It Devours!

Really good! The pacing was much better than the first Night Vale novel and the whole thing just felt sort of better put together. I think I understood what was going on a lot better than in the first book.

Speaking of what was going on in the book, it was very cool! Lots of twists and turns and incredibly, incredibly strange things happening, as they do in Night Vale, and also many quite profound passages that genuinely make you think. All round, really good! :)

Haven't listened to the podcast in a while but the book brought me right back. Like everything in the night vale universe, this story is funny, sometimes horrific, and topped off with a strong helping of social commentary. But the semi preachy undertones feel well delivered when told through para-non-sequiturs that, in night vale, actually do follow

I have been listening to the Night Vale podcast and was excited to see the existence of novels about the weirdest little town in the desert. Fink and Craynor are talented writers for both types of media. It Devours had wonderful storytelling and characterization. Not to mention humor. I love books that can combine humor with science fiction and fantasy but not have it take away from the impact of the story. This one works so well; the humor ranges from silly to smart to touching at any given moment.

You don't need to listen to the podcast to know what's going on. It might help a bit though, in order to buy into the idea of Night Vale and what it's like. It's a weird place. The usual rules of logic and even basic things like, say, laws of nature don't necessarily apply here. You have to approach the weirdness with an open mind to enjoy the book.

As advertised, it is indeed a book about the conflict between religious devotion and looking to science for all of life's answers. I think the deck is stacked a bit toward science in this conflict but that might be my own bias as I'm not surrounded by a lot of religious people. Also, this is a story of a scientist, Nilanjana, who investigates a church/cult known as “the joyous congregation.” Through her point of view, the congregation does seem insane.

But the characters who are believers in the “smiling god” are also well developed and good intentioned in their own way. They point out that there is value in not knowing everything and in the search for meaning rather than facts.

“Scientists act like they have it all figured out,” Jamillah was saying, red-faced, “but no matter how many facts you learn, nothing in your knowledge can tell you what it means. You know but you don't know why. Your knowledge is a hollow edifice.”

Ultimately it is science and religion together, or at least two character groups representing each side of the argument, who get together to solve the Monster problem that is the novel's central plot. This is probably the best and most fun scene of the book. There is a spirit of cooperation and working together. One of the important things that Darryl, Nilanjana's love interest who represents the devoted side of the conflict, gets out of his church is family, a purpose in life, and people who care about him and to care about.

“What use is the truth in a world where we die either way? Isn't it better to live happy until that last moment, believing the story you are living, shoulder to shoulder with others who believe and live that same story? Why flounder in the void when there is no need to do so? The story ends the same way, no matter how you chose to perceive it. Why not choose to perceive it as meaningful?”

It Devours is a novel that has everything, action, comedy, romance, weird monsters, and a lot of food for thought.

“It Devours!? Oh yeah, I've read that book,” I said to my cat, who continued to stare at me listlessly

I enjoy the short form of the podcasts better.

I don't know, now that I've listened to all of the podcast, and the first two books, I really am not sold on the possibility of Night Vale as a long-form story. The first WTNV book was uneven but had its charming moments (and Easter eggs / references for the podcast audience) as it struggled to impose some kind of narrative and causality on Night Vale. This second book seems to have over-corrected by trying overly hard to be accessible to people who know nothing about WTNV, thus excising most of what made the first novel bearable.

Also, there are weird continuity errors between this and the podcast (most notably in Carlos' personality and memories of the otherworld, and the nature of the Smiling God). The characters don't have much interiority or personal arcs and a lot of the book just dragggggggggs and is really repetitive. Entire chapters could have been removed without affecting the story at all. Honestly this would have made a better WTNV podcast episode. I truly love a lot of Joseph Fink's shorter writing, but I think he's floundering trying to translate that into a long-form medium. [Spouse and I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Cecil, which worked well for the first novel but I think made this one wear out its welcome.]

Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor have done it AGAIN!!!! This sequel was Just as good as the first book!!!! (Tbh it only took me so long to finish it because I received a copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons for my birthday, and have spent most of my time playing that lmao) I truly LOVE the world of Night Vale, and DESPERATELY wish to live there!!!!!

This review can also be found on my blog.

I've had this on my shelf for close to year, and finally got around to reading it! I used to be a huge fan of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast, but stopped listening a couple years ago because I personally found that the content felt a bit repetitive. I also read the first book and didn't find it really held my interest, but thought it was still worth it to give the second one a shot. I'm glad I did! It was an interesting, compelling read. While not plot-dependent on the podcast or the first book, if you take in the content out-of-order you probably will spoil yourself, just as a heads up.

Sometimes it's okay to find something beautiful without correctly understanding it.

The book itself ran me through a lot more emotions than I expected it to. Honestly, I was almost in tears at the end of the first chapter. No joke. There's just enough of a mystery that you're not quite sure what's going on without encroaching too far into nonsense, which could have been easy to do with a world filled with such fantastical elements. There were a few places where I didn't feel quite as invested in the story as I could have, but it really held my attention for the most part.

Sometimes where you live is just a place, no matter how long you live there.

I really adored the main characters. Nilanjana was great and I liked getting to see her struggles as an outsider in Night Vale. I found Darryl really interesting as well, especially with his background and how it tied in to some events towards the end of the book. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters didn't have much characterization. Carlos was given some depth, but I felt like the rest of the scientists and Darryl's friends all seemed like caricatures and were quite one-dimensional.

When considering our place in the universe, we must recognize that by having this one position we are negating every other possible position we could have.

So, overall it was a fun read and I would definitely recommend it to fans of Welcome to Night Vale or to anyone else who finds themselves interested in it. I don't see myself picking it up again in the future, but I definitely don't regret reading it!

The review I wrote for my library's weekly Facebook book review.

You may or may not be familiar with the hit podcast “Welcome to Night Vale” (WTNV). You may or may not know who Cecil and Carlos are, and you may or may not understand the picture that accompanies this review. You may or may not have read the first WTNV novel, which is conveniently titled “Welcome to Night Vale.” But none of that matters. If you like the surreal and the bizarre, if you have a dark and wry sense of humor, if you don't mind being baffled just a little bit, and if (and this is the big one) if you care about the contentious issues of our day like the relationship (conflict?) between religion and science, then have I got a book for you!

When Nilanjana Sikdar is given an assignment by her boss, Night Vale's top scientist Carlos (the one with perfect hair), to find out what mysterious force is interfering with his attempts to discover what is going on with the house that doesn't exist, her investigation takes her to the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, where she meets Daryl. Sweet, weird, very religious Daryl. Nilanjana is not particularly sweet, not weird (except for being an outsider in Night Vale), and definitely not religious. As they learn to deal with each other as people, lovers, even friends, they are forced radically to alter their attitudes toward the other's world views. And they are forced to work together to save the world from being devoured.

Although authors Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink have not written the perfect exploration of the intersection of religion and science, they have made a good faith effort, and have produced an engrossing, entertaining, and thought-provoking book. Their main sympathies seem pretty obviously in the Science camp, but they look with clear eyes at the role each mode of thought plays in human life, considering the strength and weakness of each. But forget all that; really, this is just a fun, creepy, and exciting book that will make you think and just might make you glad you are alive.