Welcome to Night Vale

A Novel

By: Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor

Narrated by: Cecil Baldwin, Dylan Marron, Retta, Thérèse Plummer, Dan Bittner

Performed by Welcome to Night Vale podcast narrator Cecil Baldwin and special guests Dylan Marron, Retta, Thérèse Plummer, and Dan Bittner, with music by Disparition.

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.

"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)

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 deerskin 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.

©2015 Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"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)

"Audio is THE way to experience the Night Vale novel.... For fans, it's a must-listen." ( AudioFile)

Fantastic, even for the nonFan

Even if you aren't a fan of the free podcast. This Novel is an absolute joy to hear from start to finish

Not the Nightvale I was looking for

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

While the characters are there and "Cecil" reads the text, it's a little dry and uninspiring. Not bad by any means and a must for a fan. Just not really that good.
It's been several weeks since I got it and I will have to force myself to finish it.

If you like the Night Vale podcast...

you will love this book.
I have both a physical and audio copy of the book and I adored every second/page.

werd as all ways

if you like night vail you will like this book good storyand nice ending to it

Glimmers of genius, disappointing story

This is no doubt a relentlessly quotable book. There are countless spectacular lines that are beyond worth repeating to friends. Little one-liners that turn reality on its head, or just take an interesting and funny look at existence itself and at the human psyche. Fink has shown himself to be very good at that, and it's exactly what made the podcast good.
As a three-act story, however, it falters. It meanders in absurdism trying to progress in one way or another. Certain plot elements smack of desperation for weirdness, such as Diane's shapeshifting son, or cars being controlled by secrets. It's a little much, and it's simply not necessary.
The idea of weirdness being a sort of infection is spectacularly weak to me, and makes the story woefully anticlimactic. The end chapter while it tries its best to come to a satisfying close, just kind of fizzles out to a forgettable ending. It's disappointing considering some excellent writing that goes on in here.
Cecil Baldwin's performance is as excellent as it is in the podcast. No complaints there. He's wonderful at making surrealism seem normal and serene. Only he could pull this off.
So in conclusion:
Very good and often very funny one-liners throughout
Forgettable plot that's a bit disappointing and anticlimactic
Cecil Baldwin is great

The best book I ever read (/heard haha)

My ALLTIME favourite book. I’ve listened to WTNV more times than I can count and it still continues to intrigue me and coax my imagination. I wish I could move to Night Vale! Haha...but honestly, if you like all things strange and have a weird sense of humour and wonder, you have to check this book out along with all the awesome podcasts of the same name. Hope you love it as much as I do!

Absolutely beautiful

An outstanding performance from Cecil and the rest, and a wonderful story from Joseph and Jeffrey. In a pleasant change of pace from the common theme of unsolved, Erdrich weirdness, Jeffrey and Joseph resolve several recurring issues and expand on a number of casually mentioned horrors.
Beautifully done, 10/10 would listen again, worth the wait.

a little too weird but interesting writing

the narrator was awesome, the story was captivating but got a little too odd at the end, like if there are no rules here, let's just make something illogical up and go with it, however the analogies throughout are quite funny, good for Halloween time, but otherwise a real oddball

Weird at last.

A great and fun listen. If you are a fan of the podcast you will love this. its basically a 12 hour long episode of nightvale. Made my drives to work and school much weirder and more interesting.

As addictive as the podcast!

Fantastic stories that were extremely engaging. I tried very hard not to go through the whole book at once so that I could savour the plots. Cecil Baldwin has such an amazing voice making for a wonderful experience.