by Ray Bradbury
Confession. I don't have a review exactly since I didn't read the book exactly. I listened to an audio adaptation, which I think was Bradbury's own dramatization of his novel. It was a pretty good production, but I think it was a different experience than reading the story.
Here's the blurb from the publisher: A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's smoke, mazes, and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes - and the stuff of nightmare.
That does capture the essence, but it's really not that scary of an adventure. More of a coming-of-age story set within the weird and horrific world of life, death, and what's in between. Overall, 3 1/2 stars (or 4 since it's a classic). What I didn't know was that this novel is the second of four in the Green Town series. Interesting! Book one is Dandelion Wine, imagine that!
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