Something Wicked This Way Comes

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Something Wicked This Way Comes is like a little segment of nightmare, a dream-like tale of innocence threatened by a malignant evil. When a carni... (show more)

Something Wicked This Way Comes is like a little segment of nightmare, a dream-like tale of innocence threatened by a malignant evil. When a carnival comes to town too late at night and out of season, it is the kind of curious omen that cannot help but draw in two boys on the edge of adolescence, such as Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade. Cougar and Dark's Pandemonium Carnival shows up mysteriously, appears to go up just as mysteriously, and promises secret delights somehow just a little more extravagant than those of the average carnival. So, it can hardly come as a surprise when it turns out that the Hall of Mirrors or the Carousel conceal darker secrets.

Jim and Will are first drawn to the marvelous carnival but soon find themselves the only ones aware of its intentions. As they take action to stop its plans, they make enemies of the strange characters who populate it, especially the sinister Illustrated Man, Mr. Dark. To resist the sinister forces moving against them, they will require some outside help, but who will possibly believe them?

Bradbury has crafted a fine little work of fantasy. Though it's not particularly scary, it succeeds at creating a rather childlike sense of dark enchantment. There's an almost mythic quality to his portrayal of not quite innocent childhood confronted with the wider world. His prose is mostly perfect for the sort of nightmare adventure described, although it did have moments where he seemed to so commit to inflating an already overinflated sentence or metaphor that you lost all sense of what he was actually talking about. But overall, it's the sort of book that makes you wish yourself could visit Cougar and Dark's Pandemonium Carnival, even if just once, no matter the consequences. (show less)

 

 

by Carlos Ernesto McReynolds

No, it's a flop!

What a disappointment from Ray Bradbury! I used to like his book Fahrenheit 451 as a child, and I really did like it then. But this book goes absol... (show more)

What a disappointment from Ray Bradbury! I used to like his book Fahrenheit 451 as a child, and I really did like it then. But this book goes absolutely nowhere fast!: Why not frickin' read Stephen King; it'd probably be more entertaining.

That being said it was an entertaining book. No, but it was an entertaining book.

I suppose the mirrors at the carnival reflected a 'funny' vision of themselves, of life; it seems to have to do with children's fears, adults' fears, how their fears do what the witch and the characters and the 'machine' do in the book. Confusion. The witch makes them deaf and mute, which children are afraid of, and adults, not being able to hear the world, not being able to contact the world. The machine that made people younger or older reminded them of death. Of course the presence of an adult, a mature person, drove all the fears away, and their reality: I suppose we all need something to drive our fears away, or somebody, to make us feel safe. The interest, the delve, the return from fantasy, and terrifying, in the presence of an authoritative 'adult,' someone able and active in saving us from our night terrors.

Well you can at least say Ray Bradbury is creative, and in this book too. The story was slow, the book resultantly was short. I don't know, maybe it's time for another read, but I'm really not interested. (show less)

 

 

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  Drips with visual imagery. So laden with it that you are often unsure of the source... characters paint the scenery with wild, yet explicit, imagination. I admit, there are times when it is hard to keep up or understand what's going on, but I love the attention to the senses that Bradbury used to write this book. If I have one criticism, it's that I *did* get lost in the imagery at times. And though I'm one to think "out there," the author still lost me with his analogies, whether d... (show more)

  Drips with visual imagery. So laden with it that you are often unsure of the source... characters paint the scenery with wild, yet explicit, imagination. I admit, there are times when it is hard to keep up or understand what's going on, but I love the attention to the senses that Bradbury used to write this book. If I have one criticism, it's that I *did* get lost in the imagery at times. And though I'm one to think "out there," the author still lost me with his analogies, whether due to them being historically out-dated (the book was published in 1962), or by simply being too far "out there." I'm surprised that I'd never read this book before, and I now consider it to be one of my all-time favorites. I'll look forward to reading it again so that I may more deeply connect with the picture that Bradbury paints.

  If (show less)

   

   

  by Bob Roth on Nov 10, 2009 at 02:33PM

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  Some argue that this is Bradbury's masterpiece, although I think the Martian Chronicles just shades it, but that's just personal preference. Bradbury's writing here has a poetic quality to it that some may find hard to fathom, but stick with it, because this book has lots to say. The tale of two boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, on the cusp of their 14th birthdays, and the carnival that shows up outside their small town that changes them forever, Something Wicked This Way Comes takes us... (show more)

  Some argue that this is Bradbury's masterpiece, although I think the Martian Chronicles just shades it, but that's just personal preference. Bradbury's writing here has a poetic quality to it that some may find hard to fathom, but stick with it, because this book has lots to say. The tale of two boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, on the cusp of their 14th birthdays, and the carnival that shows up outside their small town that changes them forever, Something Wicked This Way Comes takes us on a journey into the heart of darkness. Bradbury touches on what it means to be a friend, the hopes and fears of the two boys, the seductive power of the dark forces marshalled against them by the freaks of the Pandemonium Shadow Show, and the power of good to triumph over evil. For me, the stand out character is Will's father, Charles Halloway, the town library's janitor and a distant, remote figure to Will, seemingly incapable of communicating with his son. But the events of the few days and nights covered by the book change all that, with Halloway discovering a power within himself he never knew he had, and discovering that the way to defeat evil is to deny them the weapons they would use against us. The way Will begins to see his father in a new light by the end of the story is quite moving. Recommended. (show less)

   

   

  by David Manns on Oct 19, 2009 at 12:13PM

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