Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury tells the story of two pre-teen best friends who witness a strange traveling carnival come to town. Drawn in by the excitement, they realize that something strange is happening as the townspeople who have been to the carnival begin to go missing.

Few events draw as many mixed emotions as a carnival does. 

The awe of the bright lights.

The hunger for exotic fried food.

The excitement of young love.

The fear of the creepy carnival workers.

I grew up in a small town in California where we didn’t really get traveling carnivals. But even as a child, I knew to look past the bright lights to see the grime and filth that came with these shows. As a child, I was as sharp as a tack!

But also, clowns were creepy AF. (I wasn’t really that sharp, just scared of clowns.)

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury tells the story of two pre-teen best friends who witness a strange traveling carnival come to town. Drawn in by the excitement, they realize that something strange is happening as the townspeople who have been to the carnival begin to go missing. The boys meet the leader of this circus, Mr. Dark, who seems to have a mysterious pull on others.

I read this book after having finished Bradbury’s Farenheit 451. F451 was a great read about a dystopian future where books are destroyed by “firemen.” It was a dark book that was well written, so I was looking forward to a book written by Bradbury about a spooky ass carnival. 

And I was extremellyyyyyy disappointed. It was less of a horror or thriller, as I was expecting, and more of a coming-of-age story. The carnival was not spooky, the carnival workers were not as captivating as I had hoped, and the story gave a lot of focus to the father of one of the young boys. He swooped in and saved the day, and for someone who was expecting a much darker tale, I was pretty bummed out. 

Rating: I give this book 2 broke-down carousels out of 10. It had an interesting premise, but did little to deliver. Also, how do you have a traveling carnival, but no creepy clowns?

If you are looking for a good movie in the same vein, check out The Houses October Built. It’s a found-footage movie about a group of friends visiting some of the scariest haunted attractions as Halloween approaches. As they search for a rumored event (and piss off workers for some of the other haunted attractions along the way), the group begins to wonder if the search was really worth it. You can also check out Hellfest. A group of friends check out a traveling Halloween event, where a masked figure begins to attack the group one by one.

If you are looking for some similar books, I’d be a fool to not mention the one and only It by Stephen King. A group of friends are haunted by a terrifying figure in their small town, who seems to be at the bottom of all the missing people in the town. As the group digs into the history of the figure, the figure decides to dig into them. You can also check out Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare, a book about a small town with its usual problems of the older generation condemning the younger generation. What is unusual, though, is the town’s mascot Frendo the Clown, who has begun to kill off the younger rapscallions of the town. It’s gotten a lot of attention, has a sequel out soon, and already has plans for a movie in the works. 

What are your first thoughts when it comes to carnivals? And why is it always clowns? 

Until next time…

-M