A carnival arrives in Green Town three hours after midnight in late October, and two thirteen-year-old best friends are about to find out what it sells.
Atmospheric, poetic and genuinely creepy, with a father and son story at its heart, held back by dense prose and a saggy middle. Four and a half out of five.
Every guide comes as a video and a full written article. Pick the one you need: the review is spoiler-free, the ending explained is not.
Is Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury worth reading? A spoiler-free review of the dark carnival classic: the setup, the atmosphere, Charles Halloway, the prose, what drags, content notes and my score.
Something Wicked This Way Comes ending explained: the bullet trick, the Mirror Maze, how Mr. Dark dies, how Jim comes back, the carousel and what Ray Bradbury means. Full spoilers.
Loved Something Wicked This Way Comes? Six spoiler-free books to read next: Dandelion Wine, The Halloween Tree, The Night Circus, The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane and The October Country.
How does the 1983 Disney film of Something Wicked This Way Comes compare to Ray Bradbury's novel? Cast, what was kept, what was cut, a troubled production and whether it holds up.
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) is Ray Bradbury’s dark fantasy about two best friends, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, and the carnival that arrives in their Illinois town in the last days of October. Its owner, Mr. Dark, offers people what they secretly want, and collects them.
Below you’ll find a spoiler-free review, the ending explained, six books to read next, and how the 1983 Disney film compares.
The book was first published in nineteen sixty two, and it is set in a small Illinois town called Green Town.
Two thirteen year old boys live next door to each other. William Halloway, called Will, has hair as blond as milk thistle. Jim Nightshade has dark, wild hair and a restless streak. They were born a minute apart, one just before midnight on October thirtieth, and one just after, so Jim is a Halloween baby and Will is not.
They are best friends, and the book opens in the last days of October, a month the narrator calls rare for boys. Then, one strange night, Halloween comes early.
The book was first published in nineteen sixty two, and it is set in a small Illinois town called Green Town.
Atmospheric, poetic and genuinely creepy, with a father and son story at its heart, held back by dense prose and a saggy middle. Four and a half out of five. Read it if: you love autumn and old-fashioned dread; you like atmospheric horror more than gore; you enjoy stories about fathers, sons and growing up. Skip it if: you want a fast, plotty thriller; dense, metaphor-heavy prose wears you out. Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes →
Our ending explained covers the final chapters in full, with spoilers. Something Wicked This Way Comes ending explained: the bullet trick, the Mirror Maze, how Mr. Dark dies, how Jim comes back, the carousel and what Ray Bradbury means. Full spoilers. Ending explained: Something Wicked This Way Comes →
How does the 1983 Disney film of Something Wicked This Way Comes compare to Ray Bradbury's novel? Cast, what was kept, what was cut, a troubled production and whether it holds up. Book vs movie: Something Wicked This Way Comes →
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Books like it: Something Wicked This Way Comes →
Ray Bradbury wrote it. It was published in 1962 and is his dark fantasy about best friends Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade and the carnival that arrives in their Illinois town in late October.
It is dark fantasy with horror elements. It builds dread through atmosphere and temptation rather than gore, and it is gentler than modern horror, though it has real peril and scary moments.
Yes. Disney released a film adaptation in 1983, directed by Jack Clayton from a screenplay by Ray Bradbury, with Jason Robards as Charles Halloway and Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark.
Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, two thirteen-year-old best friends, Will's father Charles Halloway, who is the town library's janitor, and the carnival's owner, Mr. Dark, known as the Illustrated Man.
Many readers say it is the perfect October book. It is set in the last days of the month and is full of autumn atmosphere.
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