Red-Haired Ash Reads

“Death is only the end if you assume the story is about you.”

Nilanjana Sikdar is an outsider in the town of Night Vale. She works for Carlos and relies on facts and logic as her guiding principles. When Carlos gives her a special assignment to investigate a mysterious rumbling in the desert it leads her to the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, and to Darryl, one of its most committed members. 

I am sad to say that this Night Vale story was just ok for me. For the first 40% or so I didn’t really get invested in Nilanjana and Darryl’s story. I didn’t really love Nilanjana or Darryl. They were just ok characters and I didn’t really find them super interesting compared to other Night Vale citizens. I didn’t love their relationship and by the end of the book, felt like it was just added as filler. 

This story revolved around science and religion, the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, which is definitely a cult. The whole religion/cult was interesting because it was so weird and ridiculous. I did enjoy the new information about the Other World and hope it gets explained more in the future books or podcast episodes. 

Overall, this was just ok. I enjoyed aspects of this book but the main characters didn’t really work for me. 

---

Goodreads | Amazon

---

Previous books and reviews for the series:

1. Welcome to Night Vale