Something Wicked This Way Comes (Fantasy Masterworks, #49) (A Leo Waterman mystery)

by Ray Bradbury

It's the week before Hallowe'en, and Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium, Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois. The siren song of the calliope entices all with promises of youth regained and dreams fulfilled, but everyone touched will be destroyed, for Mr Dark collects souls. And as two boys trembling on the brink of manhood set out to explore the mysteries of the dark carnival's smoke, mazes and mirrors, they will also discover the true price of innermost wishes ...

• ISBN10: 0586043578
• ISBN13: 9780586043578
• Publish Date: 12 May 1977 (first published 31 December 1963)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 14 July 1994
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Grafton
• Edition: New edition
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[leahrosereads]

Still not my favorite Bradbury, but I've upped this to 5 stars after this re-read. Everything below still stands, but I was able to get quite a bit more out of this re-read. Firstly being that it was a little bit creepier than I remember it. Maybe I read it too fast, or didn't grasp it well enough the first go around, or something else. But, it was definitely creepier to me. Which I loved! Still absolutely adored Will and Jim, but I can't believe I made no mention of Charles the first go around.

Will's dad was a definite later highlight to this story, and I can't believe I missed how great of a character he really was the first go around. Honestly, the characters hands down make this story from being a run of the mill horror to the fantastical creation it is.

[2014]
Not my favorite Bradbury, but I enjoyed this a lot.

I particularly loved the two main characters, Will and Jim. They're adventurous, normal 13 year old boys. They're best friends, and while they get into shenanigans (mostly Jim's doings), they're good kids. Their lives are fun, but predictable, as any 13 year old's life is.

Well, until a carnival comes to town, early. And then, Jim and Will's lives aren't so predictable...or safe.

As I said, this wasn't my favorite Bradbury, but I really enjoyed it. It's a fast paced, quick read. So, if you want to give another Bradbury a shot, I'd recommend it. Especially now around Halloween.

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

DNF at page 136.

I couldn't do it. I'm over halfway through and was just draaaaagging myself into it every evenings this week. I felt like I was back in college reading a book I had absolutely no interest in finishing. I can't even really say anything bad about the writing - hence the 2 star rating even for a DNF. He has a great sense of description and he set the atmosphere...but he jumped around a lot. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. I didn't give a damn about a single one of them. There were crazy, bad things happening, but there was no rhyme or reason behind WHY they were happening...just these two boys, and one was born right before Halloween and one right after and now this weird carnival...why? I can think of 50 different ways to write a better Halloween story.

Bummed, because I really wanted to like this story, but I don't have enough hours in my days to force myself to finish books that haven't kept my interest halfway through.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

This novel is richly written, filled with vivid metaphors and deep philosophical thought. The recurring themes of death and aging gives readers of any gender and age something to think about.

Something Wicked gets most of its fame - according to my conversations with others - from it's dark characters. The carousel, certainly, lives as vividly in the reader's mind as it does in Jim Nightshade's. However, it's easy to get lost in the freak show that the carnival offers - the lightning-rod-salesman-turned-mad-dwarf and the dust gypsy - but as a mature reader now, I also see the lamentations of always being too young or too old, and the struggling relationship between a man and a son, a son and his father, and the importance of friendship and the pain caused when one friend strays irreversibly. The dark carnival became, for me, a playground for the discussion of death - personified by humanity as a way of confronting the fear - and aging (Mr. Electrode is positively frightening).

All said, though, at the end of the day I am a girl and which I find Will and Jim's story interesting, I have trouble relating to their story, always a bystander, which is why for me this story only gets four stars instead of five. I always felt like I was watching the story through a window and while I enjoyed the artistic writing, philosophical trails, and dark fantasy, it didn't consume me as well as some other novels I enjoy. It's nice to know of a book that is so embedded in the psyche of a young man, and it is certainly one I will keep in my mind to read to my son, should I have one someday. But for myself, I just didn't find it as thrilling because I lacked a shared life experience.

[empressbrooke]

Leveling any complaints against Bradbury seems like a literary crime, but I'm afraid I didn't enjoy Something Wicked as much I feel like I should have. The plot was really interesting, and right up my alley - evil carnival comes to town and preys on the unsuspecting citizens. The execution, however, left me wanting more.

The first problem is that the prose is a bit outdated. It's like I ran into with [b:The Haunting of Hill House|89717|The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics)|Shirley Jackson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171163490s/89717.jpg|3627], it just didn't age well over the last 40-50 years. It's not that it decreases the quality of the novel, but it makes you keenly aware that it was written during a different time, which, for me, made it difficult to really lose myself in.

The other thing that kept me from really getting into it is Bradbury's lyrical style of writing. It's definitely very poetic and pretty, but it's not the most natural way of speaking. Quite a few times, I had to reread a sentence once or twice and really focus on the words, because my brain just didn't naturally follow what was being read. The focus almost seems like it's more on the way the story is being told, rather than the actual story. It doesn't intimately bring you in close to the characters and their situation; rather, it keeps you on the outside while you watch what happens. I couldn't sink into it, which is what I prefer when reading.

Finally, the resolution is just a little too feel-good for me. Good conquers evil, I get it, but Bradbury didn't use this concept very subtly.

This review sounds more negative than I feel about the book, but these issues did drag it down. I still really enjoyed the plot and the characters from the carnival. Mr. Dark, the carnival's tattooed proprietor, is definitely a villain to remember. If you're looking to experience some of the classic American authors, I'd recommend Bradbury over almost everyone else.