2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

Pages: 293 pages

Length: 1 month (October)

Participants: Carri, Beth, SarahKat, Lorraine

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

I accidentally finished this yesterday. I was traveling and had a whole lot of sitting-around time in planes and airports. I liked it. Because I read it all in one go without stopping it's hard to comment on any one bit.

Spoilers through the end...
(view spoiler)[I did like that the adults (Miss Foley and Mr. Dark) appeared as children. I thought that was interesting and made it creepier.

I didn't mind that it had a happy ending. It seemed a little more hopeful and sweet than it could have if Jim had ended up dead. (hide spoiler)]

Short Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I also finished the book as I am travelling as of tomorrow and won't have a lot of reading time. (view spoiler)[ This book did not work well for me. Like SarahKat, I loved the premise of the book but felt the story was getting old. It felt like and old movie, where someone get shot and talk about 15 minutes on his knews before dying. But I do understand why some people will just love it. I gave it 3 stars because I can see the author talent even though that story was not for me. (hide spoiler)]

Starting the audiobook today!

I could have written Lorraine’s comment; my thoughts exactly on the book. Sometimes the imagery language was just so much that it stalled the story (“Her swamp breath flooded him while, with immense curiosity, he watched the poisonous drizzle from her lips, counted the folds in her stitch-wrinkled eyes, the Gila monster neck, the mummy-linen ears, the dry-rivulet river-sand brow.” - that is one looooong sentence, and I got rather lost in it). At other times, the turns of phrase were glorious (“the shadow and the man it escorted”).

I really really wanted to love this book but....
(view spoiler)[My god, can you maybe tone it down a little there, Mr. Bradbury?? Vivid descriptions and expansive prose are great... until it's just freaking annoying. Is it necessary in every single sentence? I admit, I began to not listen closely because it was just so much wordiness.
In the end, the story was great! It reminded me of It with a tattoed man instead of a clown. Certainly creepy and enjoyable. But I would have enjoyed it more if it was half the length. (hide spoiler)]