Horror Book Reviews
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Title: Something Wicked This Way Comes |
Review of Something Wicked This Way Comes
- The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare.
Few American novels written this century have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury's unparalleled literary classic SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin.The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare.
Few American novels written this century have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury's unparalleled literary classic SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin.
Product Description
- A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the memorable story of two boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, and the evil that grips their small Midwestern town with the arrival of a "dark carnival" one Autumn midnight. How these two innocents, both age 13, save the souls of the town (as well as their own), makes for compelling reading on timeless themes. What would you do if your secret wishes could be granted by the mysterious ringmaster Mr. Dark? Bradbury excels in revealing the dark side that exists in us all, teaching us ultimately to celebrate the shadows rather than fear them. In many ways, this is a companion piece to his joyful, nostalgia-drenched Dandelion Wine, in which Bradbury presented us with one perfect summer as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old. In Something Wicked This Way Comes, he deftly explores the fearsome delights of one perfectly terrifying, unforgettable autumn. --Stanley Wiater
Amazon.com Review
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Comments for Something Wicked This Way Comes
- Posted on 2008-11-19
If Only the Writing had been Better...
When I heard that my book club had chosen this book for our October reading with the idea of reading a creepy, Halloween-esc story, I was thrilled. I later found out that Something Wicked This Way Comes is often considered a genre book for horror. Even better. On top of all that, Ray Bradbury is a well-known author whose works are held in high regard. I was eager to dive into the book and went in with high expectations.
I was severely disappointed.
The overall idea of the book is really quite intriguing. A creepy carnival that feeds off of its customer's inner fears and insecurities mysteriously rolls into town before Halloween. Two boys know something's not right and set out to foil the evil that has invaded their small town. There's a lot of potential for an amazing story.
However, the writing really ruined it.
The style and overall writing struck me as overly poetic, clunky, and self-indulgent. Creating a captivating, bone-chilling setting is an essential for making a good horror. However, metaphors heaped on top of analogies do not a good setting description make. There was often so much description going on that I lost track of what exactly was going on plot-wise. It always seemed like there was more happening that there actually was. There were also a lot of sentences that contained prose like "He saw. He didn't see. He thought. He didn't think. He heard. He didn't hear." At first, such prose was interesting and new. But it got really old, really fast. I respect Ray Bradbury as an author and I respect that all authors have their own, individual writing styles. However, the writing style really killed this book.
The first fifty pages or so were actually quite well done. The scene settings were captivating and the way Bradbury set the characters of the two boys up was masterful. Then, the whole thing went downhill for the next 150 pages or so. The boys became really bland and hard to relate to and the writing got so clunky and confusing that it was difficult to figure out what was going on plot-wise. The last 50 pages picked back up and ended the book solidly enough with a satisfying conclusion. It was just a matter of slogging through the middle to get there.
It really is a pity that the writing style ruined the book as much as it did because the idea behind it is truly intriguing and interesting. I haven't read a lot of Ray Bradbury's works, but I hope this is one of his worst and that his other works are far better.
Score: 2
- Posted on 2008-11-03
Something Wicked This Way Comes
I was really excited to receive this cd of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. But I found the sound erratic and the acting and dialog stiff. Way too bad, since I love this story.
Score: 2 - Posted on 2008-08-22
Did seeing the movie first smear my objectivity?
Ray Bradbury'
s book was something that I've wanted to read for quite some time. Unfortunately, I had already seen the film so I had a plot in mind as well as a mood. Bradbury as always strings metaphores together like we do popcorn on the Christmas tree. It's his main setup for atmosphere and that is the books great strength. Unfortunately for me, the characters of Will, Jim and Will's Dad are flat, underdeveloped and dull. Without a back story, I really don't have a sense of caring for the characters and as hard as I tried that didn't change. This was typical of Dickens at times. He created characters and then threw them into the story for development. I never found this technique particularly inviting for me.
The story is simple enough -- a carnival comes to town creating strange and bizarre situations that invite temptation. Jim wants to be older -- but we aren't given a good enough reason why. Will's Dad wants to be younger and the idea feels more universal than centered on the character in question and it falls short. The carnival can do this of course but at a price. That alone feels as rundown an idea as I've ever read. Everyone has that statement. The ending feels more of a fable than anything else and perhaps that's what Ray wanted out of the story. Perhaps he would have put 'once upon a time' and 'happily ever after' were it a different time.
The message -- don't fall into temptation and don't let misery eat away your soul. I don't know, the book has great mood and atmosphere but had the same feel for me as 'Tale of Two Cities' -- I couldn't want to finish it and move on to something else.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2008-05-19
A Lyrical Journey Through the Essence of Good and Evil
This is Bradbury's finest novel, in my opinion. All of Bradbury's fiction is lyrical in nature, but in this work his prose flows quickly and magically from the first page to the last.
The book is closer to horror than sci-fi, but I regard it as simply a great novel and believe that its universal theme of good vs. evil qualify it as literary fiction of the highest order. It is a book I read every few years to remind me of what language is capable of doing and to listen to the voices of Bradbury's unique small town characters as they attempt to deal with the mystifying forces of Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Show, a traveling carnival.
The one-star reviews appear to be from the usual students who were forced to read the book. Don't be deterred. If you like a scary tale that also examines love and the human heart, you can't go wrong with SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-05-07
One of the scariest things I have ever read
Usually I connect Ray Bradbury with weird enough stories that always seem to have plenty of heart. And I am not saying that this does not have plenty of heart, but rather than the usual strange sci-fi Ray Bradbury makes something truly horrific that has actually caused me nightmares. Through the innocence of children and a traveling carnival Bradbury makes an intelligent and creative story that deals with the hidden desires of humanity itself. It's weird, terrifying, and altogether Bradbury classic.
Score: 5
