Some mild spoilers, particularily for the character of Charles Halloway.
When looking back on this book with an unfocused eye, at first glance it seems as if I'm not actually all that impressed with its horror aspects. Sure there's the happenings at halloween trope and there's mummies, sort-of undead beings, monsters, witches, magic and all sorts of elements of the horror stable, but they don't manage to stand out all that much. The only thing that is genuinly inspired is the Illustrated man and his relationship with his underlings. More on that in a bit.
There doesn't seem to be a faith that any of the main characters ascribe to and while that shouldn't automatically point to nihilism, it does so in the character of Charles Halloway. It's his occasionally bleak musings on life and the tantalizing hints of the dark after life that help get the mood into the horror category. Though of course that does get counteracted with the love for his family and a surprisingly beautiful origin of consciousness story, which I'll talk about in a next post. And the book itself ends in a hopeful (read naively) in medias res point and even for Charles Halloway the nihilism is countered by an eventual purpose through and for others and a sense of gained companionship.
Why does the book belong with the terror 8, though? Any grimdark fantasy could be put in best horror works far in advance of Something Wicked This Way Comes going by just the criteria mentioned above...
Well, the book, as evinced from my fantasy masterworks review, is at times indeed too corny and most of the time doesn't actually feel as a horror tale, not too mention how Bradbury's overwrought prose gets in the way of the story's flow...
However, there's a point in the book where, though it still isn't exactly horrifying, something else shines through.
The tension it manages to evoke in the reader in part 2: Pursuits is an indrawn breath that just can't be let go until later in the book when we arrive at the temporary safe haven of the library. It's a masterful act that made me sit up and read it in a single go.
It's something that doesn't happen quite often in my reading and when it does, it is memorable.
It also ties into what I said above about the Illustrated Man and how his relationship with his underlings is genuinely interesting and bordering on terrifying. His character is in interesting one and everytime he's on the page he's a magnet that you just can't look away from. His enigmatic tattoos, dangerous smile and easy charm give an ever-present intimation of danger, as if he looks at the world and sees only prey, like a wolf among sheep.
It's what makes this part work so well as we get to see the carnival at its most dangerous, led by the Illustrated man, invading the boys' homeground, every subsequent revelation giving bewildering and disturbing glimpses into how the carnival preys on people. To say much more would be to spoil the best part of the book so I'll end it here.
So with that, I do believe that despite the book's failings, especially that dumb ending that really is the antithesis of horror, it does still belong in here. There are other books more worthy of the place but If I'm asked for a reason for this book to be among the eight, I'll point at that segment.
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