'Something Wicked This Way Comes' (Book Review)

 

Something Wicked This Way Comes*
by Ray Bradbury (1962)

(*from Shakespeare's Macbeth: "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes".)

Ray Bradbury (American author, 1920-2012) is perhaps best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451, and some other science fiction/fantasy books. My own personal favourite by him ever since back in my teens is Dandelion Wine * (1957), though - inspired by the author's own childhood, and a quite charming "summery" coming-of-age book. (The link goes to a blog post of mine from 2020, when I reread/ listened to that one as audio book.)

When a cheap Kindle offer of Something Wicked came up for me recently, introduced as a sequel to Dandelion Wine (as it's set in the same fictional town - Green Town, Illinois), I should probably have gathered from the title that it would be a darker story. But somehow, when I started reading it, I forgot about that. Will Halloway and his friend Jim (both 13 on the verge of turning 14) seemed to have quite a lot in common with Douglas Spaulding & co. from the first book; and for the first few chapters, I just put the partly sinister atmosphere down to the boys' vivid imagination, nighttime, and upcoming Halloween...

"First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. --- it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bed sheets around corners. But one wild dark long year, Halloween came early."

That year (I don't think a specific year is given, but in the late 1920s or so), on October 24, a carnival arrives in town in the middle of the night; and both boys sneak out (as they were obviously in the habit of doing now and then) to have a look. They see some weird things, and find the atmosphere quite spooky - but then who wouldn't, when one is 13/14 and sneaking out in the middle of the night seeking adventure...

I'm not sure myself exactly when in the book I started to realize that things were really getting too spooky to just be coming from the boys' imagination. It may not have been until Will's father (janitor of the town library) begins to take them seriously as well.

Anyway, it gets worse before it's over. Not easy to quite pin down the genre; but a sort mix of surrealism, fantasy and horror - with obvious themes of good vs evil, and pros and cons (and longings and fears) of youth vs old age.

If you enjoy spooky tales at Halloween time, you might want to try it. If you're not a fan of that genre, I'd recommend you stick with Dandelion Wine, though.

...

A few more quotes below. The man does have a way with words!!!

"Three in the morn, full wide-eyed staring, is living death! You dream with your eyes open"

"The merry-go-round was running, yes, but . . . It was running backward."

"Yet he knew that, during this night, unless he lived with it very well, he might have to live with it all the rest of his life."

"Nothing extraordinary about me except I’m fifty-four, which is always extraordinary to the man inside it."

"Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know, is bad, or amoral, at least." 

"We’re more afraid of Nothing than we are of Something. You can fight Something. But . . . Nothing? Where do you hit it?"