From the Bookshelf of Read Between the Wines…

Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2)

Ray Bradbury

Start date: October 1, 2013

Finish date: October 31, 2013

Discussion: Book Club Discussions

Why we're reading this: This book was nominated by Dispatcher209.
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Discussion: The Diary of a Young Girl
By Jason , Cabernet Sauvignon · 7 posts · 7 views

last updated May 25, 2017 06:30AM

Discussion: Slade House
By Jason , Cabernet Sauvignon · 16 posts · 11 views

last updated Feb 17, 2017 04:44PM

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What Members Thought

Sep 13, 2011 Jason rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, wine-club, for-kindle

One thing I’ve noticed about a lot of young adult books and coming-of-age movies is a certain generational disconnect between the protagonist and his forebears. I guess in a lot of ways this is like noticing the absence of Indian food from a French cuisine cookbook, because why would anyone expect otherwise? If a story is to feature the youth perspective, then it should follow logically that his parents’ thoughts, ideas, and motivations factor into the story only peripherally. Right, Mikey? But One thing I’ve noticed about a lot of young adult books and coming-of-age movies is a certain generational disconnect between the protagonist and his forebears. I guess in a lot of ways this is like noticing the absence of Indian food from a French cuisine cookbook, because why would anyone expect otherwise? If a story is to feature the youth perspective, then it should follow logically that his parents’ thoughts, ideas, and motivations factor into the story only peripherally. Right, Mikey? But in Something Wicked This Way Comes, that gap is bridged to a really interesting end.

Something Wicked is the story of two kids scrambling to be a day, a month, a year older, and an aging parent reflecting on the nostalgia of his youth and perhaps wishing to shave a few years off his own accumulated tree rings. The desire here, in the former to be older and in the latter to be younger, serves to drive the characters’ behavior but does so at the expense of sound judgment; and the desire—not unlike Macbeth’s desire to become king—is shown to be inextricably bound to a sense of malevolence on account of that clouded judgment. In fact, the very title of this novel harks back to the opening scene of Macbeth, in which a witch (in which a witch!) intimates the evil nature residing in the main character, and I think that line subsequently calls attention to the potential within each of us for evil to be realized, provided we let it.

The other thing I liked about this novel was Bradbury’s writing, which is almost entirely atmospheric and metaphorical.

Deep forests, dark caves, dim churches, half-lit libraries were all the same, they tuned you down, they dampened your ardour, they brought you to murmurs and soft cries for fear of raising up phantom twins of your voice which might haunt corridors long after your passage.

The imagery of the phantom twin as metaphor for an echo is pretty brilliant here, and Bradbury repeats this feat throughout the book. It probably also helped, with regard to timing, that I read this book in October, as the story takes place in the same month, for the descriptive voice seemed to lend an extra layer of reality to the story.

Something I did not care for, however, was a scene at the end in which (view spoiler). I don’t know about you, but I get riled up when someone simply says to me, “Lighten up, dude.” Because, don’t fucking tell me to lighten up. I could not imagine someone clocking me over the head, boxing my ears, and slapping my face as a forceful means of conjuring a smile. I bet you would not be very happy if someone were to do that to you, right? And what’s good enough for you, is good enough for me.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. ...more

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Aug 09, 2013 Becky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, spooky-scary-werewolf-bar-mitzvah, amoris-circo

reread 2025 - my God I loved it just as much the second time. I listened to it on a road trip, I want to re-read it too. i want to highlight its pages and linger again

Oh Bradbury, why did I take so long to discover you? I could blame the fact that I missed that class in High School where they read Fahrenheit, or I could point to the some four hundred books on my To Be Read Doompile, but they all seem so shallow now. I instantly connected to your style, it was brilliant. I could feel the autumn a reread 2025 - my God I loved it just as much the second time. I listened to it on a road trip, I want to re-read it too. i want to highlight its pages and linger again

Oh Bradbury, why did I take so long to discover you? I could blame the fact that I missed that class in High School where they read Fahrenheit, or I could point to the some four hundred books on my To Be Read Doompile, but they all seem so shallow now. I instantly connected to your style, it was brilliant. I could feel the autumn and October winds drift past me, laden with smells and tastes that are specific to the chilly months in the Midwest. Every word was so beautiful, so evocative, it was a perfect fall read.

It wasn’t spooky, it wasn’t horror, but it was really really ridiculously excellent. I mean, I would love to quote the entire conversation between Will and his Dad, right here, because it is a) the best father-son talk in any book ever and b) from that alone you should understand why I loved this book. But that would be cheating you out of the experience of reading it for yourself.

So I will give you an excerpt. It will be my whole review. I want you to have a taste, and then I want you to reach for the book yourself, reach for the bottle, and drink it up. Every word.

“…Now, look, since when did you think being good meant being happy?”
“Since always”
“Since now learn otherwise. Sometimes the man who looks happiest in town, with the biggest smile, is the one carrying the biggest load of sin. There are smiles and smiles; learn to tell the dark variety from the light. The seal-barker, the laugh-shouter, half the time he’s covering up. He’s had his fun, and he’s guilty. And men do love sin, Will, oh how they love it, never doubt, in all shapes, sizes, colors, and smells. Times come when troughs, not tables, suit our appetites… For being good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two. I’ve known a few. You work twice as hard to be a farmer as to be his hog.” ...more

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Sep 30, 2013 Gary the Bookworm rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: for-wine-club

“Beware the autumn people. … For some, autumn comes early, stays late, through life … with no winter, spring or revivifying summer. For these beings, fall is the only normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No, the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks through their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between
“Beware the autumn people. … For some, autumn comes early, stays late, through life … with no winter, spring or revivifying summer. For these beings, fall is the only normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No, the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks through their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth. In gusts they beetle-scurry, creep, thread, filter, motion, make all moons sullen, and surely cloud all clear-run waters. The spider-web hears them, trembles—breaks. Such are the autumn people. Beware of them.”

Wickedness abounds in this creepy parable about good and evil. Two adolescent boys, level-headed Will and his tempestuous pal, Jim, have unwittingly attracted the attention of a sinister, tattooed stranger when the carnival comes to town in late October. It is their misfortune that they've noticed that the sideshow freaks are eerily familiar. After some hair-raising visits to the midway, they hide themselves in the town library, where Will's despondent father bides his days and nights in abject isolation as the custodian. When evil comes knocking, father and son learn some critical truths about themselves and their relationship.

Bradbury craftily employs supernatural forces to examine attitudes about parenting, perceptions of self, and the impact of aging. He conjures up some nifty mechanisms to tantalize and torment his characters, especially a carousel which can go forwards or backwards with confounding results. His flights of fancy are feverishly frightening, yet he manages to create authentic characters whose struggles mirror our own. Next time the carnival comes to my town, I'm going to stay inside and lock my doors and windows. After reading this you might do likewise.

...more

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Oct 16, 2019 Kelly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I listened to it on Audible. I was actually surprised by how poetic and lyrical it was— I was really taken by the language. It seems to barrage your senses and get into you!

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