As an avid listener of Welcome to Night Vale and consumer of Night Vale Presents media, I knew I had to pick up this book. This may seem like a take on a romance between two aspiring artists, but reading this brought me back to time as an undergrad, listening to early episodes of Welcome to Night Vale and wondering how such an interesting team created a fantastic and surrealist world with the best LGBT representation I have ever seen in media.
Reading through the ten years of their intertwined lives, you can tell Joseph is a writer. The way he highlights symbolism in everyday tasks and how he thinks about life tells a lot about his part of the Night Vale writing team. Megan, on the other hand, is more alive in her recollections with how she approached their relationship and the work building up Night Vale Presents to the online and touring world. She speaks with bluntness and shares her personal take on events more than I remember Joseph doing. Overall, I was so happy to get a chance to read their story and I know they will succeed in the quality of any artistic endeavor moving forward.

I didn’t fall in love with this book the way I hoped I would. I was looking for the quirky characters and the feeling of a real-life romance but I didn’t connect.

This book fell off the mark for me - I ended up with a paper arc and just couldn’t get through it.

I do think others could enjoy it, I just don’t think it is for me.

Before reading this book, I had never heard of Joseph Fink or Meg Bashwiner. I had heard of Welcome to Night Vale, the hit international podcast, but I had never listened to it. What drew me to the book, you may ask? The squirrels on the cover caught my attention, but the description of Bashwiner and Fink’s dual perspective love story hooked me from page one.


In The First Ten Years, Bashwiner and Fink write about each year of their relationship, and eventual marriage, from 2009 through 2019. To make it even more interesting, neither of them consulted each other about what they were writing, leaving them free to write anything they wanted. Each year has a chapter devoted to it, with first Joseph’s recollections and then Meg’s. It was interesting to see what moments stood out to each of them and see how often their stories meshed and even echoed each other.

The ensuing ten years of their relationship saw professional highs for both, with Meg working the New York Neo-Futurists theatre group and Joseph creating what became the hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale. The podcast became insanely popular and allowed Bashwiner and Fink to both leave their day jobs and work on their creative pursuits. They coordinated multiple nationwide and worldwide tours of Welcome to Night Vale, Bashwiner opened Neo-Futurist theatre groups in San Francisco and helped a friend start a theatre company in London. Bashwiner and Fink were also honest and open about the low moments in their relationship-the death of Fink's father and the challenges and difficulties associated with their careers.

I really enjoyed this book. As I stated above, I went into the book blind with a vague idea that this was a book about a couple who created and toured Welcome to Night Vale. This book was so much more than that. I have never read a memoir with a dual perspective before this one. I love how well the book flowed and how well each writer’s recollections matched each other. I love the honesty in their story, how two young adult creatives can come together, support each other, and still achieve their goals as long as they have each other.

I now feel like I know who Joseph Fink and Meg Bashwiner are, and I’m a big fan.

Thank you to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
#HarperPerennial #OliveInfluencer #TheFirstTenYears #MegBashwiner #JosephFink #WelcomeToNightvale #Memoir #Nonfiction #lovestory #NetGalley

I love the premise of The First Ten Years. This is a joint memoir written by Meg and Joseph about their first decade as a couple. The each wrote independently and didn't consult with each other. The result is an honest look at how relationships develop and survive. Part of me would love to do this with my husband, but I think it would be a scary process. I appreciate the vulnerability that both Meg and Joseph brought to this project. I am excited to find out what happens to them in the next ten years.

This is perhaps the first book I've ever read on couple relationships and building them. I wanted to read it because when I saw it, I thought, I'm now married too. A year or two ago, this was something seemingly off limits, but as I read it shortly after my first wedding anniversary, I thought, it could now be interesting to read about how people have lasted for ten years. It's now something that concerns me as well (go figure).

I found the storytelling quite interesting, because it's not a standard format. Both of the partners write their side of the experience, year by year. And they write it all separately, without consulting each other. At first, I thought that might get repetitive - like maybe they'd both talk of the same things. But it wasn't like it at all - I guess it only goes to show how differently the same situations can be experienced and remembered by two different people, even if they are in a close relationship. For one person it's one certain situation that was more memorable, and for the other it's something completely different. I found it very interesting how without reading back each other's stories, they managed to tell it through different angles, centering on different aspects. It was an interesting and surprising format for sure.

I especially liked Meg's parts of the story. Somehow, we have so much in common. Maybe it's being a millennial woman, but I don't know, I think I share more traits with her than just that. Meg very openly talked about her insecurities in regards to her body (actually, after one particular chapter, you will know which squirrel is which on the cover and why! I loved that reference of the cover to the story.) I could also relate to her stressing over having to keep control in various situations, including house cleaning and jobs - I could see myself in many of those. I laughed when I read that she too was floored when she learned that marriage isn't just you taking care of your husband, it's also the husband taking care of you (I really can't explain why I didn't feel that was the case, myself. Perhaps my family history, coupled with how we women are brought up. I vibed so much with that moment though.) Then there is also the bit where I loathe change, just like Meg - or, as she put it, unnecessary discomfort is kind of your native tongue, when you're a woman. So very true.

I also liked reading the bits about 2009-2013 which were somehow really nostalgic for me. People who were teens and young adults during that time will vibe hard - I didn't even know so many things from that subculture of ours were already gone, until Joseph and Meg reminded me. Like the way we used social media, which is now completely different. The way we understood and felt music. The way we all tried to be exceptional in these incredibly 2010-ish ways that can't be repeated now, somehow. Those and more are things we just don't do anymore - things that I thought were just me, but actually, they're US ALL - even though we lived half a world apart, me and the authors. It's such a strange feeling of generational togetherness that I've never experienced before.

And you know, the funniest thing... Is that this book and this couple was the exact right read for me. Me and my husband think of ourselves as very, very weird people. So do the authors of this book. Which is why it shouldn't surprise me that I found so many similar quirks in us as couples. It's very nice when you think you're the two weirdest people in the world, but then there's someone else just like you! I loved reading their story for that, among many other reasons - but for this one especially. It's definitely worth picking up though, even if you're not even half as weird as me and my husband!

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

The First Ten Years is written by wife and husband Meg Bashwiner and Joseph Fink, best known for the podcast Welcome to Nightvale. This is what drew me to the book initially, as the show was an aid in me falling asleep for a couple years.

Every two chapters of the books cover one year, the first chapter the year as told by Joesph, and the second as told by Meg. Neither of them read the other’s chapters when writing, which is a wonderful idea that kept me hooked. Once I read Joesph’s chapter, I immediately had to continue to see what Meg wrote.

Some chapters their stories align neatly, and you can pick apart the two different point of views of the same event. In other chapters, they write about such disparate life changes, leaving me surprised about how two people can recollect the same year so differently. This was a quick read with fairly short chapters, and it’s fascinating to see what each chose to talk about in the limited pages.

Yes, this book is both Meg and Joseph’s romance, but it’s also a great memoir with funny anecdotes that had me giggling, moving recollections of loss, and tender moments of intimacy.

I enjoyed The First Ten Years immensely, and highly recommend picking it up when it comes out May 11th. The only bad part is that I have to wait a decade for the possibility of “The Second Ten Years.”

CW: sex, drug use, fat-phobia, death of a parent, death of pets, depression, anxiety, mild mention of blood, swearing, 2016 election

I nabbed a copy of this book since I am a fan of the Night Vale series. Why not see what the inner home life of its creator was like?

Overall, The First Ten Years is an honest portrayal of a couple, each with yearly chapters to define their relationship. They included the hard times, shared their personal struggles with candor, and certainly share a sense of humor about life and marriage.

It's a decent read, but I'm unsure of how I'd recommend this book to someone unfamiliar with them. Why would the reader care about THIS couple? Would a couple new into their marriage grasp the reality of what they shared? There are some issues that are faced universally, but a fair amount had to do with their artistic endeavors and traveling so much, which is a privilege that not all would identify with. I do think it'd be best for anyone who's been in some form of longterm relationship and already overcome some hardships together. There's more to relate to then.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a gorgeous description of a modern relationship, tied in with discourses on creativity, body image, and mental health. As a huge Welcome to Night Vale fan, I knew that I wanted to read it and I wasn't let down. To be clear, this is a memoir about Joseph and Meg's relationship over the years (but there's still some fun Night Vale history nuggets in there too). Their respective voices come through in the alternating chapters and it was honestly a joy to read.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC in exchange for my honest review*

I've been a fan of Welcome to Night Vale for years and have been able to see the show tour a few times so this was a must read book for me and it didn't disappoint! In it, we get to learn about the relationship between Joseph Fink (creator of WTNV) and Meg Bashwiner (a frequent performer on WTNV) from each of their own point of views. I'm sure this format has been done before but here it feels refreshing and unique. Both writers are able to weave in their own issues, anxieties, and life choices while talking about their life choices and it still feels cohesive given the format. A quick and easy read, perfect for podcast fans and young adults.

This memoir is great for both fans of Welcome to Night Vale and also just anyone looking for a complicated story about love. Joseph and Meg both met when they were in their 20's in New York City. In this memoir, they chronicle the first ten years of their relationship, including all the ups and downs they faced both as a couple and personally. Each chapter is a year told from the point of view of each of them, which brings a lot of nuance to the narrative as each remember things differently. I loved the writing in this and how raw and honest it was. This is also a good choice for book clubs to dissect the ins and outs of love.