Something Wicked This Way Comes
Ratings267
Average rating3.9
Rating: 8.9/10
Reading this book felt like being in a bad dream. Ray Bradbury has an almost ethereal writing style, unlike anyone else I've read, that creates a mystical little town which is suddenly overtaken by Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Circus. Bradbury really lets your imagination do the heavy lifting but at the same time, makes the story flow effortlessly towards its discomforting conclusion.
It was hard to get into this initially due to the almost abstract way Bradbury likes to write, but once I let myself get engrossed in the world, I couldn't stop reading. I really liked it and will definitely make an effort to read more of Bradbury's work.
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.
I got about 80% of the way through this and I don't know if it's because I reading it at the same time as another book that I am really loving but I just don't care what happens at the end of this story and can find no motivation to read it....and if I'm forcing myself to read something in my own time Im not going to read it.
This review is for the audio book version. I had loved the Jason Robards movie of this story many years ago, so I had to get the book. While I did enjoy the book, I did find it somewhat wordy. The author would be descriptive of something not once but two or three times; almost to the point of babbling (to the fans of this author, please note that this is just my personal opinion based on what I do and don't like so don't go flaming me). Despite that, I listened till the end and still enjoyed the story in my own way.
[reread in 2016]
Bradbury is a fucking wizard. I couldn't remember why I kept this paperback, and then I reread it and I'd forgotten the way he writes is just so poetic and evocative and melancholy. Individual sentences constantly stopping me in my tracks, demanding to be read twice or three times, sometimes out loud.
The story itself is scary and sad and gripping, drawing its emotional power from a deep well of serious thoughts about life: aging, and what is lost (or gained); friendship, in all its complexities; adolescence, with all its strange intensity and shadowy fears; the goodness or evil inherent in all of us, and the utter strangeness of time and life, and how we meet it.
Fun, Fun, Fun!
Follow Jim and Will through an adventure to learn the truth about a late season traveling carnival. With unlikely friends, and unbelievable adversaries, the boys discover a wickedness they never imagined.
The writing was superb, flowing from left, to center, to right and back. This was a surprise addition to my library and there it will remain.
Bonus, this book is totally safe for kids about 13, or so.
And another book about nothing. The book tells the story of two boys, Jim and Will who are friends, and Will's father, who likes to drink and regrets not being young anymore. There is a storm coming, and the boys are gifted an metal rod device that can prevent lightning from burning their house.
Books like Asimov's and Dune grasped me in the very first sentence. This, and the latest ones I've been reading, does not.
Read: 10%, 54:00/9:17 hours
Executive Summary: After how much I enjoyed [b:The Martian Chronicles 76778 The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374049948s/76778.jpg 4636013], I found this pretty disappointing.Audio book:Christian Rummel was a great fit for this book. He did a great job with the voices. Maybe a little bit too good. By the end of the book I found his voice for Will Halloway was so realistic that it was grating on me. I really don't want to listen to a whining teenager.Full ReviewI'm not really a big horror fan. But paranormal horror, such as this has the best shot of holding my interest. Unfortunately this book didn't. I found the protagonists annoying, and the pacing far too slow.The prose are excellent however. In some ways that may have contributed to the pacing problems though. The beautiful language and descriptions of things adding to the plot dragging for me.The evil carnival is certainly not a new idea. I'm not sure if Mr. Bradbury originated the idea, but likely not. The premise of the Merry Go Round and the general dark secrets of the carnival was intriguing and I was initially into it.By the halfway point though, I was just ready for it to be over. There are some interesting ideas here, but the execution seemed to fall flat. I'd consider attributing it to the year it was written or Mr. Bradbury's writing style, except I greatly enjoyed [b:The Martian Chronicles 76778 The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374049948s/76778.jpg 4636013] last month.So unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. It's considered a classic for a reason however. So you may come away with a different opinion.
Wonderful. Just wonderful.
But that wasn't kind of you, Bradbury. You can't stress me out like that in the last 10 pages of your story.
Overly verbose writing. I didn't think it was possible, but this book proves otherwise.
Surprisingly poetic for a horror novel. Moral of the story here is that laughter defeats evil.
A carnival is arriving in the town of next-door neighbours and best friends, 13 years old Jim and Will. Attracted by the carnivals dark characters they sneak out and discover a mystery. Riding the carousel forward ages you one year per turn, riding it backwards makes you younger. Mr. Dark, the carnival director, hunts the boys who get help from Will's father, Together they fight spells and defeat the evilness with laughter.