A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.
Welcome to Night Vale.
This book features side characters from the popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale. Fans of the show will be delighted with the trademark weirdness of the little town, and overjoyed to see referenced characters as protagonists and the origins of the Man in the Tan Jacket (I don't think a single fan has yet stumbled over the truth). If you've never heard of the show, I suspect you might be a bit lost in the meandering prose and history of a place where time is indescribably weird. The lack of ease for new readers is what knocks this down to a four-star review.
Perpetually nineteen-year-old Jackie Fiero, operator of Lucinda's Pawn Shop, acquires a note reading "KING CITY" that she very literally cannot put down. She's forced to seek help from angels, the mayor, and even the terrifying depths of the library.
Diane Crayton, devoted mother of her shapeshifting teenager Josh, is suddenly seeing Josh's father everywhere she goes. At the same time, she's trying to discover why she's the only one who can remember a vanished co-worker.
As the two women continually cross paths, they both stumble closer and closer to the mystery of King City and how everything intertwines.