Welcome to Night Vale
By Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
Harper Perennial, 2015
This is a science fiction / fantasy / comic/ horror (maybe) novel based on the Welcome to Night Vale podcasts. It is exactly like what you think it is like, except perhaps a bit better.
Night Vale is a weird town. If you don't know how weird, the first thing you should do is go to here and brouse a bit -- you can listen to the podcast, read transcipts, or read about this book and how good it is. If that's too much trouble, you might compare it to the SCP Foundation if everything weird was dumped into a single town rather than secluded in warehouses, or Eerie Indiana but much more so, or The Twilight Zone meets Douglas Adams. Something like that.
Amongst the chaotic collection of evil and indifferent forces that control the town of Night Vale, some people manage to live almost normal lives. One of these is Diana Crayton, single mother, PTA treasurer, and database manager at that one company that no one knows what it does. She's pretty happy overall, but her son is starting to ask awkward questions about his absent father. She has some questions herself -- like why is there so many of him, why are they all avoiding her (or possibly following her), and does he have anything to do with the mysterious disappearance of her coworkers.
Elsewhere, the maybe-immortal pawn shop owner, Jackie Fierro, has accepted the worst pawn of her life -- a small slip of paper that says 'King City' on it. She doesn't know what this means, but her neighbor's angels seem to think that it is important. Moreover, Jackie isn't used to being pushed around and is not going to let this piece of paper control her life. So she closes down her shop and sets off on a quest that will take her to the depths of Night Vale, and perhaps beyond.
This book is equally loved and hated by readers, apparently regardless of whether or not they have listened to the podcast. As far as I can tell, the key issue is whether or not readers feel that the book manages to pull off The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy type constant silliness without either a) letting plot get in the way or b) failing to have a plot. It is a fine line to walk, and I think the authors pulled it off quite well -- lots of witty narration but with actual people with relatable problems taking over the story and living real lives. The critics are fairly well split on which way the book fails.
The solution, I think, is to get a good idea of the narration in the podcasts -- it won't take you long -- and if you find it annoying or boring, there's no point in reading this book. Then be ready for an actual story to emerge, but don't expect the plot to be too very linear or literary. And for god's sake, don't expect this book to explain all the mysteries of Night Vale, it's just not the sort of place that gets explained.
There is a second book in the series, It Devours!. Fans may also be interested in the transcripts of the radio show, the first volume of which has been published as Mostly Void, Partially Stars.