Something Wicked This Way Comes Chapter Summaries

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury is a novel in which a carnival arrives in town with malicious plans. The values of life are put to the test as horrific change comes to Green Town, Illinois. It begins with two boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Calloway, born two minutes apart but on different days confronted by a lightning rod salesman. He claims that lightning will strike Jim’s house at 3:00AM that morning. Bradbury then fits a lot into the next hours, as 3am didn’t come until many chapters later. This had me wondering right from the beginning what would happen and it allowed for me to enjoy the book a lot more. Lightning doesn’t strike, but a carnival arrives with an evil scheme does. As it turns out, the carnival had been coming to October every 20 or so years for about a very

Mr. Cooger tries to transform himself into a boy so he can pretend being someone’s nephew, but the boys break the controls, and he goes so fast that he comes out centuries old. The two are being sought after by Mr. Dark, also known as the Illustrated Man for all of his tattoos, and his weapons include the Dust Witch and his now old sidekick, Mr. Cooger. This makes the book even more exciting, because the teenagers have to play cat and mouse with Mr. Dark and his carnival based on what he knows and doesn’t know. Will’s dad, Mr. Calloway, has a unique approach to life which inspires the boys and helps them survive. He believes that death is merely a word and it does not exist; rather, everything is in place to make us humans scared of death. This also keeps Mr. Calloway alive, as when the Dust Witch tries to kill him by stopping his heart, he laughs at her and mocks her, which is one thing the dust which can’t stand, but only his genius mind could’ve thought of