Sam Reader is a writer and conventions editor for
The Geek Initiative. He also writes literary criticism and reviews at
strangelibrary.com. One of
eight books about the horrors of adolescence he tagged at the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog:
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Bradbury’s gothic fantasy novel follows two young boys who must stop a sinister carnival of “autumn people” who feed on negative emotions and the dissatisfaction of the townsfolk in the places they visit. Bradbury sets up a framework that would become more or less conventional, capitalizing on that universal teenage certainty that, well, parents just don’t understand. with the town’s children well aware that Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Carnival (really, why would anyone go to something with that name?) is a terrifying spectacle that sucks the life and souls out of their friends and neighbors, and the adults without a clue. But rather than drop the grownups on the wrong side of a dividing line, Bradbury instead allows the ones who can get in touch with their inner child to fight back against the monsters, and eventually become invaluable allies against the Pandemonium Carnival’s dark delights.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
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