Book Riot Managing Editor Vanessa Diaz is a writer and former bookseller from San Diego, CA whose Spanish is even faster than her English. When not reading or writing, she enjoys dreaming up travel itineraries and drinking entirely too much tea. She is a regular co-host on the All the Books podcast who especially loves mysteries, gothic lit, mythology/folklore, and all things witchy. Vanessa can be found on Instagram at @BuenosDiazSD or taking pictures of pretty trees in Portland, OR, where she now resides.
The latest installment in the Welcome to Night Vale universe is the story of the familiar and terrifying Faceless Old Woman. Told in a series of harrowing flashbacks, the story of The Faceless Old Woman takes readers back to an early 19th century Europe revealing an initially blissful, then tragic childhood on a Mediterranean estate, her rise in the criminal underworld, a nautical adventure with a mysterious organization of smugglers, her plot for revenge on those who have betrayed her, and her ultimate death and its aftermath, as her spirit travels the world for decades until finally settling in Night Vale. Interspersed throughout is an eerie present-day story as The Faceless Old Woman guides, haunts, and sabotages a man named Craig. In the end, her current dealings with Craig and her swashbuckling history come together in the most unexpected and horrifying way.
We love books, and we love podcasts. It’s no surprise that we dig it when those two world collide! There are tons of podcasts out there that talk specifically about books (we host a few pretty rad ones if we do say so ourselves), but what about books that come from podcasts? We asked you to tell us all about the best books born from your favorite pods, bookish or otherwise! Now both our TBRs and TBLs (to be listened? we’re going with it) are a few entries longer.
Without further ado, here are your favorite books born from and inspired by podcasts. Enjoy!
Adnan’s Story by Rabia Chaudry
Dirty John by Christopher Goffard
The Moth Presents: All These Wonders edited by Catherine Burns
My Dad Wrote A Porno: The Fully Annotated Edition of Belinda Blinked 1
by Morton, Jamie
The Sawbones Book by Justin McElroy and Dr. Sydnee McElroy, illustrated by Teylor Smirl
Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’ Hollywood by Karina Longworth
Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
Waiting for the Punch by Marc Maron and Brendan McDonald
Yes, We (Still) Can by Dan Pfeiffer
