Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) Review

Ray Bradbury, celebrated American writer. The only thing I’d ever read he wrote was in a collection of short stories that became episodes of The Twilight Zone. The story? “I Sing the Body Electric.” That isn’t our subject for today’s review. Our subject for today’s review is a different tale. A novel, in fact, first published in 1962. Something Wicked This Way Comes. Maybe some metal-heads recognize the title. The American band from Tampa, Florida, Iced Earth, used it for the title of their 1998 album, which I loved. It doesn’t have anything to do with the novel, but it is a Hell of a title. I can’t remember how I came upon it, but this novel’s been on my GoodReads list for a while. Thanks to good people at Scribd, I found the eBook. More thanks to the good people at Audible, I found the audio book.

Scribd? Audible? Both subscription apps. The first a Netflix for eBooks. They have audio books and magazines also, but they didn’t have this one. They had the eBook. The book starts off slow. There’s 54 chapters, at roughly 300 pages give or take depending on the copy. I thought I’d like it, but just really couldn’t get into it. Audible has the only audio book version, and after a few chapters, I switched to that, which I bought with a credit from my free trial. Book, eBook, or audio book, Something Wicked This Way Comes starts off slow. If I’d kept reading, it may be a dreaded “DNF.” The audio book helped a lot, thanks to our narrator, Christian Rummel. He’s the star. A lot of it is his voice changes for the characters, particularly our main villain, Mr. Dark.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is horror. It needs a hero. It needs a villain. This story reminded me of all those beloved 1980s cartoons I grew up on with both. A hero, surrounded by or protecting his friends, and a villain, with an army of “henchmen.” We have both. Our hero is a most unlikely hero, and our villain well, thanks to Mr. Rummel’s performance, is our “star.” Carnivals present a great atmosphere for horror. That’s our setting. Perhaps many of you, dear fiends and readers, are like me and have a phobia of clowns. We have no clowns. Merely a traveling carnival, complete with “ringmaster.” I envision Mr. Dark, the illustrated man, looking like Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York, but with a more Dirk Dastardly/Snidely Whiplash moustache and appearance. There’s a Disney film based on the novel, and I’ll be watching and reviewing.

Yes, Something Wicked This Way Comes starts slow. It took me 40 of the 54 chapters to really get into it, and even then I struggled at points to maintain focus. The ending is always the main part. The payoff. I don’t know. It seemed good, bad, and anti-climatic. This is a third shelf selection. There’s a lot going on, and then the end, well, like the Eastwood film, good, bad, but silly. I was about to almost cry for one of our friends, for our unexpected hero, but then Bradbury tied everything up in a nice clean package, complete with bow, even with hints at the wicked return.