![]() ![]() There is a downside, though, and it’s the same downside that plagues nearly every novel told from the first-person point of view. It’s a really solid balancing act that Fink and Cranor do and it ensures the novel feels light and breezy for much of its page count. Fink and Cranor do a good job ensuring the prose sounds true to the Faceless Old Woman’s voice while still performing the necessary tasks which the prose of any novel must perform. Fink and Cranor have always written the character as the kind of elderly woman who would tell a story for hours and it’s nice to finally see that in action. While I sometimes missed some of the omniscient prose found in previous novels, it’s clear that telling this story in the first-person was the right decision. It’s a weird shift for fans of the podcast and previous novels, but it’s one that is fairly easy to go along with once you get used to the new narrative voice. Gone is the usual omniscient narrator found in the first two books, replaced here with a first-person narrator filled with her own biases and views. It’s a unique take on a Night Vale book, for sure. And all of this is told directly from the Faceless Old Woman’s point of view: her recollections of her past and how they inform her present. Set throughout the entirety of the Faceless Old Woman’s life, this book explores the major moments that shaped the character – from her idyllic childhood on a Mediterranean Estate, to her swashbuckling young-adulthood, to her vengeance-filled later years, all the way to her death and afterlife spent haunting the houses of Night Vale residents – including Craig, whom the Faceless Old Woman seems to have a special affinity for. And that’s totally okay because what The Faceless Old Woman actually is is wholly enjoyable. This is not a spooky, creepy ghost story. Sure, it kind of becomes one towards the end of the novel, but not in the way the book’s synopsis suggests. The first thing I’ll say is that if you’re expecting a ghost story, this isn’t one. Part The Haunting of Hill House, part The Count of Monte Cristo, and 100% about a faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home. In the end, her current day dealings with Craig and her swashbuckling history in nineteenth century Europe will come together in the most unexpected and horrifying way. Interspersed throughout is a present-day story in Night Vale, as The Faceless Old Woman guides, haunts, and sabotages a man named Craig. Told in a series of eerie flashbacks, the story of The Faceless Old Woman goes back centuries to reveal an initially blissful and then tragic childhood on a Mediterranean Estate in the early nineteenth century, her rise in the criminal underworld of Europe, a nautical adventure with a mysterious organization of smugglers, her plot for revenge on the ones who betrayed her, and ultimately her death and its aftermath, as her spirit travels the world for decades until settling in modern-day Night Vale. In the town of Night Vale, there’s a faceless old woman who secretly lives in everyone’s home, but no one knows how she got there or where she came from…until now. The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor For long time fans of the podcast and previous books, this one might take some getting used to, but the story it tells does complete justice to the character while still spinning a story that’s full of surprise and pathos. Having read it, I can safely say that it does not disappoint. The Faceless Old Woman is the perfect character for a book devoted to her, much like the Man in the Tan Jacket was a perfect character to explore in the first novel, and the promise of finally learning her story was one that immensely interested me and got me really pumped to give this book a read. ![]() It’s what they did with the first two novels, Welcome to Night Vale and It Devours! and it’s obviously what they’re seeking to do here with their third, The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home. ![]() There’s so much that can be done with these characters and the setting and novels are a really good way for the authors to push the boundaries of the world. It’s one of those ideas that is eternally malleable. ![]()
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