September 2011 Read: Something Wicked This Way Comes

[Jason]

I'm waiting to finish a book so I can start this one but feel free to discuss.

[Alana ~ The Book Pimp]

I've always wanted to read this one...

[Nora aka Diva]

Is the book good enough to have my daughter ride her bike downtown to see if the library has it?

[Erica]

Nora- yes!!

[Lee]

I'm a third in, part II is next. His was not as "way out there" as this is. This fantasy plays like a dream, is it really happening?

[Angie]

Has anyone seen the movie? Spoilers: I thought the movie was good. As a kid I would've been scared! A few things I didn't like, the Dust Witch for one. I pictured her much different and was hoping for the creepiness in the movie. Also I didn't feel like the carrousel played as big of a role as it should've. But I did think for being a kid's movie it works. I thought the cast is an excellent cast and it's amazing how much some of the actor's have aged.

[Jenny]

I'm listening to it on audio book and I'm getting towards the end of disk 3. I just finished the part with Mr. Electrico. I like it, especially because it's getting me in the mood for fall (which is my favorite season). I also like how it brings me back to childhood fears.

[James]

It is very good, but in places the prose style gets too... 'greeting card' for me. Over-ripe.

But certainly worth a read.

[Cliff's Dark Gems]

Loved this book as a teenager and found it just as powerful now. Deliciously dark, creepy carnival story!

[Tressa]

James wrote: "It is very good, but in places the prose style gets too... 'greeting card' for me. Over-ripe.

But certainly worth a read."

I think King mentions the sometimes sappy prose in Wicked in his book Danse Macabre.

[Lee]

Finished Mr. Bradburys "classic". You can look at my review, tell me what you think.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54...

[Michael]

.."Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before Death is what counts."

Thanks Lee for bringing that quote to mind. So true.

[Maggie]

I have reserved this at my library.

[StephanieT]

Scott wrote: " his ultra-poetic style is starting to wear on me."

Agreed.

[Wendy]

Just ordered the book from Amazon and can't wait to get started. I can honestly say ive never heard of it and dont know anything about it so im looking forward to reading it and joining in the discussion.

[Jason]

I tried reading this last year for Halloween, but the copy I had was all mangled and destroyed, making reading it very difficult. I'm giving it another go this year. LOL

[Lee]

So is the "mangled and destroyed" copy going to be easier to read this year? :)

[Jason]

Indeed it is! LOL

I replaced it.

[Brick]

An excellent read, guys! I read this one a long time ago!

[James]

Tressa wrote: "James wrote: "It is very good, but in places the prose style gets too... 'greeting card' for me. Over-ripe.

But certainly worth a read."

I think King mentions the sometimes sappy prose in Wicked..."

Teressa - yes, I was thinking of Dance Macabre as I wrote that, funnily enough!

[Jenny]

I liked a lot of things about this book. I liked the characters, the description, the library, that it was set in autumn, and I liked the general story line. Unfortunately, somehow the book still had a hard time keeping my interest. I think there were a lot of parts that just weren't interesting or dragged on and could have been cut out. I think I would have enjoyed Something Wicked more if it had been a short story. Also I agree with Scott, the ending was just so cheesy. I definitely liked the book the most in the beginning.

[Lori]

Yay! I actually own this book. I'm gonna do my best to read it with you guys! =]

[Maggie]

Just about to start this one today.

[Leah]

Lee wrote: "I'm a third in, part II is next. His was not as "way out there" as this is. This fantasy plays like a dream, is it really happening?"

Funny, I thought Dandelion Wine was pretty out there, but I read that when I was probably so young everything was out there. However, his gothic "fantasy" take is really intriguing and I think helps work the plot and themes.

[Leah]

That said, I have to agree with Tressa, James, Scott, and Jenny. I am listening to this on audiobook and I swear I almost threw the iPod out of the car 20 times while screaming get to the point! I can't decide if the wordiness here is worse than in what I have read from Lovercraft!

I am not finished yet, so I can't discuss the sappy ending, though I am not feeling too good about that now, but apart from the writing style, what can we discuss? Anyone have a topic (besides "Does writing like the dude from Hallmark make your prose more entertaining?")?

[Tressa]

Leah, don't ever pick up any of Pat Conroy's later books because he will go on and on and on about the beauty of a damn oyster. He can write some beautiful passages, but he tries to hard to wax poetic these days. His earlier books The Great Santini and The Water is Wide are much leaner but still beautifully written.

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

I'm reading this now. It's packed with imagery and metaphor. It took me a while to get into the mood, but I am enjoying it. The movie seems pretty faithful so far.

I can see others' point about the prose being too flowery. I'm listening to it on audio, and I've had to rewind some parts to get an idea of what was going on.

[Steve]

With the approach of Fall this certainly is a good book to choose. I can't think of a single 'bad' book by Bradbury, but this is one of his best. I'd also recommend THE HALLOWEEN TREE, which is a pretty quick read and, I believe, a good companion to this book.

Leah, if you don't care for Bradbury in this book I suggest you never pick up "Green Shadows, White Whale", his semi-fictional/autobiographical novel about working with John Houston on the script for MOBY DICK. Bradbury's description of the Irish countryside and his stories of Irish beggars would clearly not be to your liking.

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

I've gotten to the part where Dark accosts the boys and Charles Halliway at the library, and it's quite chilling, and I really want to hurt him in the worst way. I still have moments where my mind wanders, but I think I just have to be in the mood for writing like Bradbury's.

[Maggie]

Scott wrote: "Apart from the first act, I really did not enjoy reading this very much.

I don't want to say the writing is bad, but it is way too flowery and verbose for my tastes. Why say it in one sentence ..."

Totally agree with you Scott. I finished this book with a sigh of relief, thankfully that's over I thought. Not the writing style that I enjoy, way too verbose. And the seemingly endless speeches by Mr Halloway in the library? Way too much. Mostly I felt this book didn't bring me anything new, and I found the characters very flat and one dimensional. I certainly didn't feel any chills or fearful moments. My full review is available, but only 1 star from me I'm afraid.

[Maggie]

Scott wrote: "Leah wrote: "I almost threw the iPod out of the car 20 times while screaming get to the point! I can't decide if the wordiness here is worse than in what I have read from Lovercraft!"

Wait till you get to Mr Holloway's monologue on the nature of evil. What a windbag!"

Totally totally agree! So glad I've finished it and can move onto something else.

[Wendy]

Ive just finished the book and could not get into it at all. I found it quite tedious and hardly a page turner, it was actually a relief to get to the end of it. Most of the time I had to read passages about 3 times because I found that as I was reading Id started thinking about practically anything else just to escape the boredom.

[Angie]

spoilers:
It took me a while to get through the book. Somethings I was confused, for example why did Mr. Cooger go to Miss Foley's house as her nephew? Was it to get her to the carnival? But why her? Then at the end how did Jim go back to being young? By the dad and Will laughing? I thought that was just to bring him back to life and it never really mentioned if Jim was young again or not.

I really did enjoy the idea of the book. The evil carnival coming to town, and even Stephen King used this idea in one of his book after reading this book. I do think the Illustrated Man was a very scary character. Still I would've liked more background on the carnival instead of the rhymes about it. I think the dad was trying to explain it when they were in the library with all the books he had laid out but it still wasn't enough background just riddles. Which I guess adds to the mystery of the carnival.

[Courtney]

I'm a few pages away from finishing this, and I find the closer I get to the end, the tougher it is to pick it up. I love the story, and at first the prose didn't bother me all that much, but now I'm finding the prose tedious, and I'm giving a shit less and less all the time. LOL.

[Simon]

I read this book for October last year and I thought it was good but not brilliant.

I felt that Bradbury was trying hard to evoke a sense of nostalgia for childhood as he remembers it. As a consequence, the effectiveness of this story probably depends on how much you can relate to his notion of childhood. Something that the less male, the less American and further removed from Bradbury's generation you are, the harder that is going to be.

[Eric]

Hey guys, jumping back in here... Been reading Something Wicked for my Halloween read as well. Did anyone else find themselves reading this one out loud? I love Bradbury's prose and think it really lends itself to being read verbally.