Welcome to Night Vale

I love the podcast, so I definitely wanted to listen to this in audiobook format. In retrospect... I don't know, I think maybe that's not necessary. It was a little jarring that the whole book was narrated by Cecil but only very limited parts were actually Cecil's POV? I think I would have preferred a full-cast narrator, or at least like, one lady to read for Jackie and Diane? But WHATEVER. (* there are a few other guest voices on the audio book in small parts on the radio show excerpts, but it's like 98% Cecil.)

I liked Jackie and Diane and the other new characters a lot. I kept trying to remember the Man in the Tan Jacket bits from the podcast and I legitimately couldn't??

I think the surreal tone of Night Vale worked soo well for a coming of age story–the shapeshifting and the ALWAYS being 19 and the NEVER being 19. It reminds me somewhat of Lemony Snicket, a perfect mixture of black comedy and weirdness and totally fucking poignant lines.

I think there was a challenge getting used to a long-form Night Vale story for both me as a reader/listener and Fink/Cranor as writers? Normally on the podcast these kind of time travel/dimensional things resolve themselves pretty quickly due to the format and so I think, because I was used to that, this dragged a bit at times? Also I zoned out a little bit sometimes because I listened while driving on long, boring roads.

I think this could probably stand alone to someone who hadn't listened to the podcast before, and also is pretty rewarding for someone who has listened to the podcast.

Also, I ordered this for teen because I know some teens here like the podcast and I saw that one of the main characters was 19 (although, it turns out, that is a complicated concept). I don't think it's a YA novel but I think it has appeal for a truly wide range of ages, and also is not inappropriate for teens.