"Something Wicked This Way Comes"
Written by: Ray Bradbury
1962
Avon Books



5/5 stars
Consensus:Something Wicked This Way Comes not only has an enthralling and suspenseful plot, but is also filled with meaningful and insightful thoughts. The prose, character development, and structure of the novel are all superb. The book is one that is disappointing to finish only because you don't have such a marvelous book to look forward to reading tomorrow. The journey is over when you would hope its just beginning. Read it.

Plot:Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway are 13 year old boys in Green Town, Illinois when "Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show" rolls into town. With the carnival comes an unexplained sense of foreboding. Jim and Will investigate and their lives, and the lives of all those who come into contact with carnival are changed forever.


Prose:Ray Bradbury is among the best of the best when it comes to use of words. This book reads beautifully and fluently. Bradbury has a talent to paint with words and make what he is describing become real and vivid and jump off the page. Their is a hint of tragic poetry in every line or verse of the novel and I often found myself stopping to admire the sheer craft of word being used. Ray Bradbury is a genius of literature and proves himself well in this book. Of all the many brilliant pieces from the book, the thoughts and epiphanies of Charles Halloway are among the most valuable. For example: "Evil has only the power that we give it. I give you nothing. I take back. Starve. Starve. Starve." or "Why are some people all grasshopper fiddlings, scrapings, all antennae shivering, one big ganglion eternally knotting, slip-knotting, square knotting themselves? They stoke a furnace all their lives, swear their lips, shine their eyes and start it all in the crib. Caesar's lean and hungry friends. They eat the dark, who only stand and breathe." Both are examples of gorgeous prose found in Something Wicked This Way Comes. *****


Character Development:Bradbury spends an incredible amount of time in the novel exploring the character traits of each individual he's breathed life, into. One can tell how much Bradbury wants his audience to know how human his characters are, their flaws, strengths, shortcomings, how very much like us they are. The novel triumphs at being very humanistic in this aspect. There are 3 main characters; Will Halloway, Jim Nightshade, and Charles Halloway. We feel as if these three are dear friends to use by the end of the novel. Each has a very specific character arch. Through their thoughts and discoveries we explore their antagonists, which is brilliant. Rather than spend lots of time developing the antagonistic by spending time with them , we see them develop as Charles, Will, and Jim slowly discover more about them. They are as deranged and evil as the other three are good-natured and chivalrous. Mr. Dark, the Dust Witch, the Dwarf, the Skeleton. All the freaks in the circus, although given less time, feel and have a depth of life to them hard to accomplish for other author's main characters. One can imagine each of their horrific back stories.  *****

Originality:It could be argued that the novel is as much an essay about the nature of good and evil and the convictions of men and women deciding which they will be, as much as it is a novel about 2 young boys fighting an ancient and evil power disguised as a carnival. It is highly original and brilliant. It follows a typical plot arch but is delightfully original and appealing as it does so. The brilliance and beauty of the novel, as with any good novel, come from the ideas conveyed within the predictability of a familiar plot line. The concept of evil in this form, an ancient daemonic posing as an entertainer, is thought provoking and intriguing. *****

Simplicity:Yet another brilliant aspect of the novel is the simple and relatable nature of its aspects. Everything within the novel is within grasp of the reader. 2 young boys going through puberty, discovering life. An old man watching youth with envy. Dreams and hopes that never were realized. And so forth, one of Bradbury's many talents is to take something as simple as 2 mischievous boys and make them the most beautiful thing anyone has ever heard of. *****