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    Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel
    Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel
    Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel

    Written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

    Narrated by Cecil Baldwin, Dylan Marron, Retta and

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    About this audiobook

    ?New York Times Bestseller

    ""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

    “A splendid, weird, moving novel.”— NPR.org

    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.

    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.

    Editor's Note

    Funny peculiar, funny haha…

    Written and narrated by the creators of the beloved podcast, this novelization is a must-read for fans of the eerie and hilarious show, and for those hoping to learn what all the fuss is about. Welcome, indeed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 20, 2015
    ISBN9780062351456
    Author

    Joseph Fink

    Joseph Fink is the creator of the Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead podcasts, and the New York Times bestselling author of Welcome to Night Vale, It Devours!, and The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home (all written with Jeffrey Cranor), and Alice Isn’t Dead. He is also the author of the middle-grade novel, The Halloween Moon. He and his wife, Meg Bashwiner, have written the memoir The First Ten Years. They live together in the Hudson River Valley.

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    Reviews for Welcome to Night Vale

    4/5

    221 ratings73 reviews

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    • 4/5
      If you're a fan of the podcast I think listening to the audiobook is the way to go with this addition to the Welcome to Night Vale 'verse. I love the podcast and thought the book was great. I will say that I don't believe this is a good introduction to Welcome to Night Vale, and if I hadn't listened to the podcasts prior to listening to this book I would have been a bit lost. Read for the #SciFiSummer readathon.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Lives up to the standard that the podcast has set - but I feel that its not as effective in this format. Still fun to read, though.The same self-consciously deadpan tone runs throughout, with occasional forays into genuinely poignant prose which is startling in context, but that seems to be part of the point in Night Vale.Say, Douglas Adams with existential dread sitting in a hipster bar.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings on this one. There are some beautiful moments in this book, and I'm a huge fan of the podcast. But I'm not sure if the goofy strangeness of Night Vale is as effective in the book. To a certain extent the lovely weird gems feel more distraction than enhancement.
    • 3/5
      3.5 I enjoyed it, but it took me forever to finish because I just couldn't focus on it for more than an hour or so.

      Wonderful voice acting and the story is pretty engaging as you get farther along into the story.
    • 5/5
      Not bad! Sounds just like the podcast. Just a little less crazy. I think. You really need to listen to the first 75 episodes to fully apreciate the story and understand all the references.
    • 3/5
      More of a 3.5, but not a 4 for me. The quirks that are endearing in a 30-minute podcast don't work as well to sustain a novel, and the character voices lose something without voice actors to flesh them out.
    • 5/5
      Wowzers! This was so similar and different to the podcast. I had head of Night Vale for quite some time and when I saw the book on sale a while ago, I decided I should find out what it was all about. But it sat on my shelf for and embarrassingly long time. I finally checked out the podcast this year and was instantly hooked on the world, the craziness of it all and "The Voice of Night Vale" Cecil. When I decided to finally read this, I thought it would be awesome to listen to tha audio while reading along--cuz Cecil. I swear I would listen to him read stereo instructions.Anyway, this was a very indepth story about Diane and her form-shifting son, Josh and the unaging Jackie. This had all of the weirdness and shenanigans of Night Vale. Time is a mess and there are multiple Troys spread across mutliple towns bringing the mess of Night Vale to other times and wreaking all kids of havoc. This is full of adventure and mystery. It was an excellent read/listen.
    • 3/5
      Always appreciate the weird humor in Fink’s signature style, but the main story for this one paled to its successor It Devours. Ideal to set the Night Vale stage, particularly for those unfamiliar with the pod, but longtime fans may find the non-environmental aspects of this novel a bit droll.
    • 5/5
      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 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.
    • 5/5
      This was basically an extra-long Welcome to Night Vale episode, minus ads and weather and plus tons of suspense. It was an amazing emotional ride, too.
    • 4/5
      I love Welcome to Night Vale, I'd been listening to the podcast for four years now (I think, time is wierd) and I don't why I didn't read this book before (well, I actually didn't read this before because I'm a mess with books and always forget to make proper TBR list) and OH BOY

      I really really liked the book. Jackie and Diane are great characters, their funny and charismatic and I like them. The writing style is just as the one from the podcast, I could hear Cecil voice narrating every single sentence. The mistery of the Man in the Tan Jacket was always a favorite of mine so for me the plot was great, interesing and funny.

      All that said, this book isn't 5 stars because there were parts that were HARD to read. Man, some of the first chapters where really slow and exasperating and for a moment I thought I could't keep reading. Luckily it got better!

      Really glad I started my year with this book! And I'm looking forward to reading the others WTNV books.
    • 4/5
      The familiar surreal/nightmare flavor of the podcast brought faithfully to novel form. I found it doesn't work quite as well in the longer format and I found it a little slow to start. But by the middle it turns into a really touching story about the relationships between parents and children and it finishes strong.
    • 5/5
      It was very interesting and enjoyable, this book. I read it before, but I love Cecil, so I like the audiobook better. I'll be listening to the other book soon. Thank you very much for making this and sharing it with us; Nightvale is great. Good job.
    • 2/5
      Despite the fact that I love the podcast, this book left me well, less than impressed. And that's even though I listened to the audiobook. I didn't really care about the main characters, I was at least halfway through before I actually started to become at all invested in them. And the plot, the mystery just didn't grab me. I did adore the library romp and there were other bits I enjoyed, but overall I was mostly just a bit bored relieved with occasional amusement, tension or wonder. It felt as though they were still using the short story format of the podcast for this entire novel, which made it feel stretched out and a little tedious to me. Which is a shame, because I really wanted to love this.
    • 1/5
      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 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.
    • 5/5
      Just as eerie, weird, and creepy as the podcast. Loved it!
    • 2/5
      Weirdly written. Insufferable. 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
    • 1/5
      Really wanted to like this but it failed to hold my interest for unknown reasons. Will try another time.
    • 3/5
      I'm really not sure what I just read. I've only listened to a few of the Night Vale podcasts so I'm probably missing a lot of backstory but this was simply weird. I couldn't make any sense of the story until the last third of the book but then I started to enjoy it.
    • 4/5
      This fun, quirky books is perfect for fans of The X-Files or Haven.
    • 5/5
      10/10 would question my existence while listening through the horror of nightvale and mystery of growing up and motherhood again.
    • 3/5
      This was fine, but I think the conceit works better in the shorter podcast form.
    • 5/5
      An extension of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, this is the story of two women searching for .... someone? Maybe? They can't really remember. Jackie is 19 and has been working at the same pawn shop for at least 30 years when someone gives her a piece of paper that says "King City" and won't leave her hand. She goes to ask her mom about it but, like, who is her mom? Where does her mom live again?Diane lives a normal life, taking care of her teenage son who does not have a consistent form and remembering coworkers who no one else remembers. But after seeing multiple copies of her son's father all over town, Diane finds out that her son is missing and he might be in some place called "King City"? But how do you get there when your car spontaneously returns to Night Vale every time you try?This is an extremely absurd story. But unlike most modern absurd horror, which can feel extremely messy, Night Vale is a world that has been crafted with such care that it feels comforting instead. Highly recommended if you like the podcast, of course. Probably not a good starting point if you've never listened before.
    • 3/5
      Found this to be an interesting story telling method. Multiple plots yet with similar situations until finally some merge. The addition of the "radio station" and the humor brought chuckles. I'll be looking for other books in the series.
    • 5/5
      I love how it expands on the backstory of one of the characters in the podcast
    • 5/5
      "“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 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.
    • 3/5
      Overhyped...reminds me of the old Illuminati trilogy somehow.
    • 4/5
      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 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.
    • 5/5
      I loved this creative, kooky story that had fun humor and a very interesting tale. I hope more stories are written and I'm definitely going to listen to the podcast
    • 4/5
      Audiobook version.
      I love Night Vale! It's somehow creepy yet encouraging at the same time.