4.5/5 stars — a story both entertaining and weighted with emotional honesty

Alice Isn't Dead brings Joseph Fink's signature "Welcome to Night Vale" mixture of profoundness and strangeness to a story about a woman who becomes a long-haul trucker to search for her missing wife. Jasika Nicole's narration is nuanced and precise. I loved the main character, Keisha, and her road-trip rescue mission.

Because this story takes place in a facsimile of the modern United States, the main character's very existence is political. Keisha is a queer woman of color with a mental illness; it makes horribly perfect sense that her adversaries include corporations with shady government ties, corrupt members of law enforcement, and bigots.

(The thistle men are eventually revealed to be individuals whose bigotry so consumed their lives that they were transformed, fittingly, into physically disgusting monsters on the outside to match the inside.)

What I appreciate is that Fink acknowledges the unique set of concerns that come with Keisha's identity but focuses on the anxiety because that's the part he and Keisha have in common.

This novel is based on a podcast by the same name; I've heard the podcast is scarier than the book. For me, the novelization was just the right amount of creepy. It ranged from fun-to-imagine chills like the liminal spaces in truckstop diners and open stretches of highway to the all too real dangers of being a Black woman traveling alone. I do, however, think the plot structure might have made more sense in the podcast format because there were some minor strangely paced bits in the book and the section transitions felt choppy. If like me you opt for the novel instead of the podcast, I highly recommend the audiobook!

The only thing I really disliked about the story was near the end when Keisha and her fellow anti-Thistle agents formed a cult/religion out of their meetings. It came out of left field and the structure of the original members going on to recruit their own groups felt uncomfortably like the structure of harmful modern pseudo-religions like Mormon and Scientology. Luckily, that was a tiny part of the overall plot, so it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

I highly recommend Alice Isn't Dead to fans (past or current) of "Welcome to Night Vale," and also to anybody who enjoys stories about cryptids, conspiracies, or liminal spaces. The discussion around mental health and living with anxiety was honest and welcome, as was Keisha's emotionally charged consideration of the nature of love. Definitely pick this up if you have a chance!