This book is an absolutely amazing representation of Bradbury's tale-telling abilities. The story of Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, thirteen years old and in the season of Holloween's October when Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show rolls through town and threatens time itself.

The story seems to center heavily on life, death and the passage of time i.e. aging.

The carousel that allows one to travel backwards or forwards in age to the song of the calliope, the hall of mirrors which shows the young, the old images of one's existance, the two young boys wanting to be older, Will's father, the old man, wanting to be younger. Temptation, freaks and the trickary of evil shadow carnivals leave no dull moments in Bradbury's Something Wicked.

What is particularly appealing about this story is Bradbury's ability to show contrasts, to weave the sensual ying and the terrifying yang together into one. The narration is as if told to a child, and reading it, no matter your age, you can't help but feel like a child again, listening to an old and wise sage tell stories with flamboyant hand jestures and exciting whispers and yells.

Without giving away the ending, I think the overall message of SWTWC is brilliant, enlightning and ironic all at once. Another must-read of Bradbury's many.