Joseph Fink

Jeffrey Cranor

A Waterstones Paperback of the Year and New York Times Bestseller Based on the no. 1 Podcast WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE . . . a friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while its citizens pretend to sleep. It's a town like your town, with a city hall, a bowling alley, a diner, and a radio station reporting all the news that's allowed to be heard. It might be more like your town than you'd like to admit. In this ordinary town where ghosts, aliens and government conspiracies are parts of everyday life, the lives of two women, with two mysteries, are about to converge. From the creators of the wildly popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes an original mystery of appearances and disappearances about the ways we all struggle to find ourselves, no matter where we live.

Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel

Emiley Jones

It didn't matter what he said. The world is terrifying. It always is. But Cecil reminded her that it was okay to relax in a terrifying world.

Sarah Sammis

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink is a novel inspired by the long running podcast of the same name. I've been holding off on writing a review of this book because I happened to finish it right as I was re-contextualizing my road narrative project in terms of what I now call the road narrative spectrum.

What I've been struggling to realize over these many months (five between finishing the book and attempting to write a review) is that both the podcast (as a single body of work, though individual episodes do stray) and the novel both sit in the 33CC33 category (couple, uhoria, Blue Highway) but for very different reasons and with completely different travelers.

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Amy Place

Three stars because I listened to it. Willing to bet I'd give less if I read it on paper.

Ayesha ahmed

I might give the audiobook a try since it has been recommended way more than the book. The novel though wasn't all that, I sometimes had to force myself to keep reading just to get done with it already. I have to admit that there were parts that cracked me up, which is why it deserves the 3 star rate.

Katherine Yang

Mmmffff I don't know! 3.5.

Necessary disclaimer: fan of the podcast. As a result, I was used to and expecting the constant descriptions of Night Vale's weirdness. That didn't bother me, and in fact, as is often the case with the podcast, the writing style was lovely and quirky (mostly—it did drag on occasionally), and I echo Patrick Rothfuss' thoughts in his review about comparing Fink and Cranor to Douglas Adams.

At the same time, as someone invested in the stories and characters as the podcast is, I think I have an issue with the choice of plot. Perhaps this novel was an attempt to explore a different kind of story and demonstrate some other aspects of Night Vale, but it felt too far removed from the real highlights of the podcast, which, apart from being more familiar and fond to us, have the potential to become much more developed and multifaceted. Nevertheless, the slow beginning of the narrative was redeemed to some extent by a satisfying ending. (Some beautiful last sentences!)

Nicole Dykeman

Maggie Gordon

As a fan of the podcast, I adored this novel. It captures the cadence of the radio shows perfectly even though the characters are different. However, if you are not a fan of the show, it will be a tough book to get into, and I readily admit it could have used some editing. These issues didn't really bug me because 400 pages of the delightful weirdness of Night Vale with world building Cecil can't give us? PLEASE GIVE ME MORE!

Kyle S

I haven't listened to Night Vale in years but I decided to pick up this book out of curiosity and was it a pleasant return to the world of Night Vale. A few supernatural comedy that had me laughing and smiling much the same way the podcast did to me years ago. Although I don't have any intention to catch up with the show I do plan on reading the rest of the novels within its universe.

Alex Q

So weird and so, so very wonderful. Night Vale is our world mixed with Scooby Doo's (except it's all totally normal, and you accept that, like all good Night Vale citizens). Delightfully strange.

Amanda Rocha

I just loved these books, which started out as this podcast. WTNV is presented as a radio program from the fictional desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events. Turn on your radio and hide.

"I like my coffee like I like my nights: dark, endless, and impossible to sleep through." 🌌 I have been binging on Welcome To Night Vale for a few weeks and I just can’t get enough. Welcome To Night Vale is a podcast presented as a radio show, but there are also books, script collections and live shows. Think Twilight Zone meets HPLovecraft meets NPR.

In Night Vale, every conspiracy and para-normality is true, and sleep is confusing. Clocks and calendars don’t work in Night Vale. And the moon is a trick of light suggested to us by the seas. If you don’t know, now you know. 👽 “We are skipping Friday this week, but we’ll make up for it by having Double Friday next week. Mark your schedules.”

Erin Russell

3 3/4 stars. It took a while, but I finally came around to enjoying this book. It took 3-5 chapters to get into the writing style of it, but once you do, it becomes quite charming. The characters are all very believable. They are not likeable all the time, they are just real people who are trying to live their lives the best way they can. They have their moments though. Although, I don't actually have a favorite character which is a first for me. The only aspect bringing this score down was the plot. It took more than half the book for the plot to progress past the initial asking questions phase of a mystery. Though I like the writing style now, it really dragged the plot along when you cant go a paragraph without going on a tangent explaining the strangeness of Nightvale. All-in-all I would recommend this read for any fans of the podcast. Its an excellent supplement. (Also anyone who likes the Welcome to Night Vale podcast should also listen to their other podcast Alice Isn't Dead. Its honestly the best thing ever. Really.)

Saskia P

Ich weiß noch nicht ganz, ob ich dem Buch 3,5 oder 4 Sterne gebe. Es war seltsam. Also ich habe mir nichts anderes von einem "Welcome to Night Vale" Buch erwartet und es war auch schön seltsam. Mich hat es überhaupt nicht gestört, dass die Hauptcharaktere nicht Cecil und Carlos waren. Ganz im Gegenteil, Jackie und Diane sind zwei wunderbare Charaktere, muss ich sagen. Trotzdem hat es für mich persönlich ewig gedauert, bis die eigentliche Story ins Rollen kam und das Ende hat sich dann etwas überrumpelt angefühlt.

Gabriela

It was a quite easy and fast read, just going with the flow of weirdness like when I'm listening to the podcast. It didn't overly explained things I'd rather not know or kept vague so thats cool. I love Night Vale my heart is full, it's not five stars because i feel that there is something more I'd need for it to be pushed into that higher rating but it was very enjoyable. The story had personal touch of smaller scale with new characters but the story picks up slowly about halfway through and really gets more interesting towards the end
But i am into Night Vale for the tranquil state i get from vibing along with people taking what would be nightmarish as a mundane so i didn't mind at all but it feels more like an addition to a podcast,a bonus story, not a self contained book itself so i am not sure how it would be perceived by someone with no previous Night Vale knowledge

Rucha Phatak

Aaron Bach

3.5 stars if I could. It contains all the requisite weirdness that a proper story set in Night Vale should; that said, after reading it, I'm realizing that the podcast is so successful because it is able to spread its narrative over many episodes. A book has a much shorter timeframe to accomplish a satisfying arc. Ultimately, I'd recommend this for fans of the series, but for outsiders, I wouldn't.

Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel

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