About this title: A classic fantasy novel about a mysterious carnival that arrives in an Illinois town and begins to damage the lives of its inhabitants. Two boys are the only ones who realize what is happening and it is up to them to fight a growing evil that destroys all it touches.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Spectra
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780553280326ISBN:0553280325
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Spectra
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780553280326ISBN:0553280325
Description: Very Good. Slight cover wear with minor scuffing to edges. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners, and may have creases. Spine has wear at edges and may have creases. read more
Description: Cover Art. Reading Copy. No Jacket. Paperback. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. 2 books for the price of 1-------------Reading copy is rated from good to very fine.........The book may have minor flaws that may have gone unnoticed.... read more
"I bought this book last year as part of my attempt to get in the Halloween spirit that I do every year. One way to do so is by reading what I call my Halloween book. In the past it has included Dracula, Salem's Lot, and The Shining. Unfortunately, last year this book did not capture my imagination sufficiently for me to continue it. This year I determined I would read it to see if I was just distracted last year by other events. I believe having read it this year, the book was the issue and not any distractions.
Overall, I have to say I didn't really enjoy this book. I'm sure that's sacrilege and that someone can set me straight and I will likely go out and read others' reviews of this book to learn what I should think about it. But for my first reaction upon reading it, I stand my ground. I don't doubt that it has to do with the style of writing that appeals to me. I like a more narrative style and am less interested in too much description. The language in the book is very poetic at times, and in my view, most of the time. The book started off with an air of mystery, with the lightening rod salesman coming through and the foreshadowing of the storm approaching. I get that and like that. I can appreciate the general concept of using a carnival as a source of fear and as a great plot device. But much of the book is like reading poetry and I know that I am not a big poetry reader. The chapters that I liked were those that were fairly narrative, like the final scenes with the gun and the witch. I also enjoyed the atmosphere he established in the scene where the witch comes hunting for the boys in the balloon; that worked for me. But scenes like that should have been rarer to heighten my sense of mystery, rather than one more episode with poetic language.
I don't doubt that this can be mined for many meanings and viewpoints: the nature of evil, the nature of childhood, adulthood and growing up, the relationship between the boys and between Will and his father. I appreciated Mr. Dark and the dialogue with him. I was less enamored with the poetic language and epic descriptions of the events that transpired."
"I saw this movie as a child and remember really enjoying it, so when I found this book, I decided to give it a go. The story is amazing, although I felt that the movie did a better job at drawing the stories of the town-folk who were captivated and captured by the carnival, while the book seems to hint at it, claim it was happening, while drawing only vague references between the desires of the various victims and their eventual fate from the carnival. However, the book excels at painting the pictures of the two young teens caught up in the adventure, along with the relationship between one of these boys and his father. We feel what it is like to be thirteen again, to be tied so closely to youth and at the edge of the age of discovery, where the world seems limitless and new and exciting. We feel the yearning of a boy for the ability to understand and to be understood by his father.
The language is a bit distracting. I don't know if it's a Ray Bradbury thing, or if it was just for this book, but it's full of crazy sentences filled with hyphenated words and metaphors that makes it a bit hard to understand exactly what is happening, but also lends itself to the mood of the book. This isn't a direct quote, but you shouldn't be surprised to read something like, "He was a kite, slip-dashing his way against the wind, jump-falling back to earth only long enough to regain his bearings and take off again." This makes for tough reading, so I'm not sure if my eleven year old could make it through the book, but it also provides a certain melody that envelopes the story and makes it lyrical and magical.
When I reached the end of the book, at first I was disappointed in the way they were able to save themselves from danger. But then somehow in the last few pages Ray Bradbury rescued the ending from himself, and made everything that happen seem more real, more connected to life, and more meaningful in the relationships of the two boys and the father.
"SOMETHING WICKED is an intriguing book that I read with scrunched eyebrows. The plot is basic, but the language is beyond unusual. Bradbury stacks layer upon layer of odd but necessary metaphorical and mixed imagery to construct this phantasmagorical carnival of fulfilled yet unfulfilled dreams and desires. The October wind takes the form of ice cream as the protagonists, Will and Jim, stand in awe as the black train carrying Dark and Cooger's Pandemonium Shadow Show chills the air of an unsuspecting small town. The crackle and the rustle of the dead leaves carried by this autumn wind always hold significance as they blow and scatter through Bradbury's pages, and the shadows looming are no longer a visual experience but a sensory overload of taste, smell, and touch. SOMETHING WICKED is a purple prose horror novel far removed from FAHRENHEIT 451. Its themes speak to the psyche instead of the society. I felt that the book was worth my time, but at this point, I wouldn't consider it required reading in the same sense as FAHRENHEIT."
"Read this on the recommendation of David S. and enjoyed it very much. While I have never been a 12 year old boy (nor have I ever played one on tv) I enjoyed the viewpoint of these boys as they stand on the edge of manhood, facing it with quite a bit of fear and wonder. The older father's fears for his son and sadness for his own lost youth are written about in such a lovely way. And honestly, the scary bits are pretty scary in a quietly menacing way. No splashing gore, but a steadily building sense of bad things happening under the surface of a quiet little town, when Dark's show comes to town."
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