Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

I seem to make a lot of crass confessions on here, so why stop now? For someone who listens to a lot of audiobooks (or maybe because), I hardly ever listen to podcasts. When I saw this book on the shelves at my library, I knew nothing about it, only finding out about the podcast by reading the blurb on the back. After picking it up and putting it back a few times over the next few months, I finally took it home and started reading it. I found it hard to stop reading it. It was bonkers, it was funny and it was sweet. Consider me a fan. For the record, I still haven’t listened to the podcast, but I intend to.

Disclaimer – I read this in November, so forgive me if I’m a little hazy on some of the details.

So, what’s it all about?

Night Vale, a small town nestled in a desert somewhere in America. While it shares similarities with other small towns, time operates differently, as do many other aspects. While Night Vale would be considered weird by our standards, there are three things that hold true – young people who grow up in small towns often feel a wanderlust; mothers can struggle to relate to their teenage sons; librarians are vicious creatures who will eat people on sight. Yes, welcome to Night Vale. The story has multiple strands that tie in at the end. Diane struggles to deal with her son Josh (who is, of course, a shapeshifter), as he shows interest in meeting his father who left them many years ago. Jackie (who works in the awesome pawnshop) is handed a piece of paper with King City written on it by a man no one can remember. These stories force the two women to join forces to find out what is going in Night Vale.

Is it any good?

It’s awesome. The town of Night Vale is a great and weird setting. You can’t leave the town – ff you drive out one end – a la Pacman – you’ll come in the other. There are odd people, the strange pawnshop, the best library ever and what the hell is with the flamingos? There is a mysterious ruling body, a radio that always has the same host and an old woman who lives in everyone’s house. Diane’s concerns about her son are very real, as she fears his interest in the man who left them alone many years ago. She is at odds with Jackie from the start, but they bond as their separate quests appear to align. There is a gentle streak of humour throughout. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this a humorous book, but humour is an essential part of life (in my opinion), and therefore should be an essential part of our fiction. I guess if you really needed to classify this book, I guess it would reside under fantasy (it won a Horror award!!), but I think you would be selling it short, and anyone who can handle a little (or a lot of) weirdness in the books should pick this one up. 

Verdict

A weird and wonderful tale set (kind of) in small-town Americana.

• Format: Hardback
• Obtained from: Library (support your public library people)
• Print length: 401 pages (hb)
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• ISBN: 9780062351425