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Audio Book Review: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink And Jeffrey Cranor, Narrated by Mara Wilson

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Book: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, Narrated by Mara Wilson

Published March 2020 by HarperAudio|Run Time: 9 hours, 13 minutes

Where I Got It: I own the audio book

Series: Welcome To Night Vale #3

Genre: Adult Fiction

From the authors of the New York Times bestselling novel Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a book that is part The Haunting of Hill House, part The Count of Monte Cristo, and 100% about a faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home.

The latest installment in the Welcome to Night Vale universe is the story of the familiar and terrifying Faceless Old Woman. Her story is told in eerie flashbacks that reveal her initially idyllic and then tragic childhood on a Mediterranean estate in the early 19th century, her rise in the criminal underworld of Europe, a nautical adventure with a mysterious organization of smugglers, her plot for revenge on the ones who have betrayed her, and ultimately the story that continues after her death as her spirit travels for decades through the world until settling in modern Night Vale.

Interspersed throughout the Woman’s history, readers follow a present day story in Night Vale, as the Faceless Old Woman haunts, guides, and sabotages a man called Craig. In the end, the story of her current day dealings with Craig and her swashbuckling life story in 19th century Europe will come together in the most unexpected and horrifying way.

Part The Haunting of Hill House, part The Count of Monte Cristo, and 100% about a faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home.

I loved The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home!  I knew it was going to be a great book, and I pre-ordered it the second I heard there was going to be another Night Vale book.

I was really excited about this book in particular because we get the amazing backstory of one of my favorite Night Vale characters.  I don’t want to ruin anything for people who haven’t read it yet, but I loved learning more about her, and how she came to Night Vale.  I loved the reason she ended up there, and I loved seeing how she became the faceless old woman.

Of course, I did the audio book, which I highly recommend!  Mara Wilson is a great narrator, and I’m glad I went with the audio book!  She also is the voice of the Faceless Old Woman on the podcast, so I’m really glad she narrated the audio book.

I had no doubt about listening to the audio book because I’ve been listening to the podcast for years.  It’s been the same way with the previous audio books, and I have no doubt that it will be the same way with any other books Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor write.  Their books just work really well on audio, and I can’t imagine trying to read them in print.

I also want to say that you don’t need to listen to the podcast to know what’s happening in the book.  As a huge fan of the podcast, I am going to say that listening to it is a great idea, but not at all necessary to know what’s happening in the book.  I love that the books can be read without listening to the podcast first.

I still think you should listen to the podcast.  It’s awesome.

But this review is not about the podcast, it’s the book about a really cool character from one of my favorite podcasts.  She has such a great story, and I loved seeing her as a child to a teen to an adult to the faceless old woman we all know and love.  I loved seeing her in Night Vale with Craig, and I loved seeing it all come together.

I was surprised by how it came together, though I figured out one piece of it.  That didn’t take away my enjoyment of the story, because I liked seeing the journey.  That’s what I was here for, to see how the faceless old woman became the faceless old woman.

She is a lot more than that now, and now she has a face.  She’s just as real as Cecil, Carlos, and Hiram McDaniels, and I can’t wait to see more of her in the podcast.

5 stars.  I loved this book a lot, and I think it’s a must read!

Book Review: It Devours! by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor, Narrated by Cecil Baldwin

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Book: It Devours! by Joseph Fink And Jeffrey Cranor, Narrated by Cecil Baldwin

Published October 2017 by Harper Audio|9 hours and 38 minutes

Where I Got It: I own the audio book

Series: Welcome To Night Vale #2

Genre: Adult Fiction

From the authors of the New York Times bestselling novel Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a mystery exploring the intersections of faith and science, the growing relationship between two young people who want desperately to trust each other, and the terrifying, toothy power of the Smiling God.

Nilanjana Sikdar is an outsider to the town of Night Vale. Working for Carlos, the town’s top scientist, she relies on fact and logic as her guiding principles. But all of that is put into question when Carlos gives her a special assignment investigating a mysterious rumbling in the desert wasteland outside of town. This investigation leads her to the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, and to Darryl, one of its most committed members. Caught between her beliefs in the ultimate power of science and her growing attraction to Darryl, she begins to suspect the Congregation is planning a ritual that could threaten the lives of everyone in town. Nilanjana and Darryl must search for common ground between their very different world views as they are faced with the Congregation’s darkest and most terrible secret.

Night Vale is such a delightful place.  Weird, but delightful.  And I am glad that I got to revisit Night Vale in It Devours!

The nice thing about It Devours (and the Welcome To Night Vale novel) is that you don’t need to listen to the podcast in order to read this book.  It’s completely separate (but does reference the podcast), and while I loved the first book, I think I loved this book even more.  It’s very different than what I expected, but I really liked the story.  Carlos and his time in the Otherworld is very different in this book, and it’s a big change from the podcast.  He was more excited about the possibilities in the podcast, and more tortured in the book.

Cranor and Fink don’t like to keep things neat and tidy, that’s for sure.  But maybe it affected Carlos more than we thought.  It’s a very different Carlos that we see in this book, but maybe…I mean, it’s not like we see a lot of Carlos in the podcast.  I mean, we do, but not like this, and it’s a very different side of him.

As for the main story, I liked Nilanjana and Darryl’s story.  It’s more focused than the first book, and while it meanders, it’s not meandering the way the first book is.  We see the Joyous Congregation, which has been mentioned on the podcast, but this is a much closer look at the Joyous Congregation and the Smiling God.  And science!  And how they can be good or bad, depending on how you use it.  Darryl and Nilanjana work together to save Night Vale, and they each have their own unique perspective.

It definitely adds to the world, and it really shows how big Night Vale is.  There are a lot of stories to tell, and while I love Cecil, it’s also nice to see some of the other characters and people of Night Vale.  I also feel like they’ve gotten the hang of the novel format, and I’m sure any future Night Vale books will continue to get better.

With the first Night Vale book, I both listened to the audio book and read the book in print format.  Having been an avid listener of the podcast for years, I knew I would love it as an audio book.  It turned out that I didn’t love it in print, which is why I only listened to It Devours.  I love Cecil, and I can’t imagine experiencing Night Vale in any other format.  I’ve listened to Night Vale for years, and Night Vale in print is a very strange concept for me.

I would definitely recommend It Devours as an audio book, though it could be interesting in print as well.  It didn’t translate well the first time around, but maybe this time it well.

It Devours is a lot more philosophical as well.  It really examines science and religion, but they do it well.  There’s a very Night Vale take on both science and religion in this book, and it’s not science vs religion.  Which is nice.  It’s very kind towards both.  Weird, but kind.  We are talking about Night Vale here.

By the way…It Devours!  Yeah, I’ve totally read that book.  In case you didn’t pick up on that.

5 stars.  I loved It Devours! and it was a great book to listen to while I cleaned the heck out of my room.  I found myself paying more attention to the book than the cleaning, and it’s a big improvement on the first book (which I also loved).