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| Something Wicked This Way Comes | 
 enlarge | Author: Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Avon
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $7.98 (100%)
New (51) Used (67) Collectible (9) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  208 reviews
Sales Rank: 61839
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0380729407
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780380729401
ASIN: 0380729407
Publication Date: March 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Bradbury's dark carnival reveals little magic to my eyes May 24, 2003
11 out of 20 found this review helpful
I know that Something Wicked This Way Comes is a classic that many readers love, but I found the novel rather disappointing and can in all honesty only reward it with three stars. For me, the writing was just too disjointed at times, full of little pot holes I kept catching my foot in. The real world of this dark fantasy, the town before the dark carnival rolled in under the cover of night, never seemed real to me, and the friendship of the two boys, Will and Jim, never made perfect sense. We are told they are so much alike, born two minutes apart, but they seem mirror opposites to me. One aspect of Jim in particular is mentioned rather prominently yet never explored or even mentioned again, a fact I found disheartening. Then there is Will's father, an older man stumbling quietly through just a few pages of the first half of the novel before becoming magically transformed into an eloquent speaker and incredibly able enemy of dark forces. Certainly, there are aspects of the story I accepted and enjoyed, such as the issue of time and the ways in which boys want to be older and aging men and women long for a return to youth; it was exactly these most innermost desires that fed the strange carnival operators Mr. Dark and Mr. Cooger. The idea of the carnival freaks being the remnants of the carnival's former victims is also good. The machinery of the story, though, just never worked for me. The mirror magic of the maze was not developed enough to be convincing, and the inner mysteries of the darkly magical carousel never seemed anything more than foolish to me. Since the evils of the carnival were never convincing to me, the manner in which its harmful effects are fought seemed almost ridiculous. My entire reading of this novel was something of a struggle, one which offered me only a few moments of satisfaction. Knowing that this is Ray Bradbury, I tried very hard to like Something Wicked This Way Comes, but for whatever reason Bradbury's magic just never had any discernible effect on me.
 epic struggle August 30, 2001
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
No one has ever written better about the enchantment of childhood than did Ray Bradbury in Dandelion Wine. Its a book that's all about the bright possibilities of youth, when the whole world seems magical. With Something Wicked This Way Comes, he looks at the flip side, how as we get older we discover that evil exists in the world too, and not just that it exists but that it is alluring, to us and all those around us.
It's 1929, in Green Town, Illinois, and Jim Nightshade and William Halloway are thirteen, right on the traditional cusp of manhood. They are still boys when the dark carnival, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show, comes to town, but by the time it leaves they'll have grown up, for Mr. Dark, ringleader of the carnival, offers people their deepest darkest desires in exchange for their souls. Many of the townfolk, including Will's own father will be seduced by the offer of a return to youth, while Jim will find the offer of growing up fast irresistible. But Will can see what's going on and first saves his father and then the two of them fight to save Jim and the town. This book is thrilling, scary, and, most important, wise in the ways of man. Bradbury well understands that evil is such a powerful force not because it is so awful, but because it is so attractive. The people of Green Town aren't necessarily bad people, but in their willingness to exchange their very souls for an easy chance to be something that they are not, they head down the path of evil. What Mr. Dark is offering is unnatural in the strictest sense of the word, it violates the laws of nature, and Will's struggle against him is truly heroic, maybe even Biblical. You'll not often hear him listed among the great American authors, but with this book, Dandelion Wine, and Fahrenheit 451 to his credit, Ray Bradbury may deserve at least a mention.
GRADE : A
Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show January 15, 2002
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Published in 1962, Something Wicked This Way Comes would prove to be a major influence on the horror/dark fantasy genre. And for good reason: Ray Bradbury masterfully communicates the fears of our childhood.....and the regrets of adulthood. This powerful allegory tells the story of two teenage boys: Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, and what happens to them when a strange carnival comes to their town in the middle of one strange October night. The carnival is run by Mr Cooger and Mr Dark, two forbidding gentlemen who slowly weave a web of evil. Bradbury uses a poetic style of prose that reinforces the darkness of the book. I found it wonderfully effective in setting the tone. The ideas in this book have gone to manifest themselves in the works of others: Stephen King's IT owes debt to this Bradbury classic. Ray Bradbury wrote many gems, but none ever captured the sinister power of Something Wicked This Way Comes.
One of Bradbury's best! February 19, 2000
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Bradbury at his greatest is truly a great read. Any avid reader can remember the first time they read Farenheight 451. The thoughts and issues contained in that novel were truly amazing, causing one to pay attention to the glory our society can create and destroy. Something Wicked This Way Comes is as wonderful.The novel is ultimatly about a battle between good and evil, or truth verses deception. The main character is confronted with secrets he doesn't want to know and given the chance to live out long hidden dreams. The book plays out well, leaving the reader wondering until the last pages. Most important is Bradbury's ability to describe the elements in the novel. One could taste breath, feel the wind, and smell the carnival. Something Wicked This Way Comes is a wonderful book and should be enjoyed by readers of science fiction and other genres alike.
No one writes like Bradbury October 30, 2002
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Out of all of Ray Bradbury's prodigious gifts, perhaps none is greater than his ability to capture the true essence of childhood in a timeless manner. While his most prolific period is now four decades past, Bradbury's descriptions of the hopes and fears of childhood still strike a powerful chord; in particular, he is able to capture the fears of childhood from an adult's perspective, without in any way minimizing them.In "Something Wicked This Way Comes" the reader is treated the pinnacle of Bradbury's writings on childhood. In it, he explores the most fundamental desire, and conversely, the most fundamental fear of childhood: growing older. Who among us wouldn't have leapt at the opportunity to be "grown up" at the snap of our fingers, but what about the consequences? Here, Bradbury uses the metaphor of a carnival that preys upon the fears of growing older, quite literally, in order to sustain itself. The two main characters, Will in Jim, are fourteen, and in that awkward time that is not quite adulthood but not quite childhood either. They are torn between the desire to plunge into adult life, even as they cling to the safety of childhood. In this regard they are no different from any other child, the difference is that the carnival, and it's mysterious merry-go-round make it possible for them to do something about this situation. Juxtaposing their dilemma is Will's father, who married and had Will relatively late and life, and feels his age all the more as a result of his young son. "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is a clever, spooky story, perfect for Halloween time. Bradbury is a master of descriptive writing, and no one sets a mood better than he does. More than that, tough, this is a novel about coming of age, about the value of youth, but also about appreciating where you are and what you have achieved. It is heartfelt and sincere in an age where far too many novels use cynicism as a mask for a lack of ideas. For that reason alone, this is a novel that is well worth reading. Enjoy!
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