# Read the first page of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Read the opening of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury free, no signup. Two boys confront a sinister carnival that grants dangerous, dark wishes.

- Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/something-wicked-this-way-comes-ray-bradbury
- Genre: Dark fantasy
- Year: 1962
- ISBN: 9780062242174
- Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9780062242174&s=read-page
- Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9780062242174
- Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9780062242174

## The opening

First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. Not that all months aren't rare. But there be bad and good, as the pirates say. Take September, a bad month: school begins. Consider August, a good month: school hasn't begun yet. July, well, July's really fine: there's no chance in the world for school. June, no doubting it, June's best of all, for the school doors spring wide and September's a billion years away.

But you take October, now. School's been on a month and you're riding easier in the reins, jogging along. You got time to think of the garbage you'll dump on old man Prickett's porch, or the hairy-ape costume you'll wear to the YMCA the last night of the month. And if it's around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bedsheets around corners.

But one strange wild dark long year, Halloween came early.

One year Halloween came on October 24, three hours after midnight.

At that time, James Nightshade of 97 Oak Street 1 2 RAY BRADBURY was thirteen years, eleven months, twenty-three days old. Next door, William Halloway was thirteen years, eleven months and twenty-four days old. Both touched toward fourteen; it almost trembled in their hands.

And that was the October week when they grew up overnight, and were never so young any more....

## Books with a similar feel
- [Babel by R. F. Kuang](https://uncovered.ink/read/babel-r-f-kuang.md)
- [Coraline by Neil Gaiman](https://uncovered.ink/read/coraline-neil-gaiman.md)
- [Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey](https://uncovered.ink/read/black-woods-blue-sky-eowyn-ivey.md)
- [Black Swan, White Raven by Ellen Datlow](https://uncovered.ink/read/black-swan-white-raven-ellen-datlow.md)
- [Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo](https://uncovered.ink/read/ninth-house-leigh-bardugo.md)
- [Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth](https://uncovered.ink/read/chosen-ones-veronica-roth.md)

---
Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.