The October Country by Ray Bradbury
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
My Review on Goodreads
I really wanted to finish this in October. Sadly, I finished it on November 1st. I love Ray Bradbury, but I was a bit underwhelmed with this collection. Honestly, I disliked the first few stories intensely. As I got further along I found I did start to like some of the stories. It was so weird, because I normally eat up Ray Bradbury's prose, but some some reason, the audiobook narration was not working for me. Maybe it was the narrator. For sure, a bad narrator fit to the story can definitely mess up a reading experience. The reader did capture the feel of the Early 20th Century to Mid-Century, which is the setting for the build of these stories, but he was a bit, I don't know, dry for me. It could have been my mood as well.
I won't go through all the stories, because the ones that I didn't like, didn't impress me at all. I'll talk instead about the ones I appreciated the most.
"The Lake"
A sad story about regrets. 3 stars.
"The Emissary"
I really liked this story. There are unanswered questions that make you think about the story long after it ends. 4 stars.
"Touched With Fire"
Wow, this story is timely for the particular era we live in. 3 stars.
"The Small Assassin"
Very dark, but I loved it. The thought is so scary! Why don't people listen to women? 5 stars.
"The Crowd"
This one was super creepy! 3 stars.
"Jack-in-the-Box"
Very fanciful in a characteristically Ray Bradbury way. 3.5 stars.
"The Scythe"
I liked epic scale of this novel. It goes to some truly existentially dark places. 4 stars.
"The Man Upstairs"
This was weird and kind of creepy. I don't know whether to be more afraid of the man or the boy! 5 stars.
"There Was an Old Woman"
I loved this story. It has a really good sense of humor that had me chuckling. 5 stars
"Homecoming"
I liked the Addams Family vibe to this story. I need to check out the full-length novel based on these characters. 3.5 stars.
My overall impression of this volume is disappointment. I wish I had read it instead of listening to it. I have it on my Kindle and a paperback copy stored away, so I'll try to reread the book without the audio and see how I like it in the future. I could see these as vignettes in a tv series. Perhaps some were on the Ray Bradbury show back in the day.
I'd have to give this one <b>3.5 stars</b>.
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