton about what makes a good father, and the tale of the man in the tan jacket. Some character will grow in your heart so much that you won't be able to pick a form that contains your love for them.
The only thing that stops this novel from being given 5 Stars is that Welcome to Night Vale missed an opportunity to expand it's unique Night Vale-ness beyond just the story. The physical book itself could have been way weirder. They could have redacted parts that the Sheriff's Secret Police didn't want us to see, they could have used rotating fonts, colors, or explored bending this medium of storytelling in ways similar to [book:House of Leaves|24800]. I kept waiting for something like that the physically connect me with the world of Night Vale - but I was unfortunately let down in that area. I mean, the hard back copy I have is beautiful, but it isn't strange. The creators of Night Vale often pull us into their world by shaking up their podcast formula, that creativity simply wasn't carried over into this book. In that one way, and that one way only, I agree with the lesser people and their lesser opinions.
Still a great journey I say. KING CITY the paper in my hand will say.
KING CITY the paper in my hand would probably say if it could speak.
In fact, I
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really enjoyed this book. A lot of people in my social network don't seem to share my enthusiasm for it. The biggest complaint amount those lesser people who hate change is that this book is not as good as the Podcast, or that it somehow doesn't translate well in a novel form. Again, lesser people. KING CITY the note in my hand just actually said. It had a slight accent which was kind of cute.
See, this book is incredibly character focused. We get to see the inner workings of the PTA, why libraries are truly so terrifying, and we learn about KING CITY and a ton about what makes a good father, and the tale of the man in the tan jacket. Some character will grow in your heart so much that you won't be able to pick a form that contains your love for them.
The only thing that stops this novel from being given 5 Stars is that Welcome to Night Vale missed an opportunity to expand it's unique Night Vale-ness beyond just the story. The physical book itself could have been way weirder. They could have redacted parts that the Sheriff's Secret Police didn't want us to see, they could have used rotating fonts, colors, or explored bending this medium of storytelling in ways similar to [book:House of Leaves|24800]. I kept waiting for something like that the physically connect me with the world of Night Vale - but I was unfortunately let down in that area. I mean, the hard back copy I have is beautiful, but it isn't strange. The creators of Night Vale often pull us into their world by shaking up their podcast formula, that creativity simply wasn't carried over into this book. In that one way, and that one way only, I agree with the lesser people and their lesser opinions.
Still a great journey I say. KING CITY the paper in my hand will say.
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LibraryThing member rmckeown
In my rich, interesting, and varied reading life, I have made friends with numerous strange and weird novels. From Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake to Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves – the story of a house larger on the inside than on the outside – my mind has been bent, my logic
The podcast typically airs on the first and fifteenth of every month, and consists of "news, announcements and advertisements" from the desert town, located "somewhere in the Southwestern U.S.” In an interview with NPR, Joseph Fink said that he "came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real, and we would just go from there with that understood.”
The novel is part suspense, part mystery, mostly comedic, and all mind-bending. To give a taste of the novel, I will offer a few short passages, none of which will give away any the plot, but all will reveal details of the story. That’s my version of a typical line by the authors. Buckle up, here we go:
“Clocks and calendars don’t work in Night Vale. Time itself doesn’t work” (4). “There was always some world-ending cataclysm threatening Night Vale. Feral dogs. A sentient glowing cloud with the ability to control minds (although the Glow Cloud had become less threatening since its election to the local school board)’ (5). Most mind-bending of all is this description of Jackie Ferro, a perpetual 19-year old woman who ran a pawn shop. The authors wrote, “She understood the world and her place in it. She understood nothing. The world and her place in it were nothing and she understood that” (5). Jackie meets a mysterious man she does not recognize, and decides “to make a list of everyone who might know about” him. […] She pulled out “a promotional pen from a festival put on by the city a few years ago. THE NIGHT VALE SHAKESPEARE IN A PIT FESTIVAL. FALL INTO THE BARD’S WORDS, it said. The broken leg had been painful, but she did love the pen” (43).
Jackie visits “Old Woman Josie” to find out if she knows anything about her missing son, Josh. “She turned. There was a being that was difficult to describe, although the best and most illegal description was ‘angel.’ Angels are tall, genderless beings who are all named Erika” (58). Of course they do not exist. // “‘I was just doing some trimming,’ the being said. They were holding hedge trimmers and standing by an empty patch of dirt. There were no plants of any kind anywhere near them” (58).
I could go on like this for way more time than I have, or don’t have, or wish I didn’t have, or have, but this fun and breezy read will offer many hours of humor, suspense, tears, joy, and mystery. Classified as a YA novel, adults are forbidden to read it. In fact, everyone should read it. Let me be the first to give you a hearty Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. 5 stars.
--Jim, 10/20/15
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challenged, and my thought processes twisted beyond understanding. However, a new novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor has topped them all for sheer bewilderment. Welcome to Night Vale stemmed from a podcast posted by the authors and presented as a radio show for the fictional town of Night Vale, which reported on the strange events that occur there. The series was created in 2012. Cecil Gershwin Palmer is the host, main character, and narrator of the novel.The podcast typically airs on the first and fifteenth of every month, and consists of "news, announcements and advertisements" from the desert town, located "somewhere in the Southwestern U.S.” In an interview with NPR, Joseph Fink said that he "came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real, and we would just go from there with that understood.”
The novel is part suspense, part mystery, mostly comedic, and all mind-bending. To give a taste of the novel, I will offer a few short passages, none of which will give away any the plot, but all will reveal details of the story. That’s my version of a typical line by the authors. Buckle up, here we go:
“Clocks and calendars don’t work in Night Vale. Time itself doesn’t work” (4). “There was always some world-ending cataclysm threatening Night Vale. Feral dogs. A sentient glowing cloud with the ability to control minds (although the Glow Cloud had become less threatening since its election to the local school board)’ (5). Most mind-bending of all is this description of Jackie Ferro, a perpetual 19-year old woman who ran a pawn shop. The authors wrote, “She understood the world and her place in it. She understood nothing. The world and her place in it were nothing and she understood that” (5). Jackie meets a mysterious man she does not recognize, and decides “to make a list of everyone who might know about” him. […] She pulled out “a promotional pen from a festival put on by the city a few years ago. THE NIGHT VALE SHAKESPEARE IN A PIT FESTIVAL. FALL INTO THE BARD’S WORDS, it said. The broken leg had been painful, but she did love the pen” (43).
Jackie visits “Old Woman Josie” to find out if she knows anything about her missing son, Josh. “She turned. There was a being that was difficult to describe, although the best and most illegal description was ‘angel.’ Angels are tall, genderless beings who are all named Erika” (58). Of course they do not exist. // “‘I was just doing some trimming,’ the being said. They were holding hedge trimmers and standing by an empty patch of dirt. There were no plants of any kind anywhere near them” (58).
I could go on like this for way more time than I have, or don’t have, or wish I didn’t have, or have, but this fun and breezy read will offer many hours of humor, suspense, tears, joy, and mystery. Classified as a YA novel, adults are forbidden to read it. In fact, everyone should read it. Let me be the first to give you a hearty Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. 5 stars.
--Jim, 10/20/15
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LibraryThing member bragan
This is the much-anticipated novel -- or, dare I say, hopefully, first novel? -- based on the astoundingly popular podcast, Welcome to Night Vale. If you're unfamiliar, Welcome to Night Vale takes the form of a community radio program broadcast from the little desert town of Night Vale, a place
I'm a huge fan of the podcast and its compelling blend of surrealism, comedy, horror, humanity, heart, and bleak but strangely comforting existentialist philosophy. So I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. The actual experience of reading it turned out to be a little weird, though -- in different ways than the ways in which Night Vale is weird -- because reading a Night Vale story in novel format at novel length turns out to be very different from listening to a half-hour podcast in which, as often as not, the plot gets resolved offscreen during the weather. (Which is music. No, I don't know why. It's Night Vale.) I think, because of that, I kept expecting things to happen faster than they did.
But never mind that. Overall, it was enjoyable, and very much in the spirit of the podcast, while also doing things that the podcast itself couldn't do as easily. It focuses primarily on two minor characters from the show: Jackie Fierro, the pawnshop owner who has been nineteen for a very long time, and Diane Crayton, the PTA mom with the shapeshifting son. And it's interesting to see Night Vale from their point of view, and to get a look a ordinary life in that extraordinary town without it being filtered through the reporting of a not necessarily entirely reliable narrator. It also answers a long-standing mystery from the series, namely the identity of the weirdly forgettable Man in the Tan Jacket, and provides some brain-breaking insights into the way that time works, or fails to work, in Night Vale. I'm not entirely sure how much these answers and insights actually make sense, but that, perhaps, is as it should be.
I should add that while there are plenty of familiar characters and little continuity references here for fans of the show, the book is deliberately written in such a way that one could pick it up and enjoy it entirely on its own. So if you're curious about Night Vale, but, for whatever reason, don't like the podcast format, this might make for an alternative worth checking out.
(PS: ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD.)
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where the bizarre is ordinary, the horrific is mundane, and all conspiracies theories are true, a place that, as one of the characters puts it in this novel, "is mostly made of the unexplained." I'm a huge fan of the podcast and its compelling blend of surrealism, comedy, horror, humanity, heart, and bleak but strangely comforting existentialist philosophy. So I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. The actual experience of reading it turned out to be a little weird, though -- in different ways than the ways in which Night Vale is weird -- because reading a Night Vale story in novel format at novel length turns out to be very different from listening to a half-hour podcast in which, as often as not, the plot gets resolved offscreen during the weather. (Which is music. No, I don't know why. It's Night Vale.) I think, because of that, I kept expecting things to happen faster than they did.
But never mind that. Overall, it was enjoyable, and very much in the spirit of the podcast, while also doing things that the podcast itself couldn't do as easily. It focuses primarily on two minor characters from the show: Jackie Fierro, the pawnshop owner who has been nineteen for a very long time, and Diane Crayton, the PTA mom with the shapeshifting son. And it's interesting to see Night Vale from their point of view, and to get a look a ordinary life in that extraordinary town without it being filtered through the reporting of a not necessarily entirely reliable narrator. It also answers a long-standing mystery from the series, namely the identity of the weirdly forgettable Man in the Tan Jacket, and provides some brain-breaking insights into the way that time works, or fails to work, in Night Vale. I'm not entirely sure how much these answers and insights actually make sense, but that, perhaps, is as it should be.
I should add that while there are plenty of familiar characters and little continuity references here for fans of the show, the book is deliberately written in such a way that one could pick it up and enjoy it entirely on its own. So if you're curious about Night Vale, but, for whatever reason, don't like the podcast format, this might make for an alternative worth checking out.
(PS: ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD.)
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LibraryThing member thoughtbox
I really have no idea what to say about this. It's essentially an absurdist interconnected short story collection? It's a little lot off the wall and some of it doesn't quite make sense, but I'm pretty sure those parts aren't supposed to make sense. It's also full of one-liners that skewer the very
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core of the human condition, and also jokes. It's entertaining, entertainingly infuriating, and a little bit just infuriating. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheBentley
"“Almost always we are all experiencing the same problems as everyone else,” said Josie, “and pretending we don’t so that every one of us thinks we are alone.” If you aren't already familiar with "Welcome to Night Vale" as a podcast, then you should be. Go to iTunes or Podbay or YouTube
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or wherever and start listening to it immediately. If you are already familiar with the show, and you were worried that translating it into print or trying to milk it for 400 pages of cohesive story would wreck it, you can rest assure that that did not happen. In fact, the novel is a delight: apooky, warm, laugh-out-loud funny, and wise beyond its scope. Fink and Craynor did an excellent job of choosing characters to focus on and of crafting a plot that refers to the podcast but doesn't entirely rely upon it. Even without the support of the show, it's a good urban fantasy novel, well-paced, with a wickedly dry sense of humor and a big heart. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
I tried - I really tried. But this is just like the "Welcome to Nightvale" podcast in book form. I was hoping for something more substantial, but the Short Podcasts don't really work well for a book.
I didn't finish it, so there’s always the change that it has improved.
I didn't finish it, so there’s always the change that it has improved.
LibraryThing member Hobbitlass
Weird and wonderful, but anyone new to Night Vale should probably listen to the podcast first, to get an idea of whether or not it's something they might like. In fact, although I am normally much more into reading than listening, this might be an exception, I actually think it works better as a
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podcast than as a novel. And there wasn't enough Cecil. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eunicakes
I am a major fan of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast which is why I decided to try this in audiobook form. If you have not checked out the podcast please do so! It really gives you the feeling that you are in the twilight zone. The audiobook was fun because it gave you some history on some of the
My overall recommendation is to try the podcast out and see if the town and the townspeople interest you at all, if so check out the book!
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people in the town. Warning, these are not just regular towns people. There is a faceless woman who lives in your home, people that never age, people who can shape shift, and a lovely radio host (who happens to be the narrator of the audiobook). The podcast is better than the book, but still it is a fun way to learn more about everyone. With that said, the books style is a bit odd because it almost feels like it was written as a podcast, still a fun/weird read.My overall recommendation is to try the podcast out and see if the town and the townspeople interest you at all, if so check out the book!
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Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — 2016)
British Fantasy Award (Nominee — August Derleth Award — 2016)
Village Voice Favorite Books (2015)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Fiction — 2015)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2015-10-31
Physical description
9.14 x 1.31 inches
ISBN
0062351427 / 9780062351425