Review of The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another Bradbury book that I think might have been better if I'd read it as a child first. It was definitely interesting and kept me reading, but, as someone who already knew most of what was said about Halloween, there weren't many surprises to be had. The part about Egypt was new to me, but other tidbits were nothing special.

Again, as with Something Wicked This Way Comes, I struggled with Bradbury's descriptive writing style. On the one hand, the scenes he creates are lovely. I loved the spooky Halloween Tree itself and could picture it clearly in my mind, just as I could picture myself running through Notre Dame and seeing the gargoyles there. In terms of creating an imaginary landscape for the reader to enjoy, Bradbury delivers every time. On the other hand, I sometimes found myself wishing that he would just tone down the adjectives and the lengthy sentences full of similes. Not every action needs a paragraph of description to go with it, and all of the similes and images eventually begin to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot, losing any of their drama because they're used so often. A breeze rolls in, and it sounds like the dusty animal howls of tortured souls dead and gone for a thousand years and buried in damp dark graves with no one but earthworms for companions. Bradbury is undoubtedly a talented writer with a gift for description; I just feel I would enjoy his work more if he used that gift a little more sparingly.

That said, it was a nice little Halloween book with a spooky atmosphere (it captured the feeling of being out on Halloween night very well) and a good scary character in the form of Moundshroud. It's probably a fun and interesting way for children to learn about the origins of Halloween, and adults will enjoy pondering the questions it brings up about life and death. Worth the read.