Something Wicked This Way Comes

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

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.

I didn't see the movie version of this until I was an adult, and I really disliked it. After reading the book, I have more sympathy for the filmmakers, since it sure SEEMS like there's enough imagery in it to make for a great movie. But in reality, everything that makes the book great is unfilmable — it's all the passages where Bradbury rhapsodizes about youth in small town America; or explains the sense of indescribable loss that comes from being reminded of your age; or sets the stakes for a tense scene not just as the fate of a young boy or his middle-aged father, but a battle between good and evil that goes back for millennia.

I was surprised to see in Bradbury's afterword that the story spent so much of its life in the form of various screenplays, since most of its essence seems to be in Bradbury's flowery descriptions (which were at some times overwrought, which along with some period-appropriate but still unfortunate sexist mentality, are my only complaints about the book).

I picked this book for our October book club and oh boy did it not disappoint. It was a delight. Can I call it delicious? Can a book be delicious? His language, his wording is something to behold. I loved reading this book and I savored it. This paragraph is an example of Bradbury's beautiful writing. “She is immortal. She has a son. Your son, too! But what father ever really believes it? He carries no burden, he feels no pain. What man, like woman, lies down in darkness, and gets up with child? Oh, what strange wonderful clocks women are. They nest in Time. They make the flesh that holds fast and binds eternity. They live inside the gift, know power, accept, and need not mention it. Why speak of time when you are Time, and shape the universal moments, as they pass, into warmth and action? How men envy and often hate these warm clocks, these wives, who know they will live forever.“
It's a short book, if you've never read it, treat yourself to this classic this spooky season.

Many decades ago, when I was in Junior high ( middle school these days), an English teacher recommended this book to me. It's the only time a humanities instructor suggested I read some Science Fiction or Fantasy book.
Anyway, recall that I liked it but at 14 I think I was easily impressed.

My daughter was recently reading it so I thought I'd see how it held up.
This time I found it to be tedious. There were scenes that were creepy (the library scene and the merry-go-round).
But for each of those there would be a long lecture on what evil was or something.
She summed it up by a quote from the book,
“You”, said Jim.”talk a lot”
So, I suggest you take Bradbury in small doses, like his short stories.

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.

2.5 stars. Oh how I wanted to love this book. While the writing was good and the carnival atmosphere creepy, the plot read like a children's book with a weird ass Disney ending?!? Granted, I may not be in the particularly best mood for a book like this. So it probably a case of “it's not you, it's me”.

This started as a Halloween read that took too long to get off the ground. The prose is at times unintelligible as it takes up to an entire page to describe a carousel and using metaphors that are quite odd on the regular. It didn't really get exciting until I was 60% of the way through the book, but it did hit a good clip until about 90% when it slowed down again. All in all, it was not worth the read and I'm not sure what the hype is about. Perhaps people found different things scary in the 40s? But the scariest part of this book was that one of the men had tattoos, which was mentioned approximately 400 times.

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.

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.

I found the way Bradbury writes in this book to be truly beautiful and at times. I just loved the vividness of his descriptions. Unfortunately at times. The narrative and story get lost in the mix and it comes across confusing and clunky at times. But I do feel like I was transported to this whimsical/haunting time. I just wish the structure was a bit better and I didn't struggle to understand what was happening at times in the actual story.

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.

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.