Mid-Reading Thoughts on Something Wicked This Way Comes

I picked up Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes because it was part of a list of the best Halloween books on Goodreads, and I thought the concept sounded really cool, so I decided to give it a chance.

Since it's a bit of a longer read than what I've reviewed so far, I thought I would include a mid-reading summary of my thoughts, both to update people on my progress and to have something on which I can look back when writing my final review. Full text after the jump.

At this point (approximately halfway through the book), I have to say that my feelings about Something Wicked This Way Comes are mixed. I definitely like the carnival concept. It's wonderfully creepy, mixing something that is supposed to be fun and innocent with the macabre. It's the same reason for which I just don't like scary children and scary dolls--the mix of something that is supposed to be pleasant and innocent and something that is creepy is just too much at times, but I don't find that Bradbury overdoes it. He intersperses the creepy parts with innocuous parts, keeping the creep factor from going too high. So far, I haven't found myself feeling genuinely scared of any of the characters. They're weird; they're creepy, but they're not exactly frightening, yet.

I haven't managed to nail down exactly where I stand on the writing style in Something Wicked This Way Comes. A lot of the time, I think that Bradbury's poetic, highly descriptive language is beautiful. For example, when he describes the feeling of a balloon passing over Will's house as being like the feeling you get when you just know, without getting up to look, that the first snow of the year has fallen outside your window, I (being Canadian) could really feel exactly what he meant. At the same time, some of Bradbury's efforts to be poetic/descriptive/metaphorical are just incomprehensible. I look at the same sentence a few times, trying to understand the imagery, and finally shake my head and move on. Overall, I think I like the writing style, but it's a bit jarring when I'm getting wrapped up in the story and then get to a sentence that I just can't process.

One thing I haven't really been impressed with so far is the dialogue. It just feels dry and unrealistic most of the time, and, whenever Jim and Will talk to each other, I can't help but hear whatever they say in Goofy's voice ("Gorsh, Jim, do you really think we oughta [do x]?"). Their voices make them seem a lot more innocent and naive than their actions do, and it feels a little difficult to reconcile the two. That said, I like the friendship between Will and Jim, and I like how Jim remains a little mysterious. What does he want from the carnival? What is he looking for? Is there really a darker side to him? What's going to happen between him and Will by the end of the story? Will they remain the kind of close friends that make up their own ways of signalling each other to sneak out at night and attach rungs to the sides of their houses so that they can sneak back in together, or will the events of this story drive them apart?

I feel like I'm really getting into the "meat" of the story at this point, as the point of view shifts from the boys' to Miss Foley's and the action begins to pick up, and I'm interested in how it's all going to turn out. I'm hoping to see some development on Jim's part and Will's, as well as more creepy Pandemonium Shadow Show action.