Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

I start right off by saying that I have never listened to the podcast, and I picked up this book because of the concept and humor factor. The first pages I thought okay what a fantastic setting, this fifties small-town sci-fi vibe with alien landings and Twilight Zone bizarre, and I kept thinking this would be a perfect place for a TV-show or a multi-player PC game.

You could say I was excited, and I felt at home. But the thing is, the story never started. There is a story, yes, but it is being interrupted repeatedly with world-building and jokes which began to get repetitive further towards the end. I kept thinking you need not mind that there is no story that just enjoy the strange, but I couldn’t because nothing felt significant. You need empathetic (flawed) characters to feel attached to the story or the book in general. Even fact books play around with stories and interesting characters and their destinies.

The book disappointed me. And I get that those who are already invested with the podcast and gotten familiar with the town feel that this book was terrific, allowing them to visit the place. Yes, it is a good place; it is a place which idea I loved as a child watching old black and white movies of alien attacks, giant spiders, werewolves, and you know once again the Twilight Zone, and of course, there was X-files, but that came with color. But even those had stories that made people watch them, and often enough with a moral ending.

Thank you for reading! Have a bookish day ❤