by Joseph Fink
First published 2015
Jackie Fierro runs a pawn shop in Night Vale, a desert town where angels and aliens blend into daily routines. A stranger in a tan jacket hands her a slip of paper reading "King City." The paper sticks to her palm. She cannot let it go. No one remembers the man who gave it to her. Across town, Diane Crayton watches her shapeshifting teenage son Josh grow more distant each day. Her ex-boyfriend has started appearing around Night Vale, looking exactly as he did when he abandoned them years ago. Josh notices his father too and wants to find him. Diane knows this reunion will end badly. Both women discover their problems connect to the same place: King City. Jackie needs to reach this mysterious location to free herself from the cursed paper. Diane must get there to protect her son from his father. Their searches merge as they realize King City might not exist on any map. The town of Night Vale has taught them that impossible things happen every day. Now they must decide what they will sacrifice to solve the mysteries that threaten to destroy their lives.
Genres: mystery, fantasy, magical-realism, paranormal, urban-fantasy, alternate-universe
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: King City, Night Vale
401 pages · Hardcover · Harper Perennial