Rating: 
Summary: Rich in texture and atmosphere
Review: This book, while wonderful, requires not only a certain sense of wonder, but also a willingness to let the magic develop. It takes patience, the reading can't be rushed or the mood will disappear. Personally, the reason I enjoyed this work so much were due to the feelings of nostalgia it invoked. It took me back to my boyhood, and the mystery of every autumn night. The prose is filled with description and metaphor, transporting the reader directly into the shadowy side of Jim and Will's sleepy little village. The ominous carnival on the outskirts of town and its strange denizens all come alive through Bradbury's master storytelling . If you are a fan of Gothic fiction or just want a tale of the dark fantastic, it doesn't get much better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is terrible!
Review: If there was a rating for zero stars, this book deserves it. I've never read anything so awful. If I didn't have to read it for school, I wouldn't have gotten past the 1st chapter. Hard to understand, slow moving, and plain old boring are just a beginning of all the things I hated about this book. As for everyone else in my class, they all hate it too. I'm about to form a petition against it.
Rating:
Summary: Goodness is a Fearful Occupation...
Review: At core of Ray Bradbury's modern fable is the very un-Post Modernist notion of GOODNESS.Goodness is not"life style".It's not conforming to "appropriate norms"of behavior.It is not garnishing TRUTH with lies, or cosseting Lies with pseudo-truths of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. The brilliance of Bradbury's Tale of TEMPTATION is viewpoint choice of two prepubescent youths...Will and Jim, blood brother friends and spiritual dopplegangers...who are innocent and truly cannot understand why(many)Adults are such LIARS. "Men love sin," states Mr. Halloway(the "Hallowed-Way)to the boys when they ask questions concerning the Source & Glamour of Mr. Dark's Power...On the surface, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES is fairy-tale simple battle between the Devil and his (for the most part) unwilling minions: THE DARK CARNIVAL AND THE SOUL TRAIN OF THE DAMMNED.Sophisticates may miss Grail Wisdom hiddden just beneath his Leaves of Autumn Grass minimalist style which is raw diamond poetry.When Jim and Will Climb the TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE of GOOD & EVIL(peering through a shaded window at shadow forms in sexual rapture) to spy on adults'idea of consummate joy,they are BEWILDERED! "What are they doing? What's wrong with THEM!" SWTWC asks this question repeatedly. Its answers are not always obvious or palatable. If you'll recall for what MACBETH and his pre-modern,liberated consort-in-crime LADY MACBETH (Unsex Me... You murdering ministers!)traded honor; peace-of mind;and ultimately their humanity and salvation...by treacherous assassination of THE KING...you'll spy a glimpse of what Ray Bradbury is doing in what is justly reputed epic moral fable by one of modern America's rare masters of literature.
Rating:
Summary: Ray Bradbury's the Coolest
Review: Perhaps I am a bit biased, but I just can't say anything bad about Ray Bradbury. I have read the reviews of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" both positive and negative. I agree with both sides to an extent. "Something Wicked this Way Comes" IS a dated novel. And while dialogue at times seems straight from "Leave It To Beaver" (Gee whiz!) and the ending can be deemed corny, I feel that this book and Ray Bradbury have stood and will continue to stand the test of time. Bradbury's style of writing may not be appreciated by everyone, but to say that his work is a waste of time seems way to extreme to me. I love Bradbury's works FOR the metaphors, FOR his long descriptions. Bradbury does not allow his readers to be innocent bystanders, instead he places them right there standing next to Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, witnessing fisthand the evil that is Dark and Cooger's traveling carnival. It is a perfect combination of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. For this, Ray Bradbury is definitely one of a kind. As for the ending, I was happy to read a novel with such a simple message at the end. There was no big complex (often ridiculously impossible) solution to ridding the town of evil, rather a pure, simple fix. For me, "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is a welcomed stray from modern horror fiction.
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Summary: The Shadow Side of Greentown
Review: I've always considered this book to be the dark companion to Bradbury's _Dandelion Wine_. Will Halloway is Douglas Spaulding is...young Ray Bradbury. However, where _Dandelion Wine_ dwells primarily on the innocent and uncorrupted side of small-town America in its golden age, this volume dwells with its shadow side. You see, Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show doesn't bring darkness to town, so much as it cultivates what's already there. Like all portrayers of vice, if there weren't already a potentially willing market, they would have no success. Yet, every generation the black train steams into town- always on the cusp of the seasons- always in a long October, half way between midsummer and Christmas. Every generation they tempt and entrap. Every generation must either resist or succumb to their dark tricks. These October people are still out there, still making their infernal rounds.... This book bears rereading. First of all, like much of Bradbury's earlier work it is as much poem as prose. I know that I myself didn't really appreciate poetry, the right brain side of seeing things, until I found his work. Also, as one grows older, one identifies less with Will, and Will's potential shadow, Jim, and more with the other characters. For me, Will's father, an old man who has wandered the world and has suffered a thousand petty defeats- and a much lesser number of minor victories- becomes more and more familiar. This book will give you nightmares. It will do so not because of graphic violence, but because of the way it subtly undermines the spirit and spreads doubts through the chinks of the soul. Still, without Dark to contend with, how would Light define, and strengthen, itself?
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated
Review: I have to admit that I just don't get it. I'm baffled as to why Ray Bradbury is considered such a genius. This book, considered one of his best, really doesn't stand out to me as anything all that special. The plot is cute, at best. It's not terribly creative; in fact, it's quite formulaic and often predictable. The characters are interesting, but not in any profound sort of way. And the writing is choppy and unrefined. I might give this book to an 11-year-old looking for a quick, easy read. But I have to believe that the past forty years have produced better material in the way of fantasy fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad for horror
Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes, not bad for a horror novel. im usually not into horror, but all in all it wasnt bad. the storyline was pretty original, and the writing itself was not bradbury's best, but still decent. The plot follows the escapades of two best friends, one being mischivious and curious, the other quiet and shy. Their simple life becomes greatly twisted, and I mean twisted, when a Halloween carnival arrives. An illustrated man, a blind fortune telling witch, and a dwarf are just the beginnings of trouble. oh, and there is the carousel that can change your age instantly.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't like the style
Review: I thought this was a really great story, but I just didn't like the writing style. At times I felt like I was reading a Dick and Jane book. The sentences seemed too choppy.
This is the second book by Bradbury I've read, and haven't been too impressed with either of them.
Rating: 
Summary: waxy figures running 'cross my mind
Review: This book was suggested for me to read by a friend of mine. She knew the wicked books that I have read very recently. At first, I did not want to read it, but after I read the cover of the book I was hooked. The opening pages were very interesting, I was going into the book not knowing what to expect and I was very shocked. The scene I most thoroughly enjoyed was the carousel. Most people would think that it is a very wicked part but I really enjoyed it. Most of the book was very disturbing and that they did not know what they had gotten themselves into. I really enjoyed the book.
Rating:
Summary: Bradbury's dark carnival reveals little magic to my eyes
Review: I know that Something Wicked This Way Comes is a classic that many readers love, but I found the novel rather disappointing and can in all honesty only reward it with three stars. For me, the writing was just too disjointed at times, full of little pot holes I kept catching my foot in. The real world of this dark fantasy, the town before the dark carnival rolled in under the cover of night, never seemed real to me, and the friendship of the two boys, Will and Jim, never made perfect sense. We are told they are so much alike, born two minutes apart, but they seem mirror opposites to me. One aspect of Jim in particular is mentioned rather prominently yet never explored or even mentioned again, a fact I found disheartening. Then there is Will's father, an older man stumbling quietly through just a few pages of the first half of the novel before becoming magically transformed into an eloquent speaker and incredibly able enemy of dark forces. Certainly, there are aspects of the story I accepted and enjoyed, such as the issue of time and the ways in which boys want to be older and aging men and women long for a return to youth; it was exactly these most innermost desires that fed the strange carnival operators Mr. Dark and Mr. Cooger. The idea of the carnival freaks being the remnants of the carnival's former victims is also good. The machinery of the story, though, just never worked for me. The mirror magic of the maze was not developed enough to be convincing, and the inner mysteries of the darkly magical carousel never seemed anything more than foolish to me. Since the evils of the carnival were never convincing to me, the manner in which its harmful effects are fought seemed almost ridiculous. My entire reading of this novel was something of a struggle, one which offered me only a few moments of satisfaction. Knowing that this is Ray Bradbury, I tried very hard to like Something Wicked This Way Comes, but for whatever reason Bradbury's magic just never had any discernible effect on me.
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