Welcome to Night Vale

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.