Join the Welcome to Night Vale Community Before It Takes Over the Book World

For the uninitiated, the hubbub centered on the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, the Twilight Zone-meets-NPR Lovecraft appreciation hour that you should already be listening to. On Monday, the much-anticipated novel companion, aptly titled Welcome to Night Vale: The Novel, got a book cover and a release date (October 20). To quote Cecil Palmer, the silky-voiced narrator of Night Vale Community Radio and our guide through this bizarro world, “Weird at last! Weird at last! God almighty, weird at last!”
The novel is set in the same “nameless desert town in the American Southwest” as the show, but the narrative will stand alone, following the mysterious intersection of the lives of 19-year-old pawnshop owner Jackie Fierro and Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton. That said, reoccurring characters from this small town beset by constant terror, like the Man in the Tan Jacket, are sure to play a large part.
With seven months to go before Night Vale’s legion of malevolent librarians gets its grubby hands on a copy of this sacred text, it is a fine time to get caught up on the podcast. Night Vale is just the sort of strange community you’ll want to immerse yourself in, and here’s why (just don’t go near the dog park).
A Ragtag Band of Lunatics
Night Vale’s biggest asset as a community is its people, a group so diversely unhinged that you’d think a circus train overturned on its way to the funny farm. There’s the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your House (who is exactly as described), the Glow Cloud (both sentient and president of the school board), and Megan Wallaby (born as an adult male’s hand). That’s not to mention the parade of ill-fated radio station interns whose fates differ in the details but follow mostly the same path: baaaaad. But what can you expect? There’s a price to pay for real-world experiences like singing sea shanties to ants.
Location, Location, Location
As any seasoned listener can attest, one of Night Vale’s key attributes is that it is not the neighboring community of Desert Bluffs, which is governed by shady, dictatorial corporate giant Strexcorp, and whose enforced synthetic happiness is corrosive and deadly. Don’t let the pony-petting stations fool you, this place is bad news.
Emphasis on Civic Duty
Nothing, I repeat nothing, since Aaron Burr outdueled Alexander Hamilton nothing in American politics has been as exciting as the Night Vale mayoral race. The candidates to replace increasingly imbalanced Mayor Pamela Winchell included a literal five-headed dragon and the aforementioned Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your House. It made for one heck of a campaign.
A Voice Like Butter
The most recognizable feature of Night Vale is the host of its community radio program. Cecil’s dulcet tones both soothe and cajole as he runs through the horrors of each day. His velvet voice is also catnip to hunky scientists. It almost goes without saying (but we’re happy to say it, regardless), but Cecil will narrate the audiobook of the Night Vale novel, so they’ll be no disconnect from the world of the podcast.
Dear listeners, have you visited Night Vale? Did you come back… changed?