The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home

January 6, 2020
The eerie, enchanting third Welcome to Night Vale novel (after It Devours!) offers up a Shakespearian revenge drama that doubles as the origin story of one of Night Vale’s most mysterious residents. Born in 1792, the nameless protagonist grows up with her father on their Mediterranean estate until a tragic encounter with the enigmatic Order of the Labyrinth leaves her an orphan. She dedicates her life to a long-con revenge plot, infiltrating the Order’s ranks to bring them down from within. As years pass, she grows impatient, leading her to accidentally stumble upon a vast conspiracy with herself at its center. Scenes set in present-day Night Vale, where the protagonist haunts residents’ homes, are interspersed throughout this swashbuckling adventure. With this tightly plotted adventure, Fink and Cranor successfully expand their universe beyond Night Vale’s desert setting. The protagonist’s matter-of-fact descriptions of the strange and horrible, meanwhile, will draw in readers. Newcomers need not be familiar with the Night Vale podcast to enjoy this standout tale. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

February 1, 2020
One of Welcome to Night Vale's most enigmatic and terrifying characters reveals how she came to be. The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home is one of the outlandish podcast's most popular characters, partially due to writer/actress Mara Wilson's evocative portrayal. In Night Vale, the character is a specter of sorts, visible only in glimpses, who takes great fun in toying with the town's citizenry, living in all their homes simultaneously. Here, Fink and Cranor (It Devours!, 2017, etc.) diverge from the style of their previous books to craft a chilling ghost story. The book alternates between two timelines. The first concerns the life, death, and afterlife of the unnamed narrator, born in the Mediterranean in 1792 to an idyllic childhood with her beloved father. When her father is murdered by a covert criminal ring called The Order of the Labyrinth, she swears revenge and is recruited into a life of crime by her Uncle Edmond, a ruthless outlaw. What follows is a decadeslong, globe-spanning saga of adventure, betrayal, love, and fate as she becomes the swashbuckling captain of her own pirate ship, with a crew that includes a master of disguise, a bloodthirsty neophyte, a rakish comrade, and a giantess, among others. Robberies, schemes, battles, treachery, and a vicious conspiracy to destroy a rival ensue. In the storyline set in the present, the old woman adopts Craig, a struggling copywriter, as her pet project. While she does leave him the occasional dismembered animal to keep him in line, she also pays off his debts and steers him toward his wife-to-be, Amaranta, and a heavenly life to come--perhaps. How these stories converge and how the narrator becomes immortal are merciless in their ingenuity and immensely satisfying. As the Old Woman tells Craig, "There's a thin line separating humor and horror, and this was that line." A funny, terrifying, and unpredictable slice of Night Vale's macabre history.

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February 15, 2020
The recent Night Vale novel reveals the past of the beloved and omnipresent character of the title, chronicling her childhood on the Mediterranean and the tragedies that threw her into a swashbuckling adulthood. The Faceless Old Woman's many adventures as she leads a band of thieves on an attempt to penetrate the mysterious Order of the Labyrinth leads to plots within plots and a final betrayal that will leave her to drift across the sea. Split between segments of her remembered life in the nineteenth century and brief observations from the 2010s of a man named Craig, the narrative weaves together the past, present, and future. As the book builds to her eventual transformation, her storied past and her determined interest in Craig's life become increasingly intertwined. While obviously of most interest to established fans of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast and its cast of characters, the distinctly spare and precise weirdness of Fink and Cranor's writing (It Devours!, 2017) will please even readers completely unfamiliar with the sinister town and its long-running radio show.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)