Trent's Reviews > Welcome to Night Vale

I've waited several weeks to write this review because I want it to be as honest as possible without my emotions getting too much in the way. So, here it is: this is not a good book. To be more acurate, I'm not even really sure that this is a book at all. Bear with me on this one.

Welcome to Nightvale was originally a podcast, one that up until recently I'd listened to for three years now. So, when they announced a novel, I was hesitant but interested. I'd heard excerpts on the show. I'd even heard the weird aftermath of the novel in an odd publicity move to push the novel slightly before release. Weird, but Nightvale is weird. Whatever.

The novel becomes available, and of course I get it. The opening chapter is spectacular. It lays the groundwork for a very tight and interesting story. Moreover, the narrator is top notch. He reads the absurd with such conviction and intensity that it's both hilarious and chilling -exactly the atmosphere the podcast became known for. However, subsequent chapters begin to fall apart, and when something balanced so precariously on the borders of absurd and suspenseful misses its mark, it does so to great and miserable effect.

This is not a story. Stories have plots and characters who try to do things. Nightvale only tries to be a story in its opening chapter and its final chapters (at which point it comes much much too late to be acceptable, interesting, or redeemable). Instead, most of the book focuses on characters going from points A to B to C ad infinitum to get around dealing with the plot presented to us in the opening of the book. They meet other characters and the narration will do what it does best: go off on long, long tangents.

Here's the thing: anyone who is seriously dedicated to the craft of writing or who is at least an average reader should know that the process of writing is natrually also the process of decision-making. An author and editor need to work together to make decisions about what should be included and what should not. These are purposeful decisions made in order to create a consistent and engaging experience for the reader.

This novel, I dare to say, never made any such decisions. The narration is presented as so meandering that it is difficult to understand what is the plot and what is important. It's like the narrator is just saying whatever comes to mind in the form of a "spot-the-refference" game for virtually every single aspect of the podcast. Not only does this make it impossible for newcomers to get invested, but it creates a serious problem with crafting the story's experience.

This is especially troubling because the setting of Nightvale is an absurd town of conspiracies and magic. The abnormal IS normal in this town. So, when the tangential narration persists in pointing out every single absurdity, it becomes impossible to tell which absurdities are plot-related and which are just the town's own eccentricities.

For example, one of the main recurring issues that is actually plot-relevant is people's forgetfullness of a particular person. Now, one of the main characters goes to interview another character about this particular person. The interviewee talks about her family, and when the interviewer makes reference to her family, the interviewee sudenly claims she has none. What is this supposed to mean? What am I as a reader supposed to do with this information? I read the entire book. I can assure you that this instance of forgetfulness and all others not related to the character in question are not relavent. So, why are they included? You can't call this a red herring. This book doesn't stick close enough to a plot to even merit having red herrings, and no other characters treat such disinformation like so.

And a lot of this tangential narration has nothing to do with anything. The better part of one chapter, for instance, is all about social-justicing on behalf of women's self image. No, there is not a character who is expressing their opinions. This is pure, unadulterated narration. Nothing prompted this discussion. It comes out of nowhere and informs nothing. I'm in no way against books pushing an agenda, but I have a particular aversion when it's pushed on me so blatantly rather than being expressed through story.

More on the structural side of things, I don't understand how anyone could read the physical copy of this book. This isn't at all set up to be read like a novel. After every second or third chapter there is a "Voice of Nightvale" section. It's not written in narration. It's for all intents and purposes a piece of the podcast script. The information revealed in these sections is not only quite long, but ultimately unrelated at all to the plot except for the completely off-the-wall revelation that garden flamingos are weird and probably a plot device that no one asked for.

Then there's an entire chapter which consists of exclusively one character talking and info-dumping. There's no narration, no conversation. It's literally just a monologue.

The characters finally decide to come together in the eleventh hour of the story and actually do something. It tries to give a heartwarming message about family and growing up, but none of it is earned. The entire book leading up to that point was nowhere near focused enough on the main characters, the plot, or even the theme of family to deserve to try pulling the emotional moments it attempts to serve the audience.

This is not a story. This is bits and scraps of something that could have been made into episodes of the podcast. It exemplifies the worst that the series has to offer and has the gall to suggest at the end that you try listening to the podcast.

I am apalled that something of this poor structural quality is allowed to exist, and I am sick to my stomach that I paid money for this. This novel not only ruined my perception of the creators, but retroactively ruins every character I was ever interested in.

There is no real consistency with characters or the past mythos. Knowing what I now know about the man in the tan leather jacket from this book, there is no possible way that he's the same mysterious hero I first heard about in the podcast 3 years ago. There is no reason why the character presented to me in this book would have helped save the town from the bowling alley invasion in the podcast (trust me, you just had to be there). The creative team doesn't treat their past with respect and change the very nature of previous characters and concepts to suit their present needs.

This is not a story. This is not worth my money. Welcome to Nightvale, the book and the podcast, are no longer worth my time.