Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about thirteen-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival visiting their Midwestern town one October. The carnival’s leader is the mysterious “Mr. Dark” who seemingly wields the power to grant the citizenry’s secret desires. In reality Mr. Dark is a malevolent being who lures these individuals into binding themselves in servitude to him; he is revealed to possess a tattoo bearing the likeness of each person he has thus tricked. Mr. Dark’s presence is countered by Will’s father, Charles Halloway, who harbors his own secret desire to regain his youth because he feels as though he is too old for Will.

     The novel combines elements of fantasy and horror, analyzing the conflicting natures of good and evil which exist within all individuals. Unlike many of Bradbury’s other novel-length works, such as Dandelion Wine and The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes is a single full-length narrative.