Welcome to Night Vale

This was pretty good and if you like the podcast I think you will enjoy this book too. The setting is in Nightvale and it's about a couple of citizens just living their everyday lives in a strange town where strange things happen. You also get Cecil in a couple of bits and if you listen to the audiobook he also is the narrator for the book. You can really see how much the citizens of Nightvale trust Cecil even though he's in this book occasionally.

I'm about episode 8 of the podcast and you don't need to know the podcast to get into the story, you can jump right in! It's pacing is a little slow sometimes but everything that is strange is explained in a very clear way. I had no questions about how anything, there was no fuzzy explanations about strange events that happen. Nice book maybe I'll be getting back into the podcast soon! ~Ashley

http://www.welcometonightvale.com/ (free to listen)

The overall writing was something I couldn't get into. I had a hard time caring about characters without any sense of forward motion from them. Everything I did read seemed pointless fluff. I got that the town is weird and strange things happen but is it necessary to talk about every single mundane task that they perform? 

Very enjoyable to read, though not as tightly structured as It Devours, the next book in the series.

The writing style, combining poetry, philosophy, and humor in the narrative is the standout element. The characters are also very engaging and relatable. I cared about Diane in particular, as I am currently a mother of a teenager and thought the authors really nailed all the emotions and the struggles.

The plot itself meandered quite a bit in the middle. Lots of time spent for the protagonists getting nowhere and having fruitless conversations. That was frustrating. Then, towards the end, it got good. So good that I was chilled to the bone at one point and to shake myself back to reality!

The thing I wonder about is how interesting this book is to those that didn't listen to the podcast. For me, the podcast was an acquired taste. The satire wore thin, in the sense that I got the point of it, however clever it was, and I needed the plot to pick up and attachment to characters to develop in order to remain interested.

The storyline in the novel is entirely discrete from the podcast. You don't “need” it to follow along. The characters featured here are background citizens of the town relative to the podcast. The novel does a pretty good job of conveying the weird, X-files-y town, with the expected absurd humor and surreal imagery. However, some of the things referred to might be more fun for those who are already familiar with Night Vale.

If you haven't listened to the podcast, but you are up for something offbeat and different, this is certainly worth a try and maybe a good introduction if you're curious about the overall series.

Enjoyed this a lot, I'm not sure I would've if I hadn't listened to the podcast - it's very random!

Pretty good! The narrative style was very similar to how it is in the podcast which, to be honest, struggles a lot more in a book format, so I found quite a bit of the book quite difficult to get through, but once I got more used to this style I was able to enjoy the story more. Diane and Jackie were great protagonists and it was awesome to see mysteries depicted in the podcast be solved in this novel! It may not have been the greatest book ever written but it certainly was enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys the podcast and wants some more content!

A bit of an escape. I liked the second book better.
Imaginative.

Welcome to Night Vale is as unique in book form as it is in podcast form. If you're a fan of the show and it's cast of weird and quirky characters, then you'll love this.

The authors have done a great job at translating the show's humor into words and sentences and paragraphs and chapters, and thereby into a fully formed and engrossing book.

All hail the Glow Cloud!

Honestly nothing about this book hit right. Everything was weird, which was kind of the point, but that made the things that were weird to the characters not have any impact to me. The tone had this problem as well. Many things were simply said to be funny, so then when I was meant to take the text very seriously it didn't hit right. 

You can't have both and this book trued and missed anyway. Not to mention the ending explained nothing of why Jackie suddenly was able to age. This had nothing to do with all the Troy and King City stuff. It was all very unsatisfying. 

This is the weirdest book. but in a good way.

I listened to about 50 episodes of the show several years ago and loved them. But this was 400 pages of ruthless meandering.

You can control the pacing of a radio show in a way that is impossible to do in a novel. So, cramming strange images together consecutively did nothing but make me want to put the book down and have a nap. Some of it is clever and interesting, but you're unable to appreciate those bits when they're drowned out by a million other “weird for the sake of being weird” things.

I found myself skimming over paragraphs because of all the bizarre interjections that I can only assume were supposed to be funny. Instead, they just distracted me from the non-story.

This book is great for people who want a manual about the intricacies of Night Vale which, now that I think about it, would have been a cool idea in place of this.

Anyway, if you need me, I'll be waiting for the bus in the rain.

I enjoy the podcast more than the book.

Night Vale is a town where just about anything can happen. It is a magical town that simply people do not leave or cannot leave. There are strange rules there. This is based on a podcast that I already enjoyed so I was aware of the strangeness of the stories. A mystery man shows up and gives people a piece of paper with the name of “King City “ on it. Two main people Jackie and Diane try to figure out what it means and then try to get out of Night Vale to go to King City.

Wow wow WOW!!!!! I LOVED every page of that!!!!! That was an absolutely incredible read, and I desperately wish I could live in Night Vale!!!! I really don't know how to put all my feelings for this book into words!!!!

Here, look at this book. I have no idea what it means. It's really weird though. I'm going to add a couple more words to this review. Great, this looks really great.

*1.5 stars. This just wasn't for me. The inside joke isn't funny when the inside doesn't exist. It brought to mind the TV show Fargo, which is loaded with meta but plays it just right and builds real characters that you care about. This book did not. The best bits were the The Voice of Night Vale radio sessions with Cecil, descriptive and funny and fantastic, and that makes me wonder if remaining a podcast might have been the proper choice here. Again, just not for me.

Overall a decent read. It felt a bit monotonous and it took me a while to really get invested into the story. Once I did, though, I was pretty hooked. Sometimes it felt like it was trying to be as “out there” as possible and that was a little boring to me, kind of shook me out of the story itself. You'll probably like it if you like the podcast.

Keeps the feeling of the podcasts, which I'd say is the most important criterion to meet. Story is fairly solid — maybe solid enough that it could stand alone without the podcasts, but I'm not sure.

I loved it. That's it for the review. Now for my answer to the question, “Should I read this if I don't listen to the podcast?” I say, Sure, go ahead. If you are the sort who would love Cecil's broadcasts, then you will love this book podcast-unheard. If not, then not. The book will not spoil the podcast, and frankly, listening to the first episode will confuse you just as much as the book will.

As for those who complain that the book has no plot, I finally figured out that they read a different book than I, Something other than Welcome to Night Vale, so I can not comment. I am sad that they read such a plotless book, whatever it was, and I think some Goodreads librarian should figure out exactly what that book is and then separate out the reviews for the two different books so as not to cause confusion. This book, Welcome to Night Vale, has lots of plot, lots of story, lots of purposeful consecutive action, but even more it has real humans in great human distress trying to deal with all the mess life throws at them. Read the book to find out how they handle things.

3.5. I really enjoyed sections of the book, but other areas felt pretty slow. The podcast has more straight humor (and God, the narration is the best), but there were still plenty of moments I laughed out loud while reading the book. I was also really happy with the characterization - two main female characters forming an actual friendship? Why do I have to even say that I'm impressed? :/

3.5 stars if I could. It contains all the requisite weirdness that a proper story set in Night Vale should; that said, after reading it, I'm realizing that the podcast is so successful because it is able to spread its narrative over many episodes. A book has a much shorter timeframe to accomplish a satisfying arc. Ultimately, I'd recommend this for fans of the series, but for outsiders, I wouldn't.

I listened to the audiobook and instantly fell in love. I love the podcast and since Cecil Baldwin is narrating the audiobook as well, it feels like an extended podcast with a wonderful plot line. I really liked the characters and the development of them!

I really have no idea what to say about this. It's essentially an absurdist interconnected short story collection? It's a little lot off the wall and some of it doesn't quite make sense, but I'm pretty sure those parts aren't supposed to make sense. It's also full of one-liners that skewer the very core of the human condition, and also jokes. It's entertaining, entertainingly infuriating, and a little bit just infuriating.

I don't know what to write in this review. I don't even know if I'm allowed to write anything at all.

Welcome to Night Vale is a novel about a town, but it's also a novel about people. It's also about hooded figures, a glowing cloud, a vague yet menacing government agency, and the Faceless Old Woman who secretly lives in your home. It's about everything and nothing, and it's absolutely amazing.

I'm not a listener of the podcast, but now I'm thinking of becoming one. Would Cecil understand that I am deeply in love with Carlos? I think he would. Of all people, Cecil would.

This sure is a Night Vale novel. If you like the podcast, you'll probably like the book. If you don't like the podcast, I doubt the book is going to win you over.

I have to admit I was hoping for something that went a little deeper, but unfortunately it seems Night Vale doesn't translate well to a less bite-sized, episodic format. To be fair, it's pretty hard to craft a coherent narrative when one of the basic tenets of your setting is that time and causality don't really make sense.

I stopped listening to WtNV a few years ago, and this book reminded me why. It's a bit like Monty Python: some of the over-the-top-ness is brilliant, and some of it is just firmly in silly territory.

Unlike the podcast, though, it's easier to skim ahead to less-silly parts.

I did enjoy this beyond the silliness though. It was fantastic to have a story about The Man in the Tan Jacket, and I did have a lot of genuine laugh-out-loud moments. If you're a fan of WtNV I don't know why you haven't already read this.