N.B.: You don't have to have listened to the podcast to read the book, but it might be helpful. Meaning, reading this review could spoil some parts of the podcast for you. You can listen on iTunes, YouTube, Bandcamp, and I think some other places, too. The podcast is weird and wonderful. You shall not regret it.
"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. Welcome to Night Vale" (1). We fans know these words well. They are, after all, a perfect description of the strange town that we have fallen in love with.
In this strange town, Jackie Fierro, the perpetually nineteen-year-old owner of the pawnshop has her life disrupted. One day, a man wearing a tan jacket and carrying a deerskin suitcase, and whose face and name are impossible to remember, brings a piece of paper to the pawnshop to be pawned. The paper reads "KING CITY" in pencil. Jackie gives the man thirty dollars and an idea about time and takes the paper. And can't let go. Jackie quickly realizes that the piece of paper that won't leave her hand and tells her "KING CITY" every time she looks at it has changed her life forever. But tracking down the man in the tan jacket is difficult, considering that no one who has seen him can remember him, or even seems willing to talk about him.
Diane Crayton has been struggling to raise her son Josh, who is a fifteen-year-old shape-shifter. But Josh, who rarely talks to her, has begun asking questions about his missing father again. Diane does everything she can to keep Josh from finding his father, but it doesn't help that she's been seeing him all over town, and that everyone at work thinks she's crazy when she insists that an employee who no one can remember has vanished.
I have a deep respect for the ability of the two Js to turn those random occurrences, such as the arachnophobic woman who is for the longest time unaware of the tarantula always crawling on or near her, into incredible symbols that grab the bottom of your stomach with the feeling that they're foreshadowing, symbols of the whole plotline, and symbols of life all at once. Night Vale is not the philosophy of universities or
Besides being brilliant writers, the two Js must also be inexhaustible idea-generators. The podcasts and live shows have been going for nearly four years now, and new plotlines are still being introduced. They've taken advantage of the novel to tie up loose ends from the podcast--an explanation of the man in the tan jacket being the most obvious one. The book has also provided an opportunity to explore parts and people of Night Vale that are hard to visit from Cecil's radio booth and single point of view. And so that means that so much new material appears in the book--things that we have never heard of before. There are some very exciting scenes in certain places that we have heard about but never dared visit... (Not to spoil anything of course.)
If you're a Night Vale fan uncertain about exploring the town without Cecil, fear not. This book is Night Vale enough without Cecil narrating, and besides, we get some excerpts from NVCR broadcasts interspersed in between the chapters, often connecting to the main events or transitioning in witty ways.
I was delighted to encounter characters from the podcast--I don't believe that Cecil showed up in person (although maybe he did--sorry, it's been a couple weeks since I finished), but Old Woman Josie, the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home, Steve Carlsburg, Dana (although I wish she'd been in it a bit more), and--yes--Carlos the Scientist (putting hearts around the equations on the chalkboard) all made appearances.
Suspensesuspensesuspense. The writing, the characters, the setting, the story. Cliche, but--you will not want to put this book down!
I have exactly one complaint, and it's not even really a complaint. I didn't much like that our only glimpse of Dana was brief, and that she was miserable. Her appearance needed to be neither long nor happy for the purposes of the book--the writers know exactly what to include and how to do it. We hear plenty of Dana on the podcast. But still, it was a little disappointing. Ah well. I can always go back to Old Oak Doors and feel happy for her.
In short, I very highly recommend Welcome to Night Vale to any Night Vale fan, or just anyone who loves the weird and wonderful. Listen to the podcast. I've never been to a live show but I'm sure that they're fabulous. Read the book, readers--read the book.
Goodnight, IWMCW readers. Goodnight.
Today's proverb: This review had a tantrum when the tail end of it and the edits had not been saved, so if there're any glaring mistakes or if a sentence drops off in the middle or if anything after "all made appearances" reads hastily and curtly, sorry. Comment if typos, please.
I think the Weebly app may be glitchy.
Also, I had trouble tagging this review. The existing categories that I have don't quite fit, but I wasn't sure if it was worth making several new ones.
(Doodle-ee-doo... Doodle-ee-doo... Doodle-ee-doo, doo, doo...)