I enjoyed this novel. It's set in the same world as the 'Welcome to Night Vale' podcast, but the story is self-contained and you need no real knowledge of the podcast to be able to follow this book. However, I suspect it makes the whole thing more enjoyable - I've been listening to WtNV for some time now, and again and again I found myself smiling at hints at events / bits from the podcast. If the book is your first encounter with Night Vale, not trying too hard to make sense of everything will probably increase your enjoyment of the novel - just run along with it and see where it takes you. Weird and fun!