''Welcome to Night Vale'' is a 2015 novel written by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, based on their popular ''

Welcome to Night Vale ''Welcome to Night Vale'' is a podcast presented as a radio show for the fictional town of Night Vale, reporting on the strange events that occur within it. The series was created in 2012 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Published by Night Vale ...

'' podcast. The book was first released on October 20, 2015, through

Harper Perennial Harper Perennial is a paperback imprint of the publishing house HarperCollins Publishers. Overview Harper Perennial has divisions located in New York, London, Toronto, and Sydney. The imprint is descended from the Perennial Library imprint foun ...

in the United States and

Orbit Books Orbit Books is an international publisher that specialises in science fiction and fantasy books. It is a division of Lagardère Publishing. History It was founded in 1974 as part of the Macdonald Futura publishing company. In 1992, its parent ...

in the United Kingdom. Unlike the podcast, the novel is narrated from an omniscient viewpoint that follows Jackie Fierro, the owner of Night Vale's pawn shop, and Diane Crayton, the treasurer of the town's PTA. The audiobook version of the story is narrated by Cecil Baldwin,

Dylan Marron Dylan Marron (born May 31, 1988) is an American actor, writer and activist known for his voice work as Carlos in the podcast ''Welcome to Night Vale'' and his video series Every Single Word, an art and data visualization project which compiles al ...

Retta Marietta Sirleaf,Jung, E. Alex Vulture.com, May 23, 2018. rchived https://web.archive.org/web/20180523214634/https://www.vulture.com/2018/05/retta-has-a-story-to-tell.htmlon 05-23-2018

, Thérèse Plummer, and Dan Bittner.

Synopsis

The Man in the Tan Jacket is back in Night Vale and he has been leaving strange pieces of paper with people, all of which say "King City". While Night Vale is used to the strange and bizarre, the Man in the Tan Jacket's arrival puts the town at odds. Jackie Fierro, the owner of the town pawn shop, is determined to figure out the mystery behind both the man and the paper. Meanwhile, Diane Crayton has her own issues: her son has been changing and while this is average for most teenage boys, her son is literally a

shape shifter In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ...

and looks different each time she sees him. When she begins to see her son's father around town and Josh begins to show new interest in the man, Diane knows that this cannot end well.

Reception

Critical reception for ''Welcome to Night Vale'' has been positive and the novel was one of the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

's'' top science-fiction and fantasy picks for October 2015.

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...

praised the novel in his review at ''

Boing Boing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won ...

'', stating "Shot through it all is the love and integrity that made ''Night Vale'' a success from the beginning. After 400 pages, some of Night Vale's mysteries have been laid bare, we've been initiated into new ones, and most of all, we know that we're in the midst of some wonderful people." In contrast, ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave ''Welcome to Night Vale'' a grade of C+, criticizing Fink and Cranor for including too many references from the podcast, which they felt "reduces the plot’s progression to a crawl". They also wrote that the book improved in the later chapters, writing that it became "a wonderfully creepy tale filled with revelations about the nature of the town and its residents. Those tantalizing final few chapters provide a glimpse of what Fink and Cranor might be capable of when freed of the constraints of making references and allowed to just tell a story in their fascinating setting."

References

External links

* 2015 American novels American LGBT novels 2015 science fiction novels American science fiction novels 2010s horror novels American horror novels Works based on podcasts 2015 debut novels Weird fiction novels Magic realism novels LGBT speculative fiction novels Collaborative novels HarperCollins books Orbit Books books Night Vale Presents {{2010s-LGBT-novel-stub