quadrille 's review for:

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

4.0

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“You need a white-hat or a black-hat book?”

“Hats?” said Will.

“Well, Jim—” they perambulated, Dad running his fingers along the book spines—“he wears the black ten-gallon hats and reads books to fit. Middle name’s Moriarty, right, Jim? Any day now he’ll move up from Fu Manchu to Machiavelli here—medium-size dark fedora. Or over along to Dr. Faustus—extra large black Stetson. That leaves the white-hat boys to you, Will. Here’s Gandhi. Next door is St. Thomas. And on the next level, well … Buddha.”

“You don’t mind,” said Will, “I’ll settle for The Mysterious Island.”

“What,” asked Jim, scowling, “is all this talk about white and black hats?”

“Why—” Dad handed Jules Verne to Will—“it’s just, a long time ago, I had to decide, myself, which color I’d wear.”

So I was off work for a couple weeks while recovering from surgery -- which ironically actually meant getting behind in my books, because the daily commute is my main source of reading time! I'm running behind on reviews now as well, so this one might be a little slapdash.

I've always meant to read Ray Bradbury, because he's so universally revered in the SFF community and namedropped as an especial influence for Stephen King & Neil Gaiman -- I've especially heard the Illustrated Man referenced often, so I was curious to check out something that featured him, this rather infamous villain. It turns out that Bradbury's writing style is more surprisingly poetic and lyrical than I expected: he has a way of smashing adjectives & nouns together in backwards fashion that really stands out, and a meandering turn of phrase and flair for description as he describes this small, sleepy town and its life as it's completely disrupted.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a creepy tale of a dark carnival that comes to town and starts luring people into its clutches, and the two intrepid adventurous boys who cross its path. Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway are a great pair of names, and the boys complement each other so well: one light, one dark, in both appearance and personality. My favourite thing about this book, really, is just the way it captures giddy thoughtless youth, and how these two best friends complete each other -- but also their deep anxieties about behind left behind, about one of them going someplace the other can't follow. Their relationship is the lynchpin of this whole novel.

There's also quite a bit of nostalgia from the other end of the spectrum, in the form of Will's father (who, in his 50s, is seen as very old indeed), and his contemplative ramblings about youth & boyhood, good & evil. The carnival itself is full of creative ideas, too, each act another soul that's been swallowed up into Mr. Coogan & Mr. Dark's sideshow.

Recommended! Although I preferred the first half, and slowed down a lottttt towards the end, hence docking a star -- I can't even put my finger on what lost me in the second half, though.

Eighth and last book of my Horror Aficionados reading challenge!!!