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The Nudge: A Psychological Thriller
A new horror novella from the creator of Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead.
On the open road, evil doesn't chase you. It waits . . .
Late one night, a wounded man checks into a remote roadside hotel. He's running from something he can't explain or escape. And over the course of a night, he'll tell the hotel's proprietor how his life fell apart.
It started with his wife. Subtle changes. Smiles that didn't belong to her. Then violence—sudden, intimate, almost casual. Therapy offered hope. Recovery seemed possible. Until it wasn't. He believes a hidden influence has attached itself to him, one that never forces, never commands. It whispers. It suggests. Nudges people toward their worst impulses.
Now the man wanders the country as a fugitive, hoping to break free from the evil that's wormed its way into him. But as our narrator's story unfolds, he begins to question whether he's fled far enough . . .
Tense, atmospheric, and chilling, The Nudge is a slow-burn tale of suspense that will linger like a whisper in the dark, long after the story is over.
On the open road, evil doesn't chase you. It waits . . .
Late one night, a wounded man checks into a remote roadside hotel. He's running from something he can't explain or escape. And over the course of a night, he'll tell the hotel's proprietor how his life fell apart.
It started with his wife. Subtle changes. Smiles that didn't belong to her. Then violence—sudden, intimate, almost casual. Therapy offered hope. Recovery seemed possible. Until it wasn't. He believes a hidden influence has attached itself to him, one that never forces, never commands. It whispers. It suggests. Nudges people toward their worst impulses.
Now the man wanders the country as a fugitive, hoping to break free from the evil that's wormed its way into him. But as our narrator's story unfolds, he begins to question whether he's fled far enough . . .
Tense, atmospheric, and chilling, The Nudge is a slow-burn tale of suspense that will linger like a whisper in the dark, long after the story is over.
Audible Audio
Published September 1, 2026
About the author
Joseph Fink
22 books2,648 followersJoseph Fink is the creator of the Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead podcasts, and the author of the New York Times bestselling novels 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 children’s 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.
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May 6, 2026I received this through NetGalley
The Nudge was a solid, super quick read. It kept me intrigued because I wasn’t sure if he was losing his mind or if something was really there.
The atmosphere and uncertainty worked well, and for such a short novella, it was easy to stay invested.
The ending did feel abrupt, though. It happened so quickly that I was left sitting there like… wait, that’s it?
I did really liked the artwork scattered throughout some sections. Since I have aphantasia, those visuals added something to the experience that I otherwise would not have had while reading.
Overall, a solid short psychological horror read for people who like unsettling setups and very quick reads.
The Nudge was a solid, super quick read. It kept me intrigued because I wasn’t sure if he was losing his mind or if something was really there.
The atmosphere and uncertainty worked well, and for such a short novella, it was easy to stay invested.
The ending did feel abrupt, though. It happened so quickly that I was left sitting there like… wait, that’s it?
I did really liked the artwork scattered throughout some sections. Since I have aphantasia, those visuals added something to the experience that I otherwise would not have had while reading.
Overall, a solid short psychological horror read for people who like unsettling setups and very quick reads.
September 4, 2026
My only struggle with stories from Joseph Fink—and Jeffrey Cranor tbh—is that so much of their writing sounds like an extended Tumblr post from 2012. Which isn’t necessarily a critique nor is it exactly a compliment. But, it feels very accurate. It’s got a cadence. When I read their work, I’m suddenly seventeen again and the world is wonderful and weird.
Anyway.
All that is to say that I mostly enjoyed this eerie little book?
It’s quite tense and it builds suspense rather well. You feel hunted or watched—and so very off-kilter throughout.
I found our creepy “presence”—let’s call it—unsettling. I definitely did not like imaging it sliding across the floor or, worse, possessing a human body to crawl on all fours through the grass. It freaked me out a bit.
So, kudos.
Also, I really like the conversational format of this story.
I felt like I was a passenger on this harrowing journey with our ill-fated acquaintances. I LOVED walking through this spooky, Winchester House-esque hotel. I am DOWN BAD for a bad hotel. The more malevolent and dubious, the better.
For 120-ish pages, I think you get a lot of bang for your buck. Would recommend~
(Is the cover giving anyone else Doctor TJ Eckleburg vibes? Also, T. Kingfisher and Chuck Tingle blurbed this novella???? So very cool! I do judge books by who the author could get to blurb it ngl~)
Anyway.
All that is to say that I mostly enjoyed this eerie little book?
It’s quite tense and it builds suspense rather well. You feel hunted or watched—and so very off-kilter throughout.
I found our creepy “presence”—let’s call it—unsettling. I definitely did not like imaging it sliding across the floor or, worse, possessing a human body to crawl on all fours through the grass. It freaked me out a bit.
So, kudos.
Also, I really like the conversational format of this story.
I felt like I was a passenger on this harrowing journey with our ill-fated acquaintances. I LOVED walking through this spooky, Winchester House-esque hotel. I am DOWN BAD for a bad hotel. The more malevolent and dubious, the better.
For 120-ish pages, I think you get a lot of bang for your buck. Would recommend~
(Is the cover giving anyone else Doctor TJ Eckleburg vibes? Also, T. Kingfisher and Chuck Tingle blurbed this novella???? So very cool! I do judge books by who the author could get to blurb it ngl~)
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
BANGER ALERT! BANGER ALERT!
Nightmarish, chilling, and filled with an ever-present sense of unease, The Nudge was a quick, clever read that is sure to live rent-free in my head for a very long time. With a mind-bending plot that had a definite Twilight Zone-like feel and a unique format, which immersed me fully into the unreliable reality of every scene, this novella-slash-short story packed quite a punch into just 128 pages. Narrated by two well-crafted characters in a conversational style, I felt as if I was there despite the length of this impressive work of psychological horror. Exploring several thought-provoking themes such as grief, isolation, paranoia, and the nature of evil, there was even a slight Criminal Minds-esque vibe by the time I reached the last jaw-dropping page. You see, it ended with a *mic drop* level “OH SHIT?!” twist all while feeling fully formed and complete by the time I was done.
The absolute best pieces to this one-sitting read, though, were both the atmosphere and the setting. Working hand-in-hand to creep me out but good, the maze-like hotel gave me a very claustrophobic feel as the Winchester Mystery House-like building became more and more spine-tingling. Paired with an air of mystery that made me read this with the lights on and a handful of disturbing illustrations, which brought the most horrifying scenes to life, and the ordinary was made to feel wrong in the best possible way. Somehow coming off as both fast-paced and slow-burning at the same time, I couldn’t get enough of this Edgar Allen Poe-meets-Stephen King-esque read. So if you love a book with a touch of emotional depth as well as a dash of supernatural vibes and flashes of violence, grab this one now. It was a can’t-miss banger for sure. Rating of 5+ stars.
Read if you’re a fan of:
- Mind-bending storylines
- Psychological horror
- Existential dread
- Short stories/novellas
- “OH SHIT!?” twists
- Story-within-a-story plotting
- Unreliable narrators
- Atmospheric settings
- Supernatural vibes
- A very Twilight Zone feel
BRIEF BLURB:
PLEASE OH PLEASE go into this one at least mostly blind. Even the publisher-provided synopsis will ruin your trip into this insanely talented author’s brain just a little. All you need to is the following…
Late one night, a man stops at a remote roadside hotel after traveling aimlessly for days. On the run from something truly terrifying, he’s relieved to finally be stopped somewhere he feels a least a little bit safe. Letting his guard down somewhat, he starts to tell his story to the kind and understanding yet mildly odd hotel proprietor. What he reveals is horrifying and grim. The only problem is that it just might not be over. After all, if our narrator were only to open his eyes a bit more, he just might notice that things might not be quite what they seem at this peculiar rambling, old lodge. Already fleeing something he can’t quite explain, has he reached safety—or the most horrifying place of all?
Thank you Joseph Fink and Podium Entertainment for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
PUB DATE: September 1, 2026
Content warning: knife and gun violence, blood, gore, stalking, animal death, suicide/murder
Nightmarish, chilling, and filled with an ever-present sense of unease, The Nudge was a quick, clever read that is sure to live rent-free in my head for a very long time. With a mind-bending plot that had a definite Twilight Zone-like feel and a unique format, which immersed me fully into the unreliable reality of every scene, this novella-slash-short story packed quite a punch into just 128 pages. Narrated by two well-crafted characters in a conversational style, I felt as if I was there despite the length of this impressive work of psychological horror. Exploring several thought-provoking themes such as grief, isolation, paranoia, and the nature of evil, there was even a slight Criminal Minds-esque vibe by the time I reached the last jaw-dropping page. You see, it ended with a *mic drop* level “OH SHIT?!” twist all while feeling fully formed and complete by the time I was done.
The absolute best pieces to this one-sitting read, though, were both the atmosphere and the setting. Working hand-in-hand to creep me out but good, the maze-like hotel gave me a very claustrophobic feel as the Winchester Mystery House-like building became more and more spine-tingling. Paired with an air of mystery that made me read this with the lights on and a handful of disturbing illustrations, which brought the most horrifying scenes to life, and the ordinary was made to feel wrong in the best possible way. Somehow coming off as both fast-paced and slow-burning at the same time, I couldn’t get enough of this Edgar Allen Poe-meets-Stephen King-esque read. So if you love a book with a touch of emotional depth as well as a dash of supernatural vibes and flashes of violence, grab this one now. It was a can’t-miss banger for sure. Rating of 5+ stars.
Read if you’re a fan of:
- Mind-bending storylines
- Psychological horror
- Existential dread
- Short stories/novellas
- “OH SHIT!?” twists
- Story-within-a-story plotting
- Unreliable narrators
- Atmospheric settings
- Supernatural vibes
- A very Twilight Zone feel
BRIEF BLURB:
PLEASE OH PLEASE go into this one at least mostly blind. Even the publisher-provided synopsis will ruin your trip into this insanely talented author’s brain just a little. All you need to is the following…
Late one night, a man stops at a remote roadside hotel after traveling aimlessly for days. On the run from something truly terrifying, he’s relieved to finally be stopped somewhere he feels a least a little bit safe. Letting his guard down somewhat, he starts to tell his story to the kind and understanding yet mildly odd hotel proprietor. What he reveals is horrifying and grim. The only problem is that it just might not be over. After all, if our narrator were only to open his eyes a bit more, he just might notice that things might not be quite what they seem at this peculiar rambling, old lodge. Already fleeing something he can’t quite explain, has he reached safety—or the most horrifying place of all?
Thank you Joseph Fink and Podium Entertainment for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
PUB DATE: September 1, 2026
Content warning: knife and gun violence, blood, gore, stalking, animal death, suicide/murder
September 4, 2026
A new guest at a mysterious hotel explains why he’s on the run in this captivating novella. Some books are exactly as long as they should be, and there’s not a single detail in this tightly paced little book that doesn’t serve the story. This fully induced that pit-of-your-stomach sense of looming dread that horror fans like me are absolute suckers for. There’s a fun little twist that I sort of saw coming but was still incredibly satisfying.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me access to an eARC of this book!
Thank you to the publisher for giving me access to an eARC of this book!
July 27, 2026
BLURB:
An unnamed man arrives at a remote roadside hotel, where he tells proprietor Alan Lloyd the disturbing story of how his wife Sharon slowly changed into someone terrifying, forcing him to flee everything he once knew.
REVIEW:
The Nudge was my first book by Joseph Fink, and it definitely won’t be my last. This is a horror novella with much more psychological and existential horror than body horror or gore, but a few scenes did terrify me! I was immersed from start to finish, and one of my favourite things about it was its unique format. The entire story is told in just two chapters with an Intermission from the mysterious hotel proprietor in between. For most of the book, I felt like I was a fly on the wall, listening in on an unsettling conversation. This is also a slow-burn with creeping dread, an unseen evil, and unreliable reality—all woven into a mind-bending tale!
The story only has two characters present from start to finish. An unnamed man (the narrator of the story within a story) is escorted by an overly friendly hotel proprietor, Alan Lloyd, to his room. The story unfolds as they traverse through seemingly endless maze-like corridors, stairwells, and elevators to get there. As they walk, the unnamed man tells the story of how his wife Sharon began having strange episodes that made her become increasingly creepy and dangerous toward him. She received treatment but nothing was able to stop whatever had taken hold of her. His story has some sudden, vivid body horror scenes that caught me off guard. Eventually, he had no choice but to flee, which is what brings him to the hotel. He tells his story over Chapter One and Chapter Two, while Alan interrupts with bizarre tidbits about the hotel’s history. How the hotel began as a home and gradually became a labyrinth-like hotel is really intriguing, and as they walk, there are a lot of vivid details of the hotel interior that are claustrophobic and dizzying! By the end, the hotel felt like a character in its own right, and its eerie atmosphere stayed with me after I finished.😱
The ending is a bit of a surprise but also ambiguous, and it will leave you unsettled and probably asking yourself, “What did I just read?” in the best way!
I highly recommend the audiobook. It’s a duet narration, and both narrators do a fantastic job bringing the unnamed man and Alan Lloyd to life in a high-quality production. It’s perfect for a commute or a one-sitting read/listen. After this one, I’ll definitely be reading more from Joseph Fink!
An unnamed man arrives at a remote roadside hotel, where he tells proprietor Alan Lloyd the disturbing story of how his wife Sharon slowly changed into someone terrifying, forcing him to flee everything he once knew.
REVIEW:
The Nudge was my first book by Joseph Fink, and it definitely won’t be my last. This is a horror novella with much more psychological and existential horror than body horror or gore, but a few scenes did terrify me! I was immersed from start to finish, and one of my favourite things about it was its unique format. The entire story is told in just two chapters with an Intermission from the mysterious hotel proprietor in between. For most of the book, I felt like I was a fly on the wall, listening in on an unsettling conversation. This is also a slow-burn with creeping dread, an unseen evil, and unreliable reality—all woven into a mind-bending tale!
The story only has two characters present from start to finish. An unnamed man (the narrator of the story within a story) is escorted by an overly friendly hotel proprietor, Alan Lloyd, to his room. The story unfolds as they traverse through seemingly endless maze-like corridors, stairwells, and elevators to get there. As they walk, the unnamed man tells the story of how his wife Sharon began having strange episodes that made her become increasingly creepy and dangerous toward him. She received treatment but nothing was able to stop whatever had taken hold of her. His story has some sudden, vivid body horror scenes that caught me off guard. Eventually, he had no choice but to flee, which is what brings him to the hotel. He tells his story over Chapter One and Chapter Two, while Alan interrupts with bizarre tidbits about the hotel’s history. How the hotel began as a home and gradually became a labyrinth-like hotel is really intriguing, and as they walk, there are a lot of vivid details of the hotel interior that are claustrophobic and dizzying! By the end, the hotel felt like a character in its own right, and its eerie atmosphere stayed with me after I finished.😱
The ending is a bit of a surprise but also ambiguous, and it will leave you unsettled and probably asking yourself, “What did I just read?” in the best way!
I highly recommend the audiobook. It’s a duet narration, and both narrators do a fantastic job bringing the unnamed man and Alan Lloyd to life in a high-quality production. It’s perfect for a commute or a one-sitting read/listen. After this one, I’ll definitely be reading more from Joseph Fink!
August 29, 2026
4.5⭐️
What a twisty book (pun intended)
I loved how this ENTIRE book was a conversation between 2 people – a hotel employee and the guest as he checks in and makes his way to his room.
Without giving away any details of the story, I’ll say that this is mysterious, suspenseful, and literally TWISTY as hell. Read this if you like being on the edge of your seat and enjoy books where you never know what’s around the corner.
Thanks to Podium Entertainment & NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and my review is left voluntarily.
What a twisty book (pun intended)
I loved how this ENTIRE book was a conversation between 2 people – a hotel employee and the guest as he checks in and makes his way to his room.
Without giving away any details of the story, I’ll say that this is mysterious, suspenseful, and literally TWISTY as hell. Read this if you like being on the edge of your seat and enjoy books where you never know what’s around the corner.
Thanks to Podium Entertainment & NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and my review is left voluntarily.
August 16, 2026
It’s a 5⭐️ read. It’s creepy, scary, haunting, reminiscent of Sarah Winchester and also the movie Smile and it freaked me out more than I’d like to admit. It’s a short 144 page novella and there was no time for boredom because the action just keeps coming.
A dog does die but it’s quick and not very graphic.
The Nudge by Joseph Fink
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
144 Pages
Releases September 1st
In The Nudge we follow our man with no name as he shows up to a hotel in the middle of the night and is telling the hotel worker the story of the entity that’s been following him by taking over people around him and influencing them to try to kill him. The story is being told as the hotel worker is guiding the man to his room through a hotel that reminds me of the Winchester house.
The cover of the book is creepy, I’m kind of obsessed with it I find it so cool! The photos throughout the book are also so haunting and creepy they’re gorgeous!
I really recommend this book to my fellow horror lovers, it was a fun action packed horror novella and it was scary but I loved every second. The ending also had me shocked to my core.
A dog does die but it’s quick and not very graphic.
The Nudge by Joseph Fink
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
144 Pages
Releases September 1st
In The Nudge we follow our man with no name as he shows up to a hotel in the middle of the night and is telling the hotel worker the story of the entity that’s been following him by taking over people around him and influencing them to try to kill him. The story is being told as the hotel worker is guiding the man to his room through a hotel that reminds me of the Winchester house.
The cover of the book is creepy, I’m kind of obsessed with it I find it so cool! The photos throughout the book are also so haunting and creepy they’re gorgeous!
I really recommend this book to my fellow horror lovers, it was a fun action packed horror novella and it was scary but I loved every second. The ending also had me shocked to my core.
September 8, 2026
Late one night, a man arrives injured at a roadside motel. Over the next several hours, he tells the motel proprietor how he ended up there. Is he crazy? Is it evil? Something or someone else? I was 100% into this until the ending. It's not bad ending, but more of a "that's it?" Thought provoking for such a short book.
September 15, 2026
OK. This was unsettling and creepy. And those illustrations? On a normal day, they would give me nightmares. WTF?
What started as an innocent and fated meeting of two destined souls turned into something sinister. The sudden change in the wife’s behaviour, needles in pasta, crawling on all fours, guttural voices, that sly grin… This made my skin crawl. Ick.
That twist at the end did not surprise me, as I guessed it a few pages in. Lol. Still, this is scary, interesting, and freaking weird!
Beware of the nudge, friends.
What started as an innocent and fated meeting of two destined souls turned into something sinister. The sudden change in the wife’s behaviour, needles in pasta, crawling on all fours, guttural voices, that sly grin… This made my skin crawl. Ick.
That twist at the end did not surprise me, as I guessed it a few pages in. Lol. Still, this is scary, interesting, and freaking weird!
Beware of the nudge, friends.
September 3, 2026
proper spookiness from the mind of night vale, complete with an eerie slow burn that culminates in a delightful twisted conclusion. short, sinister, and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
September 10, 2026
tfw your girl starts acting like the chick from Obsession but it’s not even your fault because you haven’t made any stupid wishes recently
September 12, 2026
I'll give you a little nudge to read this novella..
The ending, I wanted more than that.
The ending, I wanted more than that.
August 9, 2026
I requested a review copy of this purely because of the author - as a long-term Welcome to Night Vale listener I knew I would be in safe hands, and was not disappointed.
I burned through this gripping, twisty novella in no time at all - could easily have read it in one sitting had I not had to do a bunch of chores around the house. The narrative went down smooth and was compelling right from the start to the very end. I could easily imagine this being a terrific audiobook - not surprising given the author’s podcasting excellence of the last 15 years.
The story was dark and supremely readable…perfectly paced, I simply had to keep reading to know what happened next. The illustrations also added an extra, brilliant, flourish.
Throughout this book I got a bunch of vibes from pop culture heavy hitters: this was The Shining meets 1408 meets It Follows meets Smile and I had a truly lovely time. It was scary in that same way the best Stephen King short stories are - told to you directly, with the chills being mainlined into your blood.
I’ll admit I guessed the ending, but it didn’t take away any of my enjoyment. The length was spot on and I had a blast - definitely give it a try when it lands next month!
Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the review copy.
I burned through this gripping, twisty novella in no time at all - could easily have read it in one sitting had I not had to do a bunch of chores around the house. The narrative went down smooth and was compelling right from the start to the very end. I could easily imagine this being a terrific audiobook - not surprising given the author’s podcasting excellence of the last 15 years.
The story was dark and supremely readable…perfectly paced, I simply had to keep reading to know what happened next. The illustrations also added an extra, brilliant, flourish.
Throughout this book I got a bunch of vibes from pop culture heavy hitters: this was The Shining meets 1408 meets It Follows meets Smile and I had a truly lovely time. It was scary in that same way the best Stephen King short stories are - told to you directly, with the chills being mainlined into your blood.
I’ll admit I guessed the ending, but it didn’t take away any of my enjoyment. The length was spot on and I had a blast - definitely give it a try when it lands next month!
Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the review copy.
July 24, 2026
This was so eerie!!! Had me on the edge of my seat completely engrossed in the travellers story. I loved how this was narrated. Totally engaging. Great audio!
June 12, 2026
4.5⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!
I really liked the way this was written as a man telling a story. Genuinely fit the vibes of the setting being an architecturally strange hotel so well.
I really liked the way it started to creep up on you that maybe he hasn't run away far enough! Joseph Fink is just # that girl
Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!
I really liked the way this was written as a man telling a story. Genuinely fit the vibes of the setting being an architecturally strange hotel so well.
I really liked the way it started to creep up on you that maybe he hasn't run away far enough! Joseph Fink is just # that girl
September 11, 2026
As a huge fan of Welcome to Night Vale I knew I needed to read this creepy, bite-sized novella by the same creator and it was just what I was hoping for. Less whimsical than the podcast but packed with creepiness and just the right amount of uneasiness that'll make you think twice about the reality of "the nudge" while you read. Also, there's artwork included so you can see the horrors come to life as you fall deeper into Joseph fink's mind. Highly recommend reading with the lights off for extra spookiness.
September 12, 2026
“Anxiety becomes as much a part of your body as skin or blood. Until that moment you take your first unanxious breath and realize what a weight it was you had been carrying this whole time".
September 13, 2026
Really great narration for the audiobook; I love Cecil Baldwin. It was an interesting story and I was definitely surprised by the ending. It wasn’t over remarkable to me, but the format was interesting and I enjoyed it.
September 14, 2026
What an interesting and unique take on temptation and the evil within humankind.
I felt a little let down by the ending. I wanted more of a final punch, since the “twist” was very guessable. I was hoping for something that would leave me staring at the page for a while afterwards but it was more of a shrug.
I felt a little let down by the ending. I wanted more of a final punch, since the “twist” was very guessable. I was hoping for something that would leave me staring at the page for a while afterwards but it was more of a shrug.
September 8, 2026
Audiobook. Was fun to listen to. I didn’t care for the ending I’m SORRY
Read
September 10, 2026Six Towels Minimum
TL;DR: Two men, one hallway, no quotation marks, and a monster that never has to be described because it only ever suggests. Fink turns a formal dare into a horror novella that gets its dread from casserole dishes and sewing needles before any blood. The middle sags once. The rest does not. Read it in one sitting, with the door checked.
There are two people talking in this book and for most of it you don’t know their names. One has driven for three days with a knife wound in his side. The other is carrying his bag. There are no quotation marks around what they say to each other, no “he said,” no paragraph that steps outside the conversation to tell you what the hallway looks like. If you want to know what the hallway looks like you have to wait for one of them to mention it, and they mention it the way people do, in passing, on the way to something else. The rug curls up here. Not that chair, that one is a little funny at times. The hotel has burned down twice.
Joseph Fink says in the acknowledgments that he wrote the opening pages the day he heard two podcasters discussing Stephen King’s “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” a story told entirely as talk between two old men in Maine, and that he wanted to see if he could do it. He can. The Nudge is a novella, one sitting, and it never once breaks the rule it sets for itself, which is the first thing to say about it and probably the most important. A gimmick you notice is a gimmick. A gimmick you stop noticing is a form.
The guest tells the story. He and his wife, Sharon, met on the last day of college in Ohio, lost each other for two years, found each other again in a chain restaurant near Fisherman’s Wharf, married at a courthouse in Indiana. Twenty years. Then she began to change. What follows is the part of the book people will talk about, and it is delivered as a list, because the guest is the kind of man who can only get through it as a list. Her nose an inch from the hallway wall. A casserole dish she can’t let go of. A sewing needle in a bowl of pasta, a little red thread still hanging from the eye. A smile that isn’t hers, arriving on her face while she sleeps. Fink doesn’t raise his voice for any of it. Each item gets the same weight as the last, and the accumulation does what accumulation does. (The needle is the one I keep coming back to. Not the stranger things that follow it. The needle, and the thread, and the fact that she sews.)
The premise of the title is that the thing doing this cannot control anyone. It suggests. It leans on a weakness that was already there and waits, and it can wait longer than you can. This is a smart piece of engineering, because it means the monster never has to be described, only inferred from behavior, and the behavior always belongs to somebody’s wife or a stranger at the next table. The book is at its best when it stays with the mechanics of that: how a man decides whether to trust the person handing him a drink, how long he watches them swallow first. Fink has said elsewhere that horror shows you not what the world is but what it is like to experience it, and the experience here is a specific, unglamorous one. Choosing the booth by the emergency exit. Checking the hinges. Counting the seconds between footsteps on a stair.
Half the book takes place at the Bluebird Motel, a roadside place with metal keys, a box television in the lobby playing a rerun of Friends and then a rerun of How I Met Your Mother, and one other guest, a heavyset man named Wayne in a suit that had once been elegant, holding a cigarette he never smokes and a plastic cup with three inches of whiskey in it. The clerk calls it the last great American motel and cries a little when he says so. The other half is the hotel where the story is being told, which is bigger than it looks from the road, which was a private house and then a university and is now something else, and which the two men are walking through the entire time, down a hallway built too narrow, into an elevator that takes its own time, down a staircase where the walls bend inward. Two lodgings. One is dying because nobody stops there anymore. The other keeps adding rooms. Fink does not draw the line between them for you and the book is better for it.
The man carrying the bag has opinions. About towels (six minimum, ten for a suite). About the hotel knock, which has a correct volume. About mattresses, which he turns himself every three weeks. He interrupts the guest’s story to ask whether the motel had a pool. This is the book’s second driver and the one that will divide people. The interruptions are funny in the flat way Fink is funny, and they do something structurally necessary, which is to keep reminding you that this is a conversation, that someone is listening, that the listener has his own reasons for listening. But there is a stretch in the middle of the second act, the guest hiding in his room, waiting, watching daytime television, where the asides about amenities are carrying more of the weight than they should and the pace goes soft. It recovers. It does not recover right away.
And because it is all dialogue, the book now and then has to make a character say out loud what a narrator would’ve shown you. The design on this mantelpiece is quite unusual. Are we going down this staircase here. You can hear the stage directions inside the lines. Fink mostly gets away with it (the awkwardness reads as two tired men making small talk, which is what it is), but a reader who can’t forgive that won’t forgive it, and should know going in.
The worst scene in the book is a conversation about dessert. Fink understands the thing most possession stories do not, which is that the horror is not the person becoming someone else. It is the person staying exactly who they are, talking to you about apples, while their hands do something else. The cover calls this a psychological thriller. It is a horror novella and it knows it.
Fink co-created Welcome to Night Vale with Jeffrey Cranor in 2012 and has co-written three New York Times bestselling novels set there, along with Alice Isn’t Dead, which began as a podcast about a truck driver and became a novel in 2018. In an interview around that book he said anxiety had shaped everything he had written, that Night Vale was not about anxious people but was told from inside an anxious mind. The Nudge is the first thing of his I have read where that mind is the whole subject rather than the lens. It is also, by his own account, a formal exercise that arrived on a run in Eagle Rock, which is a fine way for a book like this to happen.
The guest says early on that when he talks about Sharon it is like she is there. He talks for the whole book. The other man carries his bag the whole way and will not let him take it back.
TL;DR: Two men, one hallway, no quotation marks, and a monster that never has to be described because it only ever suggests. Fink turns a formal dare into a horror novella that gets its dread from casserole dishes and sewing needles before any blood. The middle sags once. The rest does not. Read it in one sitting, with the door checked.
There are two people talking in this book and for most of it you don’t know their names. One has driven for three days with a knife wound in his side. The other is carrying his bag. There are no quotation marks around what they say to each other, no “he said,” no paragraph that steps outside the conversation to tell you what the hallway looks like. If you want to know what the hallway looks like you have to wait for one of them to mention it, and they mention it the way people do, in passing, on the way to something else. The rug curls up here. Not that chair, that one is a little funny at times. The hotel has burned down twice.
Joseph Fink says in the acknowledgments that he wrote the opening pages the day he heard two podcasters discussing Stephen King’s “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut,” a story told entirely as talk between two old men in Maine, and that he wanted to see if he could do it. He can. The Nudge is a novella, one sitting, and it never once breaks the rule it sets for itself, which is the first thing to say about it and probably the most important. A gimmick you notice is a gimmick. A gimmick you stop noticing is a form.
The guest tells the story. He and his wife, Sharon, met on the last day of college in Ohio, lost each other for two years, found each other again in a chain restaurant near Fisherman’s Wharf, married at a courthouse in Indiana. Twenty years. Then she began to change. What follows is the part of the book people will talk about, and it is delivered as a list, because the guest is the kind of man who can only get through it as a list. Her nose an inch from the hallway wall. A casserole dish she can’t let go of. A sewing needle in a bowl of pasta, a little red thread still hanging from the eye. A smile that isn’t hers, arriving on her face while she sleeps. Fink doesn’t raise his voice for any of it. Each item gets the same weight as the last, and the accumulation does what accumulation does. (The needle is the one I keep coming back to. Not the stranger things that follow it. The needle, and the thread, and the fact that she sews.)
The premise of the title is that the thing doing this cannot control anyone. It suggests. It leans on a weakness that was already there and waits, and it can wait longer than you can. This is a smart piece of engineering, because it means the monster never has to be described, only inferred from behavior, and the behavior always belongs to somebody’s wife or a stranger at the next table. The book is at its best when it stays with the mechanics of that: how a man decides whether to trust the person handing him a drink, how long he watches them swallow first. Fink has said elsewhere that horror shows you not what the world is but what it is like to experience it, and the experience here is a specific, unglamorous one. Choosing the booth by the emergency exit. Checking the hinges. Counting the seconds between footsteps on a stair.
Half the book takes place at the Bluebird Motel, a roadside place with metal keys, a box television in the lobby playing a rerun of Friends and then a rerun of How I Met Your Mother, and one other guest, a heavyset man named Wayne in a suit that had once been elegant, holding a cigarette he never smokes and a plastic cup with three inches of whiskey in it. The clerk calls it the last great American motel and cries a little when he says so. The other half is the hotel where the story is being told, which is bigger than it looks from the road, which was a private house and then a university and is now something else, and which the two men are walking through the entire time, down a hallway built too narrow, into an elevator that takes its own time, down a staircase where the walls bend inward. Two lodgings. One is dying because nobody stops there anymore. The other keeps adding rooms. Fink does not draw the line between them for you and the book is better for it.
The man carrying the bag has opinions. About towels (six minimum, ten for a suite). About the hotel knock, which has a correct volume. About mattresses, which he turns himself every three weeks. He interrupts the guest’s story to ask whether the motel had a pool. This is the book’s second driver and the one that will divide people. The interruptions are funny in the flat way Fink is funny, and they do something structurally necessary, which is to keep reminding you that this is a conversation, that someone is listening, that the listener has his own reasons for listening. But there is a stretch in the middle of the second act, the guest hiding in his room, waiting, watching daytime television, where the asides about amenities are carrying more of the weight than they should and the pace goes soft. It recovers. It does not recover right away.
And because it is all dialogue, the book now and then has to make a character say out loud what a narrator would’ve shown you. The design on this mantelpiece is quite unusual. Are we going down this staircase here. You can hear the stage directions inside the lines. Fink mostly gets away with it (the awkwardness reads as two tired men making small talk, which is what it is), but a reader who can’t forgive that won’t forgive it, and should know going in.
The worst scene in the book is a conversation about dessert. Fink understands the thing most possession stories do not, which is that the horror is not the person becoming someone else. It is the person staying exactly who they are, talking to you about apples, while their hands do something else. The cover calls this a psychological thriller. It is a horror novella and it knows it.
Fink co-created Welcome to Night Vale with Jeffrey Cranor in 2012 and has co-written three New York Times bestselling novels set there, along with Alice Isn’t Dead, which began as a podcast about a truck driver and became a novel in 2018. In an interview around that book he said anxiety had shaped everything he had written, that Night Vale was not about anxious people but was told from inside an anxious mind. The Nudge is the first thing of his I have read where that mind is the whole subject rather than the lens. It is also, by his own account, a formal exercise that arrived on a run in Eagle Rock, which is a fine way for a book like this to happen.
The guest says early on that when he talks about Sharon it is like she is there. He talks for the whole book. The other man carries his bag the whole way and will not let him take it back.
July 19, 2026
This is not your usual novella. It’s unique and a little weird with a foreseeable twist at the end. That twist and the ending could have been better and lost the book a star. A man’s idyllic life ends when his wife starts changing in frightening ways. He flees and ends up in a strange hotel having a conversation with an employee. This dialogue is the entirety of the book provides the reader with two unreliable narrators. It’s 100% psychological horror with the unsettling dichotomy of real vs. unreal, as well as some of the other usual suspects like paranoia, isolation, and loss. If you are a reader who loves over-the-top or extreme horror or loads of suspense, this is not for you. This book is filled with creeping dread and strangeness.
TWs: brief violence, sxxcide, and animal death.
My gratitude goes to Joseph Fink, Podium, and NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this uncorrected proof.
TWs: brief violence, sxxcide, and animal death.
My gratitude goes to Joseph Fink, Podium, and NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this uncorrected proof.
September 9, 2026
This was a delightful and chilling little novella! I understand why the ads for this said it would be good for Night Vale devotees as well as people who enjoy horror, and I think that it was absolutely well-written. Perhaps a little shorter than I'd like, with some questions still unanswered, but not bad! I did go through it this first time reading my physical copy while listening to the audiobook version, and I do highly recommend the audiobook. The dual narration between Cecil Baldwin and Kevin R. Free is absolutely excellent, and I think it really helps to elevate the story further!
August 23, 2026
What a fun horror novella. The set up was simple. A man checks into a hotel and is telling his story to the hotel employee as they walk to his room.
The tense atmosphere was *chef’s kiss*! I always love books where the suspense slowly builds as you continue the story. This one did that so well in such a short amount of time. This was psychological horror so not too much gore or anything. There’s definitely some unsettling moments though. I look forward to reading more books from this author!
🎧 The audiobook was really good too. It’s a duet narration and both narrators did an excellent job.
The tense atmosphere was *chef’s kiss*! I always love books where the suspense slowly builds as you continue the story. This one did that so well in such a short amount of time. This was psychological horror so not too much gore or anything. There’s definitely some unsettling moments though. I look forward to reading more books from this author!
🎧 The audiobook was really good too. It’s a duet narration and both narrators did an excellent job.
August 4, 2026
3⭐️, Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!
Assuming this is in the same universe as Nightvale and Alice, this was an interesting interlude. A man’s girlfriend becomes possessed by a being that is set out to destroy her life, and he decides to run away from the entity that can seemingly jump from entity to entity. I think this was a fun, short and darkly humorous supernatural horror.
Assuming this is in the same universe as Nightvale and Alice, this was an interesting interlude. A man’s girlfriend becomes possessed by a being that is set out to destroy her life, and he decides to run away from the entity that can seemingly jump from entity to entity. I think this was a fun, short and darkly humorous supernatural horror.
September 11, 2026
Incredibly, beginning to end. Spooky and very unsettling, you begin to feel a sense of lost time as soon were in the hotel and it gets worse with the walking through the hotel hallways and intermediate off topic dialogue between the two male characters.
Loved this quick read!
Loved this quick read!
September 5, 2026
The narration for this was so good and the story was short, but effective. Sometimes the imagery gave me the heebie-jeebies and I loved that. The ending was fun but a bit predictable.
September 6, 2026
This eerie, unsettlingly funny story unearthed a weird nostalgia for my long, middle of the night commutes home from work listening to Welcome to Night Vale.
September 10, 2026
The story itself is just alright. I'm rating it a bit higher than I normally would for the great perfomance of its two narrators, which made the audiobook version quite entertaining.
September 15, 2026
Knew it!
It definitely exudes a creepy vibe.
It definitely exudes a creepy vibe.
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