Welcome to Night Vale audiobook

I will be writing, have been writing, or have already written (depending on when you see this. Time is strange here on GR) a review of Welcome to Night Vale. But until/when/after I do (or until you return from whatever time stream you are in to read this, or move ahead into another one) I can offer one definite bit of advice. Listen to a few of the Night Vale podcasts. If they float your boat, or, lacking water, elevate you at least several inches off the ground for a period of about twenty minutes, you will love this book. Proceed directly to the beginning of the actual review. ==========================NOT ENCHANTED?If you find the podcasts uninteresting, really, did you touch one of the pink flamingos? Something is wrong. OK, Ok, I know there are some folks who will not be enchanted by the Night Vale podcasts. This book is probably not for you. But if you go to the local library, you are sure to find something more to your liking. Hurry, go now. You might want to stop by and visit the dog park on your way. Be sure to say hi to the friendly figures in the hoods. Y’all take care now, and return directly to the section titled “Not Enchanted?” =============================ACTUAL REVIEW It is a friendly desert community, where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Whew! I’m so glad we got rid of those people. A Cecil Baldwin sandwich with the authors in the role of breadIn July, 2013, Welcome to Night Vale became the most downloaded podcast on iTunes. It all began in 2012, a twice-a-month podcast that is Lake Wobegon by way of David Lynch, Lovecraft, told in the form of a community radio newscast. It was started completely as a hobby,” Fink begins, when asked about how the podcast has gotten to this point. “Y’know, my friends and I, it was just something we enjoyed doing. Our entire goal, when we started it, was that maybe someday there’d be a few people who weren’t friends or family listening to it. We certainly had no goals beyond that, other than to enjoy making it.” - from interview in The ArcadeIt is read by Cecil Baldwin who shares a first name with his fictional manifestation, Cecil Palmer, the radio broadcaster. The podcast is weird, creepy fun, rich with non-sequiturs and reasons to be afraid, many reasons. Cecil’s steady tones make it seem practically normal. I've always been fascinated by conspiracy theories. And also, to a lesser extent fascinated by the Southwest desert. Fascinating things probably happen there on a regular basis. So I came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real. - From Jackie Lyden’s 2013 NPR interview with the authorsAnd whether it was a result of a desire for expression in a new medium, an action taken in compliance with an order from one of the hooded figures in the dog park, or an angel in old woman Josie’s house, Fink and Craynor have committed their world to print. We, as readers, seem to have a soft spot for this genre. I don’t know if there is a name for the type that this fits into, storytelling-wise, but if there is a short term for “A small town where something is…off,” this book would fit in there quite nicely. (I know it is far from wonderful, but I hereby nominate the word “Oddsville” for the genre, capital of the great state of Unease. All in favor?) There is a rich tradition of such writing. Rod Serling was a fan of this trope in his Twilight Zone writing (Where is Everybody? , Monsters are Due on Maple Street, People Are Alike All Over). Stephen King has made a career in them, Derry, Castle Rock, Jerusalem’s Lot…ad infinitum. TV has mined this heavy lode as well. In addition to Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, X-files, and god-knows how many more, there are some more recent shows that indulge, including Wayward Pines, the town of Hope in The Leftovers, Haven, Eureka, Royston Vasey from The League of Gentlemen. Small towns, it would appear, are in our literary, and certainly in our entertainment DNA. So the something-off-small-town of Night Vale should feel familiar. Of course this one is a bit more unusual than your typical Oddsville offering, being rather flamboyant in its strangeness, to the point of silliness at times. As for the story, Jackie Fierro has been 19 for many, many years (like some of us?). She runs the town pawn shop, and will accept pretty much anything. A mysterious man in a tan jacket, gives her a slip of paper with “KING CITY” written on it. Every time she tries to get rid of the thing, or even to put it down, it keeps coming back to her, which, as you might imagine, is alarming. So she goes in search of tan-jacket man but no one in town can seem to recall seeing him. Hmmm.Diane Crayton is a single mom to a shape-shifting fifteen-year-old son (what parent of a teenager cannot relate?). Of late she has been seeing Josh’s long absent Y-chromosome source all over town. Josh has been showing an interest in tracking down his father, despite Diane’s attempts to dissuade him. Diane and Jackie’s quests, and Josh’s too, lead them in a direction that is as obvious as an MC Escher roadmap. Does an endpoint even exist?Diane and Jackie are certainly likeable sorts, and their tale is intriguing, with plenty of challenges to face and mysteries to solve, but the real deal with Welcome to Night Vale consists of three things, location, location, location. Fink and Cranor are trying to re-create in book form the delightfully weird experience of their podcast world. The story seems secondary. The atmosphere is rich with intense strangeness. I found most of it delightful, a dry delivery masking outrageousness. Sometimes they try too hard, generating eye-rolling that has been made mandatory by the City Council. You really, really do not want to fight city hall here, particularly on days when human sacrifice is on the calendar. But it is good, weird fun most of the time. The authors must have had some bad experiences with librarians in their youth. Literary comeuppance is had. The locale includes, among other things, roads that lead nowhere, mysterious lights floating above the town, black helicopters, yes those black helicopters, a faceless old woman who lives, unseen, in someone’s house, a sentient house, a diner waitress who struggles with fruit bearing tree branches growing from her body, car salesmen who offer howlingly good deals, a woman who keeps reliving her life in a perpetual loop, a sentient patch of haze, angels named Erika, people who exist but when you try to recall them, you can’t. Wait, what was I talking about? I just bet that if someone opens a nightclub in NV, they name it Studio 51. The list goes on, plenty to keep your brain engaged and your funny bone tickled. When you partake of the Night Vale Kool Aid, you will be joining a horde that has sprung up in impressive numbers. There are fan sites galore, with artwork, fan fiction, and a host of ways in which what remains of your consciousness can be further shaved and fed to the glow-cloud. I have included some links to those in the usual place.You have never read anything like this before. Unless, of course you are in a time loop and are living your life over and over and over. This means you, Sheila. Yes, I know you have read this book many times, all for the first time. OK, happy? But for the rest of us…Fink and Cranor’s sense of humor is definitely not for everyone. But if you check your kitchen cabinets and find that your supply of weird is running a little low, I suggest heading over to Night Vale. They are running a special and you won’t want to miss out. PS – more volumes are planned. Be sure to keep up with your local community newscast for further details.Review Posted – 11/6/15Published – 10/20/15=============================EXTRA STUFFLinks to the author’s, well to Night Vale’s main, Twitter and FB pagesYou can download individual podcasts hereInterviews-----Early Influences - The Arcade------Stephen Colbert appearance, including a reading of the Community Calendar -----Jackie Lyden’s NPR interview with the authors - Welcome to Night Vale: Watch out for the tarantulasSome fan sites-----The Shape from Grove Park-----Fuck Yeah Night Vale-----A Softer Night ValeA Night Vale WikiThe actual Wikipedia entry for Night ValeA fun vid from the Idea Channel that links Night Vale to HP Lovecraft - How Does Night Vale Confront Us With the Unknown?

This wacky, wonderfully weird book was already on my radar when one of 'my' High School students enthusiastically recommended it. Of course that moved it right to the top o' the stack and I'm so very thankful.This reads as if Tom Robbins ate acid, then paired up with Hunter S. Thompson to create a completely funky pseudo-Prairie Home Companion-experience.I'll be donating my copy to my favorite High School classroom library later this week when I introduce books that can challenge the reader. Cannot wait!

As an avid listener of “Welcome to Night Vale”, this was exactly what I wanted from its literary debut. As an avid consumer of books, this was exactly what I didn’t realize I’ve been looking for. At once devastating and funny and sweet, the story perfectly captures Night Vale’s ability to draw you right to the brink of terror, hold you there with bated breath, and then suddenly and completely release that tension with a flippant comment. It’s a technique, characteristic of the podcast, that I wasn’t sure the creators would be able to translate into written text. But they do, and they do it so well—complete with goosebumps, and hairs prickling on the back of your neck, and oh-god-what-if-there’s-a-tarantula-on-me-right-now, and then the sudden realization that you’ve actually come to care for the tarantula and maybe it’s not so bad if it’s there.This book takes us further into the desert town of Night Vale, even deeper into the bizarre, near-surreal culture through the eyes of perpetual-nineteen-year-old Jackie Fierro (who runs the pawn shop) and single mother Diane Crayton (whose son, Josh, has a rapidly- and constantly-changing appearance). These two women’s stories come together to paint an exceedingly (perhaps surprisingly, to those unfamiliar with Night Vale’s penchant for searingly-accurate depictions of reality in the midst of strangeness) honest portrayal of family, responsibility, and humanity in their many and ever-changing forms.With a deliciously lyrical style, in-depth worldbuilding, and intricately crafted characters, there’s much to attract those who have yet to experience the unique world contained in this little desert town. With short, sweet appearances from familiar (and sometimes forgettable) faces such as the Man in the Tan Jacket, Steve Carlsberg, John Peters (you know, the farmer?), and everyone’s favorite public radio host and his perfect boyfriend, there’s little to disappoint the more-veteran citizens of Night Vale.But this is all completely irrelevant compared to what the book does in three sentences about a quarter of the way through it:“Diane’s parents are also two different races. It matters which races, but it matters only to Diane and her parents and their family and friends, not to those who do not know them. Not everyone gets to know everything about everybody.”I am myself a person with parents of different races; and to read such an accurate, succinct, and honest appraisal of a feeling that I’ve experienced my entire life but never myself had the words to express in a work of popular fiction is entirely unprecedented for me. Nothing else in the entire text meant anything to me in comparison to what those three lines did. Nothing else made me close the book and sit quietly on the verge of tears in a breakroom full of my coworkers. It didn’t have to be there—but it was. It affected nothing in the overall story—but it changed everything for me.This is why we love Night Vale. This is why we are devoted to Night Vale. This is why we would kill our doubles for Night Vale.Night Vale is the future of storytelling—at least, we can only hope that it is—a great, frightful, gleaming future in which we can shout to the Void, “Representation matters!” and the Void answers back, “Yes,” and a team of artists and creators come together to actually do something about it.As with all things, they do it well. They do it with a candor that doesn’t feel forced, with a subtlety that doesn’t get lost, with an awareness that seems to stem from a self-imposed sense of responsibility, with intention and precision and tenderness.And that social consciousness comes together with the strength of this story and its characters to create a thing of beauty and wonder that is an absolute honor to behold. I firmly believe that Welcome to Night Vale is the most important book coming out this year, and I cannot wait for everyone to have the opportunity to read and experience it as I have.

I'm not a listener of the podcast. but this is so fascinating in all its surrealism and absurdness. such a different read for me, but nevertheless lovely.full review here: https://catshelf.wordpress.com/2015/1...

I love weird things and metaphors and female friendships. This could only please me

I received this book as an ARC, and it is almost everything I would’ve wanted from a Welcome to Night Vale book. I’ve gone back and forth on whether this is a book for fans or for everyone, and I’ve concluded it’s a little of both. Those new to the universe will find a mystery that’s competently crafted and compellingly written (though they’ll miss the semi-frequent references to events and characters from the podcast), while fans will get more of what they fell in love with, plus some answers to lingering questions, plus some more questions yet to be answered. A great mix of something like slam poetry, dark humor, horror, science fiction, and the grotesque, it holds up as an overall wonderful read, even taken out of context of the podcast and despite its failings as it comes to a close. The writing style is what really shines about this book, even more so than the twin mysteries at the center of the plot. The authors have a knack for a style that’s somewhere between overwrought and perfectly plain. It’s wonderfully conversational, and you really feel like Fink and Cranor (or, let’s be real, Cecil) are sat across from you, just telling you the whole thing over coffee. If this style is to your taste (lyrical and a little meandering), you’ll love it, but I can see how it could grate on some readers (there are definitely times where it’s a bit Philosophy 101). Fink and Cranor do a beautiful job of crafting complex women – something I wish wasn’t so commendable, but here we are. The women in this book are not only diverse (there is a gorgeous moment early on in the book that took my breath away, in which the authors describe what it’s like to be multiracial in America), but brimming with spirit and riddled with faults. They are charming but sometimes unlikable, and that’s what makes them feel incredibly real, despite all the idiosyncrasies of existence in Night Vale.My main complaint is that I feel the book lost significant steam toward the end. It’s difficult to put my finger on what I felt was so incredibly disappointing (especially while avoiding any spoilers), but it may be that the answers to the mystery were just too easy, and there are some fascinating and creepy things introduced toward the end of the book that are never explored, a painfully missed opportunity. The climax as a whole felt extremely rushed, like the authors forgot they hadn’t actually finished until the night before their deadline. The final chapter gives us a saccharine-sweet, clichéd ending that felt out of character with the rest of the book, a note that's all the more sour to end on given how much I enjoyed the first three quarters or more of the story.

There is not enough time in this life to say all the positive things I want to say (and should be said) about Welcome to Night Vale. There are also not enough brain cells for me to properly communicate to the readers of the world how truly remarkable this book is...or how I can even begin to explain it.Instead, here are a handful of adjectives that, to me, encapsulate WtNV: Absurd, charming, beautiful, witty, playful, strange, FUN!The best method is to not even try to pigeon-hole 'Night Vale' : just dive right in and let it take you where it may.Yes, this book is many things (and more!). I guess, if I REALLY have to, the easiest way for me to describe it is weird, and I mean that. It is whacked-out gonzo odd (which is my favorite thing ever), but it's handled in such a sincere, dry and humorous kind of way, that it works so very well. Trust me when I say that this book had me chuckling, cringing, and cheering all hours of the day. The inhabitants of Night Vale treat each and every bizarre event in their town with the resounding equivalent of a *shrug* and a nonchalance of it being so absolutely normal to them. The wit and careful (de)construction of writing form and genre made me so disgustingly jealous I didn't think of this first.Honestly, this reminds me why I write. The creators, Mr. Fink and Mr. Cranor, these two kooky characters, hands-down have the BEST GODDAMN IMAGINATIONS IN THE HISTORY OF TIME! Truly astounding the things they come up with; I was absolutely blown away! That's how I like to write/what I like to write. The fact that they do it so well makes me feel like my 'behind-the-Quiznos-dumpster' puddle of ideas will never stack up to their fucking ocean of creative genius.Overall, this book is everything.

Especially Enjoyable for Fans of the PodcastBeautiful! It brought me to tears! Every character is so genuine, every weird anomaly has significance, overall a fantastic read and I hope this isn't the only novel they write of Night Vale. I really enjoy learning about the other characters not explored in the podcast

There's always a risk of taking a podcast and turning it into a novel, and I have to admit that my expectations were low when I started reading "Welcome to Night Vale." As much as I love the podcast (and its weird cast of characters, set in an even weirder town), I was afraid that something would be lost without Cecil's voice, narrating through the guise of community radio. Instead, I really enjoyed this book. I think it helped that the focus was not on Cecil (although we do get glimpses of his radio programs), but rather on Diane and Jackie, two ordinary Night Vale citizens. Jackie's the nineteen year-old proprietor of the pawn shop, and Diane works in a nondescript office and raises a teenage son. But of course - this being Night Vale - Jackie has been nineteen for decades, Diane's son morphs into different creatures and objects on a daily basis, and both of them are investigating indestructible slips of paper with "King City" written on them. Also, who is that man in the tan jacket, who everyone almost, but not quite, remembers?This is a clever book, a weird book, with nuggets of sadness and truth wedged amongst the angels (all angels are genderless and named Erika), rabid librarians, and the secret police. Any element of this novel (and indeed, the podcasts) could be recast into full-length horror novels, or science fiction ones. Instead, they are just ordinary occurrences in Night Vale. Carry on.