In my opinion, the three worst books in history are "Something Wicked This Way Comes", "Lord of the Flies", and "Of Mice and Men", in that precise order. The movie is okay, but I detest the book itself. The author writes in such a queer style that I barely understand the whole thing. The movie isn't my favorite, but at least it makes sense.

The author uses way too much symbolism, so to speak, and I can barely get a picture in my head as I'm reading. Not only that, but the characters use terrible language, and I am the kind of person that has zero tolerance for vulgarity. So take my advice: watch the movie, stay away from the book.

Well, Ray Bradbury pulled off something I never thought I'd see: heartwarming horror. Something Wicked This Way Comes is a truly frightening horror story about two boys living in a midwestern town visited by a mysterious carnival and its group of evil proprietors and "freaks." The boys see too much and become the target of the malevolent forces of the carnival. Bradbury writes these characters to be truly frightening.

The horror story itself would have been very solid, but Bradbury marries it seamlessly to the story of one of the two boys coming to see his father in a different light, even as the father finds something within himself that has sat dormant for far too long.

A truly deep story that will scare you, inspire you and keep you turning the pages. This one should be read more often, it's a real gem.

Carnivals are creepy. I have always thought they were creepy and I will not hear otherwise. My only source of confusion is whether I've always felt this way or only since reading "Something Wicked This Way Comes."
Ray Bradbury is amazing. He can lure you into a story about a planet far, far away and make you believe in the alien landscape. Or he can bring a haunted carnival to town and cause you both nostalgia and dread. Bradbury is a puppet master and guess who is dangling from the string?
"Something Wicked This Way Comes" is a perfect book for anyone who has not yet been introduced to this story telling master. It is a perfect book for anybody looking for a literary chill to go with the melancholy of an autumn night. It is damn near a perfect book in just about every way.
It is the story of two boys whose innate love of a carnival is interupted by something unholy that lurks among the barkers, the dazzling lights and the spinning rides. Something sinister is afoot and therein lies the tale.
This is vintage Bradbury. At its face, a simple horror story with evil men and their evil intentions set within the neon glare of the inherently creepy carnival.
But in classic Bradbury style, it is also a look at the murky, unmanageable chasm between youth and adulthood, and the many pitfals of traversing it. An absolutely must read. The kind of book that will provoke long rested memories of childhood while providing the kind of chills that spring from long autumn shadows. You will hear the sound of far off carousel music long after laying the book to rest.

Ray Bradbury's dark novel of a mysterious carnival that strolls one night into a quiet Midwestern town has attained a deserved classic status in the forty-some years since its unheralded release. Here Bradbury's oft-demonstrated gift for recalling the mindset of childhood and returning it however briefly to a reader, is in full bloom. Two thirteen-year-old boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, each a sort of contrast of the other, exist as the heroes in this fable of good versus evil. In this book the weight of the desires of the human heart and the capacity of those desires to ensnare the soul (here, literally) merit the fullest exploration. Nowhere else in literature is a Mephistophelian bargain made so simplistically appealing, and it is a delight to see how Bradbury delivers his temptations like ripe red apples inwardly rotten to the core. And while thinking about the nature of evil, it seems certain constants have been there to bind the forces of ill in the genre of light versus darkness. One of these is that evil has universally stood revealed in the end. Can evil not hide itself? It seems it always gives its nature away. In this book at least Bradbury has the unmasking come in the form of the intuitive perspicacity of two small boys. I liked this enjoyable tale and I liked its characters, from the wickedly charismatic ringmaster Mr. Dark, to its peculiarly vulnerable wicked witch, to the town librarian, Mr. Halloway, whose seemingly dull life is truly one of secret worlds opening to him each night amid the stacks of books. And what WOULD we each give, either now or one day, to be young all over again? Stop to think about that. And if not a return to youth, do we each have some secret desire for which we would do anything, or pay any price? Under the guise of a soft read, Something Wicked This Way Comes delves deep into humanity's consciousness, and explores what lies within.