To date, I’ve read Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and several of his short stories. But I hadn’t yet read Something Wicked This Way Comes, which delves more into fantasy and horror than science fiction. I figured there was no time like the present, and let me tell you, I have so much to talk about in this review.
Published in 1962, Bradbury began writing the story in 1955 with the idea that his friend Gene Kelly (yes, that Gene Kelly) would direct an adaptation of it. Unlike Bradbury’s other novels, this book is one narrative. However, it started off as his 1948 short story “The Black Ferris.” Bradbury expanded the story into a treatment, but after being unable to back it as a film, decided to expand it into a novel within the next five years.
The story follows two young boys, Jim and Will, who discover that a mysterious carnival has come to town late in the year. At one point, they also meet a lightning rod salesman, who warns that they are in danger. He gives Jim a lightning rod for protection. At the carnival, the boys are shocked to discover that the carousel ages or de-ages a person depending on which direction it spins. When one of the masters of the carnival de-ages himself, the boys encounter the evils of the carnival and its sinister plans for them.
The novel deals with a variety of themes that set it apart from others like it. A huge aspect of the story involves childhood versus adulthood, and the nostalgia of the former. The carnival, with its grip on death and aging, represents the fear of both these things. The horror of the story comes from the carnival and its inhabitants taking advantage of these fears. It’s through finding the inherent joy of life itself that one overcomes the enemy in the book.
Not only that, but I enjoyed the lyrical quality of the prose the most in this novel. The novel employs a lot of metaphor, as well as a poetic style that carries the narrative. In terms of fantasy, the prose reminded me a lot of Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn. I could include a variety of passages, but I included one example below.
“And the odd thing in Dad’s voice was the sound truth makes being said. The sound of truth, in a wild roving land of city or plain country lies, will spell any boy. Many nights Will drowsed this way, his senses like stopped clocks long before that half-singing voice was still. Dad’s voice was a midnight school, teaching deep fathom hours, and the subject was life.”
This book definitely gave me an incentive to read more of Bradbury’s novels. In the meantime, it’s back to my TBR! See you all later this week for another writing post!
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