Something Wicked This Way Comes cover art

Something Wicked This Way Comes

A Novel

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About this listen

 One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most popular novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes, now in a new recording narrated by Paul Giamatti!

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. Classics Coming of Age Genre Fiction Science Fiction Heartfelt Fiction Scary Dream

Critic reviews

"Combining his unpretentious style with the rhythms and tones of 1940s radio, actor Paul Giamatti smoothly creates the uniquely American feel of Ray Bradbury’s 1962 classic dark fantasy. It’s a week before Halloween, ominous clouds have gathered, and The Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to town. Only Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, two 13-year-old best friends, seem to notice that the carnival rides, mirror maze, and magical carousel might mean big trouble for the good citizens of Green Town, Illinois. The tension in Giamatti’s voice appropriately heightens as the boys take on the awful specters of the Illustrated Man, the Skeleton Man, and Mr. Electrico. A thunderous swirling concoction of boyhood adventure, nostalgia, and modern horror delivered by a consummate actor."
All stars
Most relevant
I'm a newbie when it comes to Bradbury (I used to get him confused with Malcolm but I won't anymore). I absolutely loved this book. The sheer density of the prose is wonderful. It's said that he eliminated 50,000 words from the manuscript and it really paid off. One of the best books I've read this year and certainly the most fun. It also has the greatest chapter 31 in the history of literature - if you know, you know.

Perfect for Halloween.

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Well, it's all in the title. The novel is a masterpiece of poetic writing, with an inventivity and that capacity only Bradbury has to details character feelings in such a precise way.
The voice reading stick perfectly to the novel, although a slight 50's accent would have made it the absolute perfection.

My favourite novel, read with the perfect voice.

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