The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I decided to ring in the month of October and the season for reading spooky stories with The Halloween Tree.
Contrary to popular opinion, it was a real let down for me. I read a few unfavourable reviews that stated the same problems I had with this story: confused writing style, no clear organization of what the main point of this story was actually supposed to be and just plain boring.
I have to admit, throughout some of the very elaborate and repeated descriptions of whatever was going on I began to skim read. That was the biggest horror I experienced during reading this story. I do not skim read, ever!
It also felt rather didactic, yet confusing since the “adult” in this story spoke in more riddles than the children.
What was the overall point? Not sure. The only positive point I have to make are the various cultural differences of celebrating Halloween that were described (in painstaking details, though), which was relatively informative.
Overall, imagine me all snuggled up in bed on this early morning as the day dawns grey and foggy, looking forward to a little spooky story, just to look up from my book with a sense of disappointment and having wasted my time.
