Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.
Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon.
I think the story would have been better served as a short story. The plot is intriguing and interesting, but it takes Bradbury forever to get to a point. Every action is filled with descriptives of every sort. Some, of course, are needed, but Bradbury often goes on, describing the same thing in, no doubt colorful, but unneeded.
But the characters are wonderful, and you can’t help but root for Jim and Will as they fight to stay who they are against the power of the mysterious carnival that comes to town. They have the help of Will’s father, whose confrontation with one of the carnival’s denizens may be the answer the boys so desperately need.
Depending on your tastes, this could either be a great book, or a real snooze. For me, it was somewhat in the middle.
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
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6. Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
7. The Petticoat Men by Barbara Ewing
8. Lily Pond: Four Years with a Family of Beavers by Hope Ryden
9. Running with the Demon (The Word & The Void #1) by Terry Brooks
10. The Gentle Giants of Ganymede (Giants #2) by James P. Hogan
11. Ararat (Ben Walker #1) by Christopher Golden
12. If It Bleeds by Stephen King
13. American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White Jr.
14. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
15. Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell Adventurer, Adviser to Kings by Janet Wallach
16. Snowblind by Christopher Golden
17. Women of Ashdon (Bridges Over Time #3) by Valerie Anand
18. Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt
19. The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
20. The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa (translated by Nick Caistor)
21. Roses are White by Lesley Lambert
22. Giants' Star (Giants #3) by James P. Hogan
23. Duma Key by Stephen King
24. Magic In My Shoes by Constance Savery
25. The Breach by M.T. Hill
26. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
27. In the Region of the Summer Stars (Eirlandia #1) by Stephen R. Lawhead
28. Later by Stephen King
29. The Bone Doll's Twin (Tamír Triad #1) by Lynn Flewelling
30. The Threshold by Marlys Millhiser
31. Echoes of Home: A Ghost Story by M.L. Rayner
32. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Talking Classics) by Oscar Wilde, Martin Shaw (Reader)
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34. A Knight of the Word (The Word & The Void #2) by Terry Brooks
35. The Mummy (Ramses the Damned #1) by Anne Rice
36. City of the Lost by Will Adams
37. The Summer Queen: A Medieval Tale of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France by Elizabeth Chadwick
38. Last Train from Perdition (I Travel by Night #2) by Robert R. McCammon
39. Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
40. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
41. Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin
42. The Shining (The Shining #1) by Stephen King
43. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
44. Gwendy's Magic Feather (The Button Box #2) by Richard Chizmar
45. The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
46. Harvest Home by Tom Tryon
47. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
48. The Clover Girls by Viola Shipman
49. The Hiding Place by C. J. Tudor
50. To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield
51. The City Where We Once Lived by Eric Barnes
52. The Cleanup by John Skipp & Craig Spector
53. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
54. Gad’s Hall (Gad’s Hall #1) by Norah Lofts
55. The Listener by Robert R. McCammon
56. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
57. The Haunting of Hill House (Stephen King Horror Library) by Shirley Jackson
58. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Set In the Fall - Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
I Read Horror Year-Round List
*Winter Theme, or winter appearance on the cover (snow, ice, etc.):
1. Ararat by Christopher Golden
*Ghosts or spirits:
1. The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
2. Gad’s Hall by Norah Lofts
*Psychological:
1. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
2. The Hiding Place by C. J. Tudor
*Monster or Monsters:
1. Snowblind by Christopher Golden
*A body of water (featured in story, on cover, or in title):
1. Duma Key by Stephen King
2. The Listener by Robert McCammon
*Really scary book cover:
1. The Breach by M.T. Hill
2. Pet Sematary by Stephen King
*Woman on cover:
1. Later by Stephen King
2. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
*Written by a woman:
1. The Mummy (Ramses the Damned #1) by Anne Rice
2. The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor
3. Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
*Written by a best-selling horror author:
1. If It Bleeds by Stephen King
2. The Shining by Stephen King
3. The Cleanup by John Skipp and Craig Spector
4. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
*Written by an indie author:
1. Echoes of Home by M.L. Rayner
*Historical horror (must be an historical novel written by a contemporary author):
1. Last Train From Perdition by Robert McCammon
*Folk horror:
1. Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon