It Devours

Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
Completed 8/28/2021, Reviewed 8/28/2021
3 stars

This is the second book in the Welcome to Night Vale trilogy.  It’s not quite as good as the first book.  It’s still amusing and full of the crazy inhabitants of Night Vale, but it just doesn’t have the same spark as the first.  It has a tighter plot with less asides, but it’s all those asides that made the first one so special.  This one features a giant centipede and the church that worships it.  It felt like a ‘50s B-movie with a contemporary sensibility with a twist ending that isn’t all that amazing.  

The story follows Nilanjana, a recent newcomer to Night Vale.  She’s only been there about four years, but of course, time is weird in Night Vale.  She’s a scientist working for the extremely handsome Carlos, whose husband Cecil is the DJ for the local radio station.  While working on a pesticide’s effects on bacteria, the ground starts to get hot, shake, and a local man’s house and yard plummet into a giant hole in the ground.  Carlos thinks it’s related to the house that’s not there, which seems to be a portal to another dimension.  He assigns Nilanjana to investigate.  She uncovers a strange link between the giant holes and the cultish church known as the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God.  While investigating, she falls for one of their most esteemed members, Darryl.  Is there a link?  Can she trust Darryl to help her?  Is there really a giant centipede that’s devouring the town?  Can she get any work done at all with crazy Pamela from the city or the black helicopters always following her?

The world building isn’t quite as good as in the first book.  It assumes you read it and know all about the diner waitress with tree branches growing out of her, Josh the shapeshifter, Jackie the perpetual nineteen-year-old who is now twenty-five, the not so covert surveillance of all citizens, and the invisible pie.  But it doesn’t really build that much besides that.  There’s the portal to another dimension through the house that isn’t there, but that doesn’t get much discussion until the info dump near the end, and then it’s kind of a slog.  The church is well thought out though, right down to hokey hymns and the intense pastor.  

The character development is good.  The authors really excel at personal details.  Nilanjana is quite well done, particularly in her conflict between what constitutes real science in Night Vale and the outside world.  It makes her pretty sympathetic as she tries to navigate the weirdness of the town.  Darryl is also well done, with his naivete and his fondness for Nilanjana.  We also get to know Carlos better, another non-native who has bought into the weirdness of the town much more thoroughly than Nilanjana.

I give this book three out of five stars.  The novelty of the first book had worn off by about the middle of this book.  It’s a fun read, but not as fun as the first.  And the big info dump of the other dimension at the end seemed a bit forced.  I’ll still be reading the third book in the trilogy after a little break.  It’s the back story to a ghost from the first book and spans several centuries, so it may have a little more oomph.  We’ll see.