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3.5, rounded up to 4.

I’ve been an on-and-off Welcome to Night Vale listener since 2012. (I was there for early fandom wars about the series on tumblr that I for some reason still remember pretty vividly! I have seen so much art of Cecil looking like The Onceler!) I’ve also listened to quite a few of the other Night Vale Presents podcasts. This was my first time reading any of the Night Vale books, though.

As a longtime fan, this felt pretty different from the series. Most of it does not take place in Night Vale, or even in the US. Setting it in early 1800s Europe was an interesting choice, and while I didn’t dislike the setting, it didn’t have the same absurdist horror vibe I was looking for.

I think that was the main drawback of this book, actually: it’s a book about a WTNV character, but without the fun, strange, creepy vibes that have kept me listening for over a decade. I feel like I would’ve enjoyed it more if it had no relation to the podcast. It’s very much its own story, with a different writing style. It would’ve stood better on its own two feet without trying to shoehorn a connection to WTNV.

It’s good on its own. I loved getting to read a swashbuckling story about secret societies and heists and well-plotted revenge and its ghastly consequences. This is a very “I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs” book, which I would like to read more of. The writing is enjoyable and takes some pleasant poetic turns at times.

Worth reading, but maybe more fun if you’re going in without expectations.

!!Spoilers for the ending below!! Nothing super specific but be forewarned!!

I also wasn’t a huge fan of the ending. It fell flat and I don’t like that it turned The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home into a being of vengeance aimed at one family instead of an omnipresent, omniscient (but also funny and clever) being who could theoretically terrorize anyone. It cheapened her character to me and whenever I pick up the podcast next, I’m going to act like this book is a fun headcanon that got published.

2.5 stars rounded down to 2 since we don't have half stars.

So, I don’t entirely hate this. There are parts of it that I thought were pretty fun. The entire Cross family turning into a criminal enterprise was a fun twist.

Still, so much of this book is mediocre. It needed an editor who could better tighten up its various threads—it feels unfocused much of the time. There’s at least one “important” character—a sex worker who of course is so in love with one of the main characters that she fucks him for free; this is something discussed multiple times in the book—who could be completely removed from the story without changing the plot.

My other big gripe is the author’s apparent need to include “period-accurate” bigotry and other things, without them ever being relevant to the plot. By page 6, there was pedophilia apologia that I actually thought might end up being a plot thing used for blackmail, but no—it was just there for “flavor.” Racism, violence and whorephobia against sex workers, a moment of trans/homophobia—really just a grab bag of hideous things get thrown in for what I assume was an attempt at accuracy to the time period, but mostly comes off as the author revealing his personal prejudices and/or what he assumes were the attitudes of the time.

I feel like there’s a decent book here still, all that being said. As a period piece about high-society heists, it mostly succeeds. It’s just all the extra stuff that doesn’t.

listen I'm 12 pages into the book and the author introduced what I'm guessing is a side/throw-away character just to make it clear he ~likes 'em young~ (specifying that he's interested in girls 15 and younger) which is uh,, certainly a choice, and then has the main character sort of brush this off as nothing and kind of roll his eyes when his wife is like "we are NOT hanging out with that dude" and note that he's tried to convince the wife the pedo guy is Actually Fine before???

I'm a sucker for heists and well-researched historical fiction, especially late Victorian era, so I'm letting this slide since it doesn't seem plot relevant or like it's going to come up again, but it's VERY weird to include at all! where was his editor!! I honestly am not sure if it being plot relevant would make it better or worse!