This fourth collection of text versions of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast features episodes from the 2015-2016 season of the show, plus a transcript of the live show, "The Investigators."

I will admit that by the time these episodes aired, I'd lost a bit of the extreme enthusiasm I initially felt for the show, but as I believe I said in my review of the previous collection, even past-its-peak Night Vale is still good stuff, and there's certainly a nice amount of the show's trademark humor, weirdness, and moments of odd existentialist profundity to be found here. And, heck, the fact that I didn't exactly remember these episodes as well as some of the earlier ones possibly just made returning to them more interesting.

There are several ongoing storylines through this run of episodes. There's the trial of Hiram McDaniels, the literal five-headed dragon, a plot that I do kind of feel dragged out a little too long. More peripherally, there's the integration of folks from the now very down-on-its-luck neighboring town of Desert Bluffs, which allowed for some low-key but unambiguous political commentary. And then there's the biggest one: an invasion carried out by sinister unmoving strangers and an adorable Satanic beagle puppy. I think the setup for that was maybe a bit too slow, but the eerie strangers were quite effectively creepy and horror-inducing, and the season-ending conclusion does, I think, put a clever twist on the usual deliberately anti-climactic "and then things just get solved somehow while we listen to the weather" Night Vale formula.

Anyway, even if not perfect, the whole thing was fun enough, and definitely worth revisiting. ( )

In case it isn't clear, I love Welcome to Night Vale. I love the novels, I love the live shows, I love the podcast, and I love these script books, too. I always have trouble focusing on audio-only stories, so I find that having the scripts for podcasts such as Welcome to Night Vale really helps me follow the podcast and understand all that is going on within it. Add to these extremely useful scripts a bunch of illustrations and a whole lot of behind the scenes tidbits, and you've got a collection of published scripts that any Night Vale fan would love. This proved true for the first two volumes of script books and it absolutely proves true for this new set, too.

In Who's a Good Boy?, covering episode 71-90 of the podcast, Night Vale faces a threat so terrifying that there seems to be nothing they can do to defeat it: a terribly cute beagle puppy and his army of tall, faceless strangers who only stand and breathe. Hiram McDaniels faces trials for his crimes against Mayor Cardinal, Desert Bluffs and Night Vale become one city, and all of Night Vale is under threat from one cute puppy who may not be all that he seems.

This season is probably my second favorite season, after season two. The first few episodes of this season are mostly one-offs, leading up to the release of the first Night Vale novel and its accompanying tie-in episode (which was itself a great episode and also great promotion for the novel). But after that episode, the plotline for the season really kicks it into high gear with the introduction of the tall strangers who only stand and breathe and never seem to move, but somehow get closer than you thought they originally were. This concept alone is the stuff of nightmares. The way it's executed and resolved in the season continues to be creepy as hell. As usual, there are some experimental episodes like episode 73: Triptych, which gives Kevin (the radio host from Desert Bluffs and one of the main antagonists in season two) some much-needed backstory and character development; The April Monologues (which furthers the ongoing plotline in a really unique way that I loved); and Lost in the Mail (which primarily focuses on the relationship between a girl and her father who's gone off to fight in the Blood-Space War - a storyline that seems to have become important, again, during this latest season), but much of this season is really focused on advancing the plotline. More than any other season so far, this one really feels like a serial. Things happen in one episode that are often directly followed up in the next episode, and I love it.

This season deals with some of the fallout from Night Vale Community Radio's insanely high mortality rate for its interns as former interns Maureen and Chad team together to usher in this evil beagle and his deadly plans into existence. I wish more of the season had been dedicated to exploring the fallout of the deaths of all the interns, but I like that the concept was explored at all. Maureen's increased role in the season was also nice, giving her character some development served the show well as it gave another interesting female character to the audience and one who wasn't terribly fond of Cecil, at that. Additionally, this season leans more into horror than last season did. Last season dealt a lot with interpersonal drama and relationship woes between Cecil and Carlos. This season really feels like its goal is to scare the pants off of the audience, and it succeeds. The first part of the two-part finale, Who's A Good Boy?, is perhaps one of the creepiest and uncomfortable things I've ever listened to. It was the first time that Night Vale had really actually scared me. Kudos to Cecil Baldwin's acting in that episode and Fink and Cranor's writing.

These script books feature some great illustrations from frequent Night Vale artist, Jessica Hayworth. Her art perfectly captures the surreal, cosmic horror that is frequently found in the Night Vale world. She sticks to the motto of never really showing what any of the main characters or locations look like, choosing instead to illustrated some of the horrors that get described in each episode. Every episode has at least one illustration from Hayworth - though, often, there end up being multiple illustrations per episode. Her illustrations, however, are not the only new material that can be found in these script books. Each episode features an introduction by someone involved with the making of that episode. Whether it's one of the main writers - Joseph Fink or Jeffrey Cranor, a guest writer, or an actor/performer, each episode features insight from someone involved in the creation of it and that insight is just as valuable to fans of the podcast as the scripts themselves will be. I always find it massively interesting hearing from the people who made a work of art what was going through their heads as they made it. Their opinions might not influence my interpretation of their art, but it is always nice to hear from them and these behind the scenes insights are every bit as good as you'd want them to be.

All in all, Who's a Good Boy? is a great addition to the growing library of Night Vale books. It's scary, interesting, emotional, absurdly funny, and full of good and unique storytelling. The scripts contained within this book showcase the massive amount of experimentation that happened within the fourth year of the podcast, allowing fans old and new access to this wonderful year's worth of stories while providing older fans with lots of new material to sink their teeth into. I love Night Vale and I love these script books and I hope that HarperCollins continues publishing them. ( )