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    Something Wicked This Way Comes
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    Something Wicked This Way Comes
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    Something Wicked This Way Comes
    Audiobook8 hours

    Something Wicked This Way Comes

    Written by Ray Bradbury

    Narrated by Kevin Foley

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.



    The carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour of a chill Midwestern October eve. Ushering in Halloween a week before its time, a calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Young boyhood companions James Nightshade and Will Halloway are the first to heed its call. From a place of safety, they watch a midway come to spectral life, their emotions a riot of eagerness, trepidation, bravado, and uncertainty. For they can sense the change that's in the air; that this is the Autumn in which innocence must vanish in the harsh, acrid smoke of disillusionment...and horror.



    Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's mazes and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes and the stuff of nightmares.



    All those who still dream and remember-and those who have heard the whispering but have yet to experience its dark, poetic power-you are welcome. A shadow show like none other is about to begin...again.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Audio
    Release dateJun 29, 2010
    ISBN9781400188253
    Author

    Ray Bradbury

    In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. An Emmy Award winner for his teleplay The Halloween Tree and an Academy Award nominee, he was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honors.

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    Reviews for Something Wicked This Way Comes

    4/5

    2,723 ratings160 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I don't usually rate or review a book I haven't finished, and I only got through roughly 40% of this one, but I'm definitely DONE with it, and the process up till now was such a tortuous and deeply unpleasant one that I think the best way to get it out of my system is to bitch about it a little (or a lot). It's a good thing I've read and enjoyed several things by Ray Bradbury before, because had this been my only experience of him I'd have sworn him off forever and ever based on this single experience, because yes, it was THAT dreadful. To be clear, in the month of October, I like to read some horror fiction, so the spookiness factor had nothing to do with my unpleasant impression of this book. What I was spooked with was how convoluted every single SENTENCE was. How not a single paragraph was straightforward. Like advancing through a deep fog of nightmare. If that was what Bradbury set out to do, to create this incredibly gross impression, as opposed to just telling a story, then he succeeded. So much so that I lost all interest in finding out what the story was all about because who gives a fuck at this point? The experience was akin to biting down on a fork repeatedly, or constant screechings on a chalkboard (remember those?), or flyaway hairs persistently getting on your face, or any number of deeply annoying things you just want to END because they will infuriate you to no end. Everything had to be a simile of a simile of a simile like that labyrinth of mirrors in the carnival he mentions again and again. And for what Mr. Bradbury? What was the fucking point? And why do so many of my friends LOVE this book??? Whatever the reason, I have only so much patience, and you've taken up too much of it with this insufferable dredge. I was put off right from the beginning with the style he employed and I thought I'd try to stick with it because "this is Ray Bradbury after all", but really I should have stuck with my first instinct and dropped it right away because my latest effort at trying to get into the spirit of the thing has put me in a terrible mood indeed and I am livid, because one thing I've come expect from my reading life more than ever is a safe escape from the insufferably annoying nightmare which is living in 2018. /rant over.
    • 4/5
      Bradbury's language is mesmerizing in this audiobook.. I think of this as a lyrical parable or allegory (not up on my definitions) of good and evil and the choices we make in life and the value of living your life without rushing forward, or longing to go back. It's also a very effective view of small town life in the middle of America. Glad I read it.
    • 2/5
      This book was not for me. I didn't abhor it, but reading it was an effort.
    • 3/5
      Wow! This book has received so much praise since it was released that I finally decided to read it. I definitely never read it as a kid. So some books can stand the test of time and even though life, and language and technology change the story if well told survives. That was most definitely not the case for me, regarding this story.I have no idea when this story was supposed to take place but the way the dialogue drags, it could have been the late 1800’s or early 1900’s , or heck I don’t know the 1940’s or 1950’s. But this was one terribly uninteresting story.And while you can definitely see how this book influenced Stephen King, Mr King’s books are far more readable, and better.
    • 4/5
      Halloween comes a week early in this excellently creepy carnival story. I'm not sure why I thought it was a good idea to read this at night while home alone, but that was a poor decision! This wasn't what I imagined when I thought of Bradbury's writing and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much I enjoyed this (as much as one can "enjoy" horror)
    • 3/5
      I first read this book some 50-odd years ago, back when I read everything of Ray Bradbury I could get my hands on...well before I moved on to everything John Updike, and then everything Cormac McCarthy. Derived from a short story Bradbury had written and then revived so he could write a screen story for a movie for Gene Kelly of all people, the book was a rebirth again, and, if you're still counting, you can add the further adjustments from the book for the screenplay for the Disney movie, so don't go watching the movie thinking it's the same as the book. There are several differences. As the title suggests, the story line is a bit creepy. It's a morality play, really. Good. Evil. (Plenty of evil.) Strength. Weakness. (No shortage of weakness.) But there is a loving father and two very good childhood friends. If you like the loving bonds of family and friendship doing battle with very creepy evil, you will like this book. I thought the book was unnecessarily wordy at times. Even one of the characters discusses the problem. Also, the author, who published the book when he was only about 42 years of age, keeps talking about how decrepit a man in his early 50s is. That bothered me. It may not bother you. Hopefully, the author eventually changed his viewpoint on that, sometime before he died at age 91.
    • 4/5
      A classic book. It's not my favorite work by Bradbury, but it's a close second to The Martian Chronicles.
    • 5/5
      Lyrical writing, very enjoyable... Started it on 10/23, so as to be in the spirit of it all!
    • 5/5
      An impressive look at the darker side of human nature.
    • 5/5
      I read this book as a teenager. Not long ago, I had reason to read it again. I noticed something that didn't entirely register the first time: Bradbury can really write.This book's descriptions come at you at high speed. Bradbury doesn't choose among his figures of speech. He chooses all.He can lay back, as in the opening sentence: "The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm." He can lay back, but he usually doesn't. For example: At dawn, a juggernaut of thunder wheeled over the stony heavens in a spark-throwing tumult. Rain fell softly on town cupolas, chucked from rainspouts, and spoke in strange subterranean tongues beneath the windows where Jim and Will knew fitful dreams, slipping out of one, trying another for size, but finding all cut from the same dark, mouldered cloth.Bradbury's over-the-top descriptions work because they are over the top. If Bradbury had held back, Something Wicked would have lost the passionate intensity that makes it stay with me. It might read more easily, but it would be a shadow of itself. There would be no reason to look back as an adult and say, "I remember."
    • 4/5
      I'm not a big horror fan. It took my a long time to really get into it. However it is beautifully written. Great imagery. The narrator had a deep low voice, perfect for this kind of story.
    • 5/5
      My favorite Bradbury book. This book is horror/fantasy rather then his usual SF. Some teens may try it but it really speaks to adults. Almost everyone likes better when they reread it after maturity.If there was ever a writer who could be described as a "word smith" then it is Ray Bradbury. If an idea can be presented in an interesting or unusual way he is the master.This book will take you to a childhood you wish you had...until it gets creepy.
    • 4/5
      I think this is the third time I've read this book, which is way more than I've read most books (yeah, it's a favorite). I love Bradbury's language as much as I ever have. I wouldn't want to write that way myself, and I'm happy that most authors don't, but for whatever reason, he can pull it off. But as I get older, the "old" characters in the book don't seem all that old any more (!). And the story is starting to feel dated generally. But I still enjoyed reading it, and it was just right for reading in the days before Halloween.
    • 5/5
      If there's one thing that Ray Bradbury excels at, it's his ability to recapture the range of emotions and attitudes that were present in all of us when we were just young, impressionable children. It's a sign of a talented writer if he or she is able to make the reader feel nostalgic for a childhood that one didn't have. Something Wicked This Way Comes pushes all the right buttons in reminding us of the wonder that was present in everyone.

      A lot has been said about the prose of this book, and it's certainly of a higher quality than one would be expecting from a "horror" story. It's quite poetic and most of the time it is excellent at painting the scene.

      The point of view from the two children is executed amazingly well. As in his other novels and short stories, Bradbury demonstrates his superb ability to realistically portray the beliefs and emotions of children. They aren't overly mature, but neither are they childish. He's hit the nail so perfectly that it really feels as though one is reading a true-life account of some curious boys, rather than a fictional account. On the other hand, breaking up the action between two children means that we never really get extremely close to either one. There's some nice interaction between one of the boys and his father that deals with the grown-up's attempt to develop a backbone and to stand up to the evil carnival people. This relationship creates some great dialog between the child and parent, as the older man tries to explain thoughts and concepts that are just slightly outside what the child can realistically understand.

      The story itself is quite chilling and is told well. Many of the actions that occur don't really make much logical sense, but they are nonsensical in the same way that fairy tales don't make sense; everything works inside the current context and that's just fine for their purposes. Evil men do evil deeds simply because they're evil. Good men attempt to prevent the spread of evil, because that's what good men do. Their motivation really isn't important. What makes it work is the journey that the characters go through.

      This is certainly a recommended read. Although often classified as a horror book, it really isn't all that frightening. But it succeeds at being a fantastic adventure tale that will remain with the reader long after the final page is turned.
    • 4/5
      "By the pricking of my thumbs
      Something wicked this way comes". Shakespeare

      "So vague, yet so immense.
      He did not want to live with it.
      Yet he knew, during this night, unless he lived with it very well, he might have to live with it all the rest of his life."
    • 4/5
      A fine, well-crafted scary novel. Not as good as Fahrenheit 451, but definitely solidifies Ray Bradbury as an excellent author in my opinion.

      Terrifying and dripping with atmosphere, Something Wicked is one of the better horror novels I've read. And, as Ray says in his afterword, you can picture each scene playing out as he describes it. I have to go back and watch the movie now.
    • 3/5
      Felt a lot like when I used to read Goosebumps when I was a teenager.
    • 1/5
      I've wanted Ray Bradbury to be one of my favorite authors for a long time now. It seemed the perfect fit. All of my other favorite authors seem to love his work, he's obsessed with Halloween just like me, I loved the animated adaptation of The Halloween Tree when I was a kid, and the first book I ever read of his was Zen in the Art of Writing--a collection of essays about writing craft that I adore to this day, and that still inspires me in my own writing.

      Unfortunately, I am unable to love Bradbury with the fervor that I always imagine in my head, because every time I pick up one of his books I remember how much his prose gets in the way of his stories.

      Bradbury's writing style is often beautiful and undeniably unique. He writes in a poetic style, full of short, choppy sentences, and there are several lines from his books that I truly love. But on the whole, this style gets in the way of the story far too much. Simple information is kept behind abstraction and metaphor and you always feel like the characters are out of reach--cold, cardboard approximations of human beings that are hard to care for.

      To put it in the terms of another favorite author of mine, Brandon Sanderson, "You use a lot of concrete language to earn a little bit of abstract language."

      It's a concept called the pyramid of abstraction. You build a foundation of clear, concrete language which makes up the majority of the novel, and that earns you the right to add abstract language. The more abstract something is, the less of it there should be in your book.

      So what's an example of concrete language versus abstract? Well, something like love would be near the top of the pyramid. You'd be hard-pressed to find something more abstract. Unusual metaphors, of which Bradbury is a huge fan, are also rather abstract. Concrete language is straight-forward and evocative. It doesn't make use of complicated or unusual words or metaphor simply for effect. It's number one goal is to get the story across in a way that's clear and as concise as possible.

      Unfortunately Bradbury must not have been familiar with this concept, because this book is overflowing with unusual metaphors and descriptions that may sometimes be pretty to read, but almost always bog the story down. Reading one of his books is like reading a typical book held sideways. Not impossible, or even terribly difficult, but more effort than it should be, and for no real reason other than, "I don't know man, he just writes that way I guess."

      While his writing can be beautiful, it is also, paradoxically, extremely amateur at times. Dialogue especially falls flat or feels forced and his descriptions favor the unique to such an extent that you're often left with a muddy mental image of the scene. I can't help but imagine him trying to write an epic fantasy set in a different world. He would never be able to get the world-building across, let alone a complex plot. The only thing that kept me from getting totally lost while reading this was how mundane and simple it all was. It takes place in our world, and the plot isn't exactly complex or full of twists or head-scratchers. If it was, it would be practically impenetrable.

      In the end I don't feel like I'm reading a great contemporary fantasy story, which is what I want, but instead several hundred pages of extremely hit or miss poetry that happens to tell a story on the side. A story that, honestly, would've been entertaining had it been written differently, but is by no means revolutionary and not worth the trouble.

      Just go watch the movie. It's not amazing, but it's better than reading the book.
    • 5/5
      There's nothing in the living world like books on water cures, deaths-of-a-thousand-slices, or pouring white-hot lava off castle walls on drolls and mountebanks.How I just love Ray Bradbury's writing style. After I read any of his stories or novels, the world becomes a more interesting place. Falling leaves become tears that the trees cry; rain is the cleansing power of the universe; books are portals to new worlds. Ray Bradbury takes the ordinary world and electrifies it until it shimmers with a glow that was always waiting to shine.Something Wicked This Way Comes is a horror story. It's scary. Not the kind of scary that makes you check under the bed, but the kind of scary that makes you wonder if you're in the grip of evil yourself. Bradbury shows us the dark side of ourselves in this traditional story of good versus evil.In the month of October, a carnival comes to a small town in Illinois--which doesn't sound too frightening (of course, that's what people used to say about clowns). But this carnival brings evil with it--the evil of granting your deepest desire. This is what elevates Something Wicked This Way Comes to being more than just a horror story. It's a horror story that gives its reader something to contemplate about his or her own life. What is it that I want more than anything in the world? What am I willing to do to get it?It's a terrific story told by a master storyteller. Perfect for a dark and stormy night...
    • 1/5
      What am I missing here? This was terrible. The style was like a dyslexic Yoda pounding a typewriter with an old boot.
    • 5/5
      Bradbury has contrived an fantastical and exciting Gogol-esque tale about evil and desire, but in the end, SWTWC a moving tale about youth, childhood and nostalgia.
    • 4/5
      Took me forever to read this. It's pretty good, though I think he worked better in short stories. This edition is signed by everybody BUT him, and contains the seminal short story. I'm not sure it was worth what I paid for it and how long I waited for it to finally come out.
    • 5/5
      A dark, mesmerizing coming of age tale about two boys and a father. The plot is scary, complex, and engrossing. The characters are winsome, dark, and powerful. And of course, love conquers all, and I can live with that as the moral of the story. This one could be nightmare inducing, but maybe not quite? Great read!
    • 4/5
      This is what Stephen King's IT should have been. Essentially a coming of age tale, the haunting imagery and quite menacing freaks could put you off the carnival for life. As the original cirque-de-freak thriller, this is small town horror the way it was meant to be told.
    • 3/5
      Leveling any complaints against Bradbury seems like a literary crime, but I'm afraid I didn't enjoy Something Wicked as much I feel like I should have. The plot was really interesting, and right up my alley - evil carnival comes to town and preys on the unsuspecting citizens. The execution, however, left me wanting more.The first problem is that the prose is a bit outdated. It's like I ran into with The Haunting of Hill House, it just didn't age well over the last 40-50 years. It's not that it decreases the quality of the novel, but it makes you keenly aware that it was written during a different time, which, for me, made it difficult to really lose myself in.The other thing that kept me from really getting into it is Bradbury's lyrical style of writing. It's definitely very poetic and pretty, but it's not the most natural way of speaking. Quite a few times, I had to reread a sentence once or twice and really focus on the words, because my brain just didn't naturally follow what was being read. The focus almost seems like it's more on the way the story is being told, rather than the actual story. It doesn't intimately bring you in close to the characters and their situation; rather, it keeps you on the outside while you watch what happens. I couldn't sink into it, which is what I prefer when reading.Finally, the resolution is just a little too feel-good for me. Good conquers evil, I get it, but Bradbury didn't use this concept very subtly.This review sounds more negative than I feel about the book, but these issues did drag it down. I still really enjoyed the plot and the characters from the carnival. Mr. Dark, the carnival's tattooed proprietor, is definitely a villain to remember. If you're looking to experience some of the classic American authors, I'd recommend Bradbury over almost everyone else.
    • 4/5
      I read this for a book club that I was involved in at the time. It was interesting to read an author that I had heard great things about over the years from my own father. My father would mention how wonderful Bradbury is and would try to get me to read his books, but I would often tell him that I simply was not interested in those types of books. I was wrong! This book is truly a gem of literature. The book at points is a bit sluggish to try to get through, but overall the story progresses in a manner that the reader truly wants to know what happens to these two little boys and one of their father. I was compelled to keep reading and discovering every single plot twist. I would definitely read this book again in the future to see any great moments I may have missed in my hectic search for the ending.
    • 5/5
      I thought I’d read this when young, but I remembered little of it. It’s more likely someone told me the story, because had I read this, there’s no way I would have forgotten the writing. I can’t help thinking had I ever turned in a story written in such a style, my teachers would have thrown fits, siting grammar rules until I grew dizzy. But this is the indomitable Bradbury and not only does he know how to break the rules, he does it so well. Some of my teachers would have cited that many sentences don’t make grammatical sense, and they don’t in a purist way, but what they do is conjure up sensations and emotions. Take the title alone, which at least one teacher would have told me should read Something Wicked Comes This Way… but it would never have been so memorable; would never be so visceral. Plus, there’s the multi-layers of subtext: a book about good and evil, being young, growing old, accepting these things, not harping on them, not worrying about them and not fearing them so much one forgets to live, to enjoy and feel blessed every day. It also speaks of friendship and family, of love, and of laughing in the face of despair as a way of pushing back the darkness — the sorrows of life and the eventual darkness. I’m sure others will find their own interpretations, but for me, this book covers the gamut of life and death in all its joys and woes. Chilling, full of dread, atmospheric, mesmerising, thrilling, captivating, and masterfully executed.
    • 4/5
      Great villain, great prose.
    • 5/5
      I loved this novel so much it inspired a symphony . . . which I haven't finished yet. Still, I haven't forgotten the magic this book brought into my life, as corny as it sounds.
    • 5/5
      Best friends Jim and Will are intrigued when a circus comes to town in the fall, arriving at night and luring crowds with strange scents. Then they meet Mr Coogan and Mr Dark, the circus owners who spot that Jim has a quality that would make him an easy addition to their freakshow. Will and his father pit themselves against Dark to save Jim and themselves.The more I read of Bradbury, the more I like him. This book has a little bit of a dated feel due to some of the language used by the boys ("Boy!" "Gosh!") but the story is tense, Mr Dark isl a scary villain and there are complexities, especially with the father, that keep it from being outdated. Recommended.