Carl's RIP Challenges are always so fun and gets me right in the spirit for the fall season and spooky Halloween tales, and this year is no different. While I'm not strongly participating in it this year as much as I'd like to, I'm definitely joining this readalong.

I've joined Ti and Sandy for their readalong of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. I'ts a story I've always wanted to read, but pushed off one for one reason or another. And as the weather gets cooler here in North Florida (it's been 55 degrees in the morning this week!), this story is settling in just right.

First impressions?

I'm pretty sure Ray Bradbury was high when he wrote this. It was a bumpy road getting used to the rhythm, but I'm into it now. Here's a sampling:

There's nothing in the living world like books on water, cures, deaths-of-a-thousand-slices, or pouring white-hot lava off castle walls on drolls and mountebanks. (Chapter 2)

Out in the world, not much happened. But here in the special night, a land bricked with paper and leather, anything might happen, always did. Listen! and you heard ten thousand people screaming so high only dogs feathered their ears. A million folk ran toting cannons, sharpening guillotines; Chinese, four abreast, marched on forever. Invisible, silent, yes, but Jim and Will had the gift of ears and noses as well as the gift of tongues. This was a factory of spices from far countries. Here alien deserts slumbered. Up front was the desk where the nice old lady, Miss Watriss, purple-stamped your books, but down off away were Tibet and Antarctica, the Congo. There went Miss Wills, the other librarian, through Outer Magnolia, calmly toting fragments of Peiping and Yokohama and the Celebes. Way down the third book corridor, an oldish man whispered his broom along in the drak, mounding the fallen spices... (Chapter 2 - this passage is describing the many books and adventures available in a library.)

Trippy.

Readalong Details

• The read along begins on October 1, 2014 and ends on October 31, 2014.
• This read along will take place mostly on Twitter using the hashtag #EnterTheRingmaster. Use the hashtag to share your thoughts while reading. You can click the link here or search that hashtag on Twitter to see what readers are saying.

The book is short and broken down into three sections. Here is the schedule:

• Finish Section 1 (Chapters 1-24) by Friday, October 10th
• Finish Section 2 (Chapters 25-44) by Friday, October 24th
• Finish Section 3 (Chapters 45-54) by Friday, October 31st

On the dates above, Ti will post a quick update. Join in!

I was a huge fan of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, and apparently, this is the sort of premise I like in my freaky, horror dystopian novels. Unwind, by Neal Shusterman is one heck of a story, told from the perspectives of three runaways who are to be "unwound" and will be "donating" their body parts in one fell swoop because their parents or guardians don't want them anymore. It's not just about organs in this future society, though, not heart or kidney transplants from accident victims. Now, no longer do you have to deal with that pesky and boring eye color, you can now purchase a new set of eyes from an "unwind" and have the color you want. It is freaky and it is disturbing, particularly in one scene at Happy Jack, a place where all the "unwinds" go to before they undergo the "chopping block." This story is of Connor, Risa, and Lev, as they come of age and run from the law, fugitives from a world that somehow turned into a society that doesn't considered being "unwound" as dying.

Connor is the troublemaker and his parents are done with him; Risa is an orphan and the orphanage is looking to cut costs, and Lev is the religious offering from his family, who has been preparing for this "special" moment his whole life. When Connor, Risa, and Lev cross paths as they run from their fates, with Lev as their hostage, they know they just have to make it until they reach their eighteenth birthday and then they are free.

This is a wild and unforgettable journey, one I won't soon forget. While at first, I wasn't sure about the narrator's intonation, at some point about an hour in, it seemed to *click" and either I got more into the story, or the narrator really got into the groove of it, relaxing the initial monotone, and really digging deeper into each characters' individual personalities, truly giving this story its deserved frightening tension and action-packed ride. By the end of this audiobook, I couldn't go anywhere without listening to it, and made up excuses to go on errands so I could listen to it in the car. I can't tell you anything about what happens at Happy Jack, an absolutely insane camp where the "unwinds" go before their operation is performed, but there is one scene... one scene that really is sticking with me and still freaks me out. And the fact that in this society, people truly believe that these kids aren't dead, but instead are in a "divided state," is just fantastically horror-filled and completely disturbing. And don't worry, the only political agenda is the extreme of a side, whichever side that may be, and it is always scary.

Don't give up on this audiobook because of the first hour or so; stick with it. The story is SO worth it, and I plan to download the rest of the trilogy. Even if there's that one scene at Happy Jack... I can't get that one out of my head at all.

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Release Date: 11/1/09

Audio Time: 10 hours, 10 minutes

Narrator: Luke Daniels

Click here for an audio sample of Unwind by Neal Shusterman, narrated by Luke Daniels.

FTC Disclosure: I purchased this book from Audible.com

I read this for Stainless Steel Droppings' RIP IX Challenge.

About the Author

Neal Shusterman is an award-winning author who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He is an author, director, and screenwriter, for such projects as "Goosebumps," and is in constant demand to speak at schools and conferences. The Unwind is a trilogy and I've heard is going to be made into a movie.

Visit the author:

• On his website
• On Facebook
• On Twitter

About the Narrator (from Goodreads)

Luke Daniels has performed at various repertory theatres around the country, with an emphasis on Shakespeare. His many audiobook credits range from action and suspense to young adult and adult fiction,including works by Philip Roth and John Updike. He currently resides in the Midwest.

Visit the narrator:

• On his website
• On Facebook
• On Twitter
• On Tumblr

This is my favorite time of the year. Even though North Florida does get a little cooler in the fall, it's just not the same as everywhere up North where I'm from. This is the only time of the year I really, really, miss Baltimore and Boston. I love the cool, crisp weather and bright blue skies and the taste of coffee in the morning when there's just a little bit of a chill all around you.

There's also one other thing I love about the fall, and it comes with ghouls and goblins and all kinds of scary stuff. Halloween is one of my favorite "holidays" and I always choose to read books and watch movies that are just a little bit scarier right about now, much more than usual.

And every year, Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings hosts the R.I.P. (R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril) Challenge. It's going onto its ninth year in a row, and it's always fun when August rolls around and you know, YOU KNOW that Carl is going to post on September 1st with all of the details and reveal the artwork. And this year is no different. (The artist, Abigail Larson, is amazing, by the way.)

So here's how it works:

• Click here for Carl's overview that discusses the different levels.
• Post your reviews on the RIP Challenge link site here.
• Read other reviews and comment on them if you like.
• But the most important thing is to HAVE FUN.

I'm opting (as I always do and never achieve, but I'm HAVING FUN, and I need some fun this year) for Peril the First and Peril on the Screen.

And why not do the Peril of the Group Read, hosted by The Estella Society for The Haunting of Hill House, the classic by Shirley Jackson. I might have to do this one...

So, bottom line? Read and watch scary stuff, post about it, and HAVE FUN.