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A review by ninetalevixen
Welcome to Night Vale by Jeffrey Cranor, Joseph Fink
4.5
"They took a long moment to absorb this new reality, and then, like good Night Vale citizens, categorized it as unexplainable and set it aside forever."
As someone who's only listened to a handful of the podcast episodes, I wasn't altogether sure what to expect from this book. By the time I finished it, I still wasn't altogether sure what to make of it.
There's just so much going on in and around Night Vale; I'm sure you could read all kinds of allegory and metaphor into any seemingly irrelevant "throwaway" detail. (I caught a few bits of sociopolitical commentary even without trying.) Still, there's a clear main storyline with recognizable parts (rising action, climax, etc.), distinct characters, and an interesting setting. It is definitely a novel, and a fairly memorable one at that.
But if you just want to read Welcome to Night Vale as an unsettling, wacky-weird book, you could do that equally easily — I wouldn't call it a "light read" by any rubric, but it doesn't force you to take it more seriously than it takes itself. Which is not much. Or maybe a lot. (There's a lot of self-contradiction in this narrative.)
IDK, hopefully that all made sense. Because this book didn't really, but in a mostly-good way.
rep: bi/pan MC, biracial MC, MLM minor characters, M/M background relationship
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CONVERSION: 12.2 / 15 = 4.5 stars
Prose: 9 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 8 / 10
Emotional Impact: 6 / 10
Development / Flow: 7 / 10
Setting: 10 / 10
Diversity & Social Themes: 3 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: 5 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 5 / 5
Rereadability: 4 / 5
Memorability: 4 / 5
As someone who's only listened to a handful of the podcast episodes, I wasn't altogether sure what to expect from this book. By the time I finished it, I still wasn't altogether sure what to make of it.
There's just so much going on in and around Night Vale; I'm sure you could read all kinds of allegory and metaphor into any seemingly irrelevant "throwaway" detail. (I caught a few bits of sociopolitical commentary even without trying.) Still, there's a clear main storyline with recognizable parts (rising action, climax, etc.), distinct characters, and an interesting setting. It is definitely a novel, and a fairly memorable one at that.
But if you just want to read Welcome to Night Vale as an unsettling, wacky-weird book, you could do that equally easily — I wouldn't call it a "light read" by any rubric, but it doesn't force you to take it more seriously than it takes itself. Which is not much. Or maybe a lot. (There's a lot of self-contradiction in this narrative.)
IDK, hopefully that all made sense. Because this book didn't really, but in a mostly-good way.
rep:
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CONVERSION: 12.2 / 15 = 4.5 stars
Prose: 9 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 8 / 10
Emotional Impact: 6 / 10
Development / Flow: 7 / 10
Setting: 10 / 10
Diversity & Social Themes: 3 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: 5 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 5 / 5
Rereadability: 4 / 5
Memorability: 4 / 5