Alice Isn't Dead: A Novel

Joseph Fink

Oct 2018 · HarperAudio · Narrated by Jasika Nicole

About this audiobook

From the New York Times best-selling coauthor of It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale comes a fast-paced thriller about a truck driver searching across America for the wife she had long assumed to be dead, performed by the voice of the Alice Isn’t Dead podcast, Jasika Nicole, with an exclusive essay written and read by Joseph Fink.

""This isn’t a story. It's a road trip.""

Keisha Taylor lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day that Alice disappeared. After months of searching, presuming she was dead, Keisha held a funeral, mourned, and gradually tried to get on with her life. But that was before Keisha started to see her wife, again and again, in the background of news reports from all over America. Alice isn't dead, and she is showing up at every major tragedy and accident in the country.

Following a line of clues, Keisha takes a job as a long-haul truck driver and begins searching for Alice. In pursuit of her missing wife, she will stumble on a forgotten American history of secret deals and buried crimes, an inhuman serial killer who has picked her as his next target, and an otherworldly conflict being waged in the quiet corners of our nation’s highway system--uncovering a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman.

Ratings and reviews

Alice Isn't Dead is one of my favorite audio drama podcast, and naturally I was excited for a novelization of it. This novel is a different story from the podcast - well, at least, a few events in this happen differently - but leading to the same ending (whew!) as it. The story is about Keisha's search for her wife across the highways of America, the wife whom she thought had died but who actually ran away and is involved in something far bigger than she could have imagined. Keisha's first interaction with Alice's world is when she sees a man-shaped monster kill and eat a man outside a restaurant, and then begins the chase, the mystery, the question of what these monsters are, how have they been not noticed, and how to defeat them. I don't want to go into spoiler territory, so all I'll say is that overall you can expect the same kind of story as was in the podcast, but with some key changes. There are some events that change - primarily the way some characters first meet Keisha, and some extra scenes because it isn't just from Keisha's perspective. Because it isn't just from Keisha's perspective, we also get more backstory and understanding - into the strange cop lady, into Alice's time in Bay and Creek, a little more into some of the Thistle men, and some more into the Oracles. The writing is nearly same as that of the podcast, with some iconic lines kept in, but also losing much of Keisha's ruminations (which were one of my favorite parts, boo) and the atmospheric music. The narrator being the same, Jasika Nicole performs this story and all the voices admirably, as expected. The audio drama will always be my favorite because of its production value, but the audio book is not bad either. Overall, not as awesome in effect as the podcast, but it depends on what you liked best about it. If it was the story, this one is much better rounded as a plot; if it was the atmosphere, the music, the wild thoughts, this one might be a bit of a disappointment.

I LOVE the podcast version and "Welcome to Night Vale," so I was thrilled for this novel. The hardcover is gorgeous and I thought it was overall decent, but the audiobook version really made me love the novel version. Jasika Nicole brings the words to life - the horrific imagery, the heartbreak and anxiety, and even the somewhat cheesy third act ("cheesy" compared to the more haunting atmosphere of the beginning and suspense of the middle). My reason for four stars instead of five is the absence of the more surreal plot lines from the podcast like the factory by the sea, the abandoned motel, and the town of Charlatan.

Always a fan! It's a great story and it's well written. The narrator, Jasika Nicole, is such a great performer, I think she's the main reason I'm so obsessed with Alice Isn't Dead. I was hoping the book would stray a little farther from the podcast though. It didn't feel like a "complete reimagining," more like an adaptation for a different medium. It wasn't quite as thrilling because I knew the podcast so well and almost everything happened exactly as the original storyline laid it out. I still enjoyed it, but I'll be sticking with the podcast for now.

About the author

Joseph Fink is the creator of the Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead podcasts, and the New York Times bestselling author of Welcome to Night Vale, It Devours!, and The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home (all written with Jeffrey Cranor), and Alice Isn’t Dead. He is also the author of the middle-grade novel, The Halloween Moon. He and his wife, Meg Bashwiner, have written the memoir The First Ten Years. They live together in the Hudson River Valley.

Jasika Nicole has voiced both Dana in Welcome to Night Vale and Keisha in Alice Isn't Dead, in addition to roles in Adventure Time, Justice League, Danger & Eggs, and the RPG A.G.E.N.T.S. of Mayhem. She's best known as Astrid Farnsworth in Fox's Fringe, and has since starred in Scandal, Underground, and The Good Doctor. Residing in LA with her wife, Nicole is a master maker; you can follow her creative exploits at jasikanicole.com.