"They prowled on but found no mysterious midnight spheres of evil gas tied by mysterious Oriental knots to daggers plunged in dark earth, no maniac ticket takers bent on terrible revenges. The calliope by the ticket booth neither screamed deaths nor hummed idiot songs to itself."
This book was written by one of, if not the greatest living American author. Ray Bradbury.
The book is Something Wicked This Way Comes
This is the first book I ever read as a child that resulted in problems falling asleep. When I closed my eyes I could hear the calliope playing outside my window and I knew what had rolled into town and was waiting -lurking, just outside, just for me.
What a great and horrifying visualization. Fall in a small town, a carnival arrives by train in the dead of night. The entire thing feels wrong...and yet, it's a carnival, they're fun! Get the kids! Lets go! If only you knew what really lurked in the shadows of the booths, tents and rides. If only.
This book was the catalyst to my interest in the horror genre. Stephen King soon followed and my love for the genre has never waned. Without the violence and the gore of a King novel, Ray Bradbury stitched together something just as terrifying -and the subtlety of it all made it even more so.
“For these beings, fall is ever the normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth....Such are the autumn people.”
For introducing me to the joy of fear, Something Wicked This Way Comes is number 2 on my live changing books list.
To see my number 1, Click HERE
As always, find interviews, writing samples, videos, contests and more on my re-vamped website.
6-5-2012
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