Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this for book club - otherwise I probably would have never picked this book up. For the most part I enjoyed it. It was written in the 1960s so the writing is not the same as what I'm used to reading. And there was a ton of rambling that occurred in the novel, which I started to skim over because otherwise I would lose interest in the story for all of the rambling.

This novel changes narration, sometimes without warning. It was nice to see what Jim and Will and Charles were all thinking, since they had different thoughts on the circus that rolled into town.

There is a lot to think about with this novel. About the purpose of a circus. About time and age. About perspectives and how a town full of people react to kids telling the truth, whether it's preposterous or not.

It's not only about two 13 year old boys, but about a 54 year old man feeling his age, about a stranger lightening rod man who gets caught in the act, about a schoolteacher who gets fooled by a boy. It's about the characters in the circus and what their roles are.

Even though I struggled a little bit with the writing style, this is a great book that will definitely make me reconsider going to a circus - especially late at night.

And it was a bit creepier, maybe, because I read the majority of the novel on Halloween, making the creep factor a bit higher than if I read it in February or March!

This is a very interesting, contemplative novel that I will steer clear of next Halloween!

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