Category Archives: currently reading

Review: It Devours! by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

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It Devours! A Night Vale Novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

This absolutely scratched the itch I wanted it to scratch. Set in the town of Night Vale (the Night Vale from the Welcome to Night Vale podcast) Nilanjana Sikdar is an outsider from Indiana. She has a job as a scientist, which she loves, but she’s not really sure she gets the town of Nightvale.

One day her boss Carlos invites her into his office and asks her to help him secretly continue some research the city council has told him to stop. From there, she gets involved in a mystery with giant pits, disappearances, a maybe nice guy from a definitely sketchy cult-like church, a mysterious other world, a house that doesn’t exist, and an unknown creature that may or may not be the church-cult’s smiling god. This was a fun little story full of some outrageous characters and a couple of plot twists. It was funny in places and touching in places. I really enjoyed it. If you like the podcast and want something set in that world, I recommend it. If you don’t know the Welcome to Nightvale podcast, but like things that are weird, sometimes silly, sometimes creepy, but always fun, I recommend both this book and the podcast (which you can get anywhere you typically get podcasts.)

Review: The Bell Witch Series by Sara Clancy

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So, this is a series about four families who were cursed by a witch centuries ago and now a family member is chosen every year to face the witch. The family member is chosen by receiving a music box. The members of each of the four families that are chosen then have to hike through the ancestral woods of the witch (and the families) to search for keys and to lock the music boxes. If they don’t find their keys, a demon will escape and they’ll be tormented forever.

So, the premise was good. The main characters we’re likable. The villains were villainous. This was a fun little read to prepare for spooky season. But each of the novellas ended quite abruptly. I suppose we could call them cliffhangers, but it didn’t feel cliffhangery. It felt unfinished. This was a little disappointing because there were storylines I would have liked to know a bit more about.

I would read more by this author (or more in the Scare Street series… if only because I love that they’re knock-offs of Fear Street) but I’m in a hurry to do so.

So, 6/10. Entertaining and quick but nothing that will really stick with me.