Welcome to Night Vale

by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
Hennepin County Library audiobook 10 discs
read by Cecil Baldwin
genre: I have no clue . . .

I'm not sure who recommended this to me (or why)but I cannot finish it. I might have stuck with it for curiosity's sake, but someone else is waiting for it and I am really not enjoying it. It is one of the most bizarre things I've read and like my re-read of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I feel as though I need to listen to my inner voice saying "I just don't like this. It's okay to stop."

"Bizarre" is the most accurate word I can use to describe it. The contradictions get old after a while. Something always was / never was, someone did / never had . . . I have read enough to understand that the book is based on a podcast with a cult-like following. Fine. It's still not my cup of tea. I'm not sure what the hype is about, but I'm not ready to listen to the podcast (or finish this book) to "get" it. I was on disc four out of ten and I'm okay with being done and not finding out what happens to Jackie, Diane, Josie, or Josh.

Josh and his body morphing was also pretty bizarre. And statements like "Tarantulas are simple creatures." (First the house thought it. Then Diane thought it.) "The avocado was fake. All avocados are fake." Just weird. The vocal work was fine; I'm guessing it fits the whole Nightvale scene pretty accurately.