Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

[Rick]

This is probably my second favorite Ray Bradbury book, although depending on my mood I might even put it higher than Dandelion Wine. I've always thought of them as weird reflections of one another - kind of like the fun-house mirrors that distort and alter the gazer's appearance.

Did you know Bradbury wrote the screenplay for film adaptation as well?

[Debbie]

I've never read this book. I don't handle 'spooky' very well. And needless to say, I've never seen the movie. I guess I am sort of a chicken. But not all of Bradbury's work is horror, is it? I feel like I should know whether or not I've read anything of his, but I am drawing a major blank.

[Rick]

Bradbury was a jack-of-all-genres really. Dandelion Wine is what might now be magical realism, in that it's just fiction, but there is an underlying sense that magic exists just out of the corner of your eye. But it's not horror at all. Something Wicked This Way Comes is actually what I call dark fantasy. Yes, it's a frightening book, but I find the term horror a bit over the top. I used to work in a video tape rental store (video tapes?) and one Halloween a family came in with a son about 10-12 who having a sleepover Halloween party. They wanted a horror film and the parents went letting them pick out films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc. The came to me hoping I could explain to the kids that I couldn't rent them a rated R film. I smiled and took the kids over two Something Wicked This Way Comes. The kids seemed skeptical. Then I told them it's about two boys and a dark, sinister carnival that comes to town one autumn and the scary people who come along with it. They eventually decided to try it. The parents were happy because it was rated G. After the party they came in to return the movie and told me the movie was a huge success with the kids, they all loved it and said it was one of the best movies they'd ever seen. Those kids, and their families, continued to come to me for Rickomendations for the rest of the years I worked there. Whe I managed a Waldenbooks about 12 years later, I got a similar reputation with book Rickomendations. ;) When the company started going out of business and closing stores, I got letters from kids, and adults, all around the area that were so upset and angry about the store closing. I've still got those letters, tucked away in a keepsake box somewhere (Darn it, now I'm going to have to go dig those out).

So yeah, Something Wicked This Way Comes - scary, but not really horror. ;)