Something Wicked This Way Comes

Ah, the allure of Cooger and Dark’s carnival, the thieves of time preying on curiosity and awakening temptation. Two young friends, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, are eager to see beyond the show’s bright lights, but they should be very careful what they wish for.This story is a living, breathing phenomenon full of motion, awe, and dread. The sheer quality of the writing ensures that. It subtly (and very successfully) taunts the characters by distracting them with their own insecurities before pouncing and taking what it wants.Fear creeps on tiptoes leaving behind it a whisper here, a draught there, to test the opinion they have of themselves and each other. But a few illuminating expressions from an unexpected source attempts to give them guidance and hopefully steer them in the right direction:“Too late, I found you can’t wait to become perfect, you got to go out and fall down and get up with everybody else.”I purchased this book on a complete whim thinking I might like it, only to find that I loved it. This is not just a good book, it’s a GREAT book.

Something Wicked This Way Comesby Ray BradburyWe're back in Green Town, Illinois again. If you enjoyed Dandelion Wine, then you'll enjoy a return visit.Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are turning fourteen. They're lifelong best buds who grew up next door from each other. They go everywhere together, including shinning down a makeshift ladder in the middle of the night to explore the graveyard, the lake, the rail tracks. If there's a place two lads in small-town America would want to explore, you can bet Will and Jim will have been there. The two boys are also united by being born only minutes apart on either side of midnight from 30 October to Halloween. But they're also as different as chalk and cheese, as Will's dad knows:"That's Jim, all breathless and itchweed.And Will? Why, he's the last peach, high on a summer tree."A week before Halloween, when the boys are already excited enough with their birthdays and Trick or Treat just around the corner, a travelling carnival pulls into town. As Will's mother says, it's too late in the year for a carnival but Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show is pitching its tent on the great inland sea of grass all the same. The carnival just sits there waiting for its audience to come""But only the moon looked in at the hollow dark, the deep caverns. Outside, night beasts hung in midgallop on a carousel. Beyond lay fathoms of Mirror Maze which housed a multifold series of empty vanities one wave on another, still, serene, silvered with age, white with time. Any shadow, at the entrance, might stir reverberations the colour of fright, unravel deep-buried moons."Cooger and Dark's carousel calliope pipes the Funeral March backwards. It isn't long before the boys uncover their dark secret. But does anyone in authority ever listen to teenage boys? Heck, no!"'Said?' The Illustrated Man barked a laugh. The freaks leaped in a frolic of shock, then calmed as the carnival owner continued with great ease, patting and soothing his own illustrations, which somehow patted and soothed the freaks. 'Said? But what did he see? Boys always scare themselves at sideshows, eh? Run like rabbits when the freaks pop out. But tonight, especially tonight!'"Like all best yarns, this one is based on a real childhood encounter. The realism of the carnival and its performers is very powerful. We all know what it is to tremble with fear of them. Evil is out there, beyond the town limits, and none of us know when it could cross them and come rolling in to pitch its tents in the very heart of our community. But the strength of this novel lies in the light as much as the darkness. In the gentler portrait of father and son, and of the lifelong friendship of two boys next door who've known each other all their lives. A father who, though old, still truly understand what it is to be young. And a friend who'll always be there for you. Neither are to be taken for granted and both deserve the sincerity of the homage this novel provides.Enjoy!

This book arrived on time and I know before reading that this is a great book.The problem is I bought as a gift but there is a barcode sticker stuck right on the front!!!I tried to remove but will not come off in one piece.This is ridiculous and at least should have been stuck on the back!!This is for my mum for Christmas and I can't be bothered to return...So beware if you buy any books from Amazon as this is my first.I'm a prime member and I do enjoy Amazon's quality and service.Just to let you know.Keiran.

I loved this book. It's an original and beautifully written exploration of various aspects of the human condition; chiefly age but there's so much more.

The idea of a carnival coming to town has always generated a mixed sense of mystery and revulsion - as played upon by the TV series Carnivale and this novel about a menacing ringmaster.Also about the idea that adults won't believe what a child says, even when something terrible is happening to them.