Book Review by R. J. Burgess (Strange Horizons) of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

I was slightly disappointed with Ray Bradbury's dark fantasy classic of small town life. The no doubt excellent poetic writing style was too over-egged for my taste, frustrating an exciting tale of supernatural intrusion into the mundane. Wonderful imagery and nostalgic atmosphere though, but appealing more to the sophisticated middle aged reader, wistful about the passing of time, rather then the 13 year old the book seems to be aimed at.

Read R.J. Burgess's review on the Strange Horizon website here. For more detailed information and analysis see the Wikipedia entry here.

Book Review from Mad Bibliophile: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

A gothic tale about isolation with one of the most unsettling opening paragraphs of any chiller:

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the deathcup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

Read the short review from Mad Bibliophile here

Book Review from The Mumpsimus Blog: The Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison

A dark, subtle & difficult novel about the after effects on three Cambridge students of an occult ritual gone wrong, by 'literary' fantasy and SF writer M. John Harrison. Read the short review from The Mumpsimus blog here.