Book Summary and Reviews of The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home

A Welcome to Night Vale Novel

by Joseph Fink

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2020, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Welcome to Night Vale and It Devours! and the creators of the hit podcast, comes a new novel set in the world of Night Vale and beyond.

In the town of Night Vale, there's a faceless old woman who secretly lives in everyone's home, but no one knows how she got there or where she came from...until now. Told in a series of eerie flashbacks, the story of The Faceless Old Woman goes back centuries to reveal an initially blissful and then tragic childhood on a Mediterranean Estate in the early nineteenth century, her rise in the criminal underworld of Europe, a nautical adventure with a mysterious organization of smugglers, her plot for revenge on the ones who betrayed her, and ultimately her death and its aftermath, as her spirit travels the world for decades until settling in modern-day Night Vale.

Interspersed throughout is a present-day story in Night Vale, as The Faceless Old Woman guides, haunts, and sabotages a man named Craig. In the end, her current day dealings with Craig and her swashbuckling history in nineteenth century Europe will come together in the most unexpected and horrifying way.

Part The Haunting of Hill House, part The Count of Monte Cristo, and 100% about a faceless old woman who secretly lives in your home.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"A chilling ghost story...A decades long, globe-spanning saga of adventure, betrayal, love, and fate [about] one of Welcome to Night Vale's most enigmatic and terrifying characters... A funny, terrifying, and unpredictable slice of Night Vale's macabre history." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Eerie, enchanting ... offers up a Shakespearian revenge drama that doubles as the origin story of one of Night Vale's most mysterious residents...Newcomers need not be familiar with the Night Vale podcast to enjoy this standout tale." - Publishers Weekly

"The distinctly spare and precise weirdness of Fink and Cranor's writing (It Devours!, 2017) will please even readers completely unfamiliar with the sinister town." - Booklist

"Fink and Cranor are masters of the long narrative game. They have a clear vision in mind, and every element of the book builds toward it, with emotionally devastating, sometimes brutally funny, results. The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home is an excellent, absorbing book." - New York Journal of Books

"A cinematic tale full of endless twists, The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home is a unique horror story with a rare swashbuckling and complex female protagonist I couldn't get enough of. The writing throws you into a colorful, intelligent world of ups and downs, scares and laughs, and nuanced heroes and villains that keeps you gripped with anticipation for an ending you know will horrify you." - Gaby Dunn, New York Times bestselling author of I Hate Everyone but You

This information about The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Joseph Fink

Joseph Fink created the Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead podcasts. He lives in the Hudson Valley and Los Angeles.

Jeffrey Cranor cowrites the Welcome to Night Vale and Within the Wires podcasts. He also cocreates theater and dance pieces with choreographer/wife Jillian Sweeney. They live in New York.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home, try these:

  • Women's Hotel jacket

    Women's Hotel

    by Daniel M.. Lavery

    Published 2025

    About this book

    From the New York Times bestselling author and advice columnist, a poignant and funny debut novel about the residents of a women's hotel in 1960s New York City.

  • The Accidentals jacket

    The Accidentals

    by Guadalupe Nettel

    Published 2025

    About this book

    From the International Booker Shortlisted author of Still Born, a powerful collection of stories about characters coping with estrangement, isolation, and the unknown.

  • The Capital of Dreams jacket

    The Capital of Dreams

    by Heather O'Neill

    Published 2025

    About this book

    From the hugely acclaimed author beloved by literary lights, including Emily St. John Mandel, Kelly Link, and Mona Awad, a dark dystopian fairytale about an idyllic country ravaged by war—and a girl torn between safety and loyalty.

We have 10 read-alikes for The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
Who Said...

Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant – it tends to get worse.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.