This book puts some early stories that didn't make much sense in their collections into a context that certainly does. The result is impressive and enjoyable. Like Dandelion Wine it is a sequence of stories collectively forming a novel. The early writing is brilliant, the later examples simpler and mellower, and the whole thing adds up surely to one of his essential books. The only doubts I had were about a story from the 1980s. Ray Bradbury is on a roll and it is wonderful to have him even now adding great books to his name.

Ray Bradbury, my idol. This book is typical, glorious writing, delicious characters, atmospheric to the point of credibility. Masterful. Unforgettable. Get it!

I love passionately the incomparable writing style of Ray Bradbury. His imagery and descriptions are always unique in a way that no other author has been able to approach. It's like comparing a dense fudge to plain, cakey brownies; hey, you gotta love brownies but the fudge will blow them out of the water every time.

The Elliot family is a motley collection of supernatural beings from every corner of the planet. For whatever reason, they have picked a house out in the middle of Nowhere, America to collect and settle in for their regular (once or twice a century) gatherings. The core family, Mother, Father, Grandmere, Grandpere, Cecy and Tommy, remain to hold the fort in between. Little mortal Tommy is the only one who doesn't fit in, but only because he was adopted; and oh, what he wouldn't give to be able to fly like Uncle Einar or change bodies like Cecy! For the enchantment he feels when listening to Grandmere's stories of the Family is made up of good old-fashioned wonder and love.

Bradbury's recent book From the Dust Returned is exactly as rich and magical as I would have expected from this author. Small wonder, as he has had decades to perfect every well-honed metaphor. This slow is apparently an advantage to character development and visualization, but a plot cobbled together of several previously published short stories does leave the storyline weakened. Still, for Bradbury devotees like me it is not to be missed. Would you pass up a chocolately ganache torte just because somebody left out the pecans? I would hope not.

-lil' readin' sprite

I found the book on the shelf of a tiny branch library in a deserted town where all the business and shops had closed. I’d wondered aloud in the library if everyone in the town in the tiny houses who never came out were actually vampires? Such a desolate place I moved to, and then I found this book that seems to chronicle the entire town as if it were one single house. I took it down from the shelf, and each page was like a window peering into the strange goings-on behind closed doors. As a child, I loved The Addams Family, and never knew that the beginning began with Ray Bradbury as well, and his stories of the Elliots. What a welcome relief from boredom this book is, as I daily walk in this desolate town where no one comes out until after dark. I keep hoping that Uncle Einar will swoop down and lift me up in his wings and we can fly away, or that Cecy will jump behind my eyes and show me what is truly possible here. This book makes my own imagination want to soar far above this undead suburban landscape.

Great story for young readers.

I read this eons ago. I thought it was a great story. My young neighbor is a reading enthusiast so I thought I would introduce him to Ray Bradbury’s writings.

I hate writing this. Ray Bradbury introduced me to magic, wonder, and sadness. I have read his brilliant works over and over throughout my life. I consider him one of the best American writers ever. This book, however, shows he was a little past his prime. He still had the chops, the vocabulary, the rhythms down, but the magic was only there in spots. I believe that he was reaching, overdoing the language just a little, knowing this would probably be his last book. Most other writers only pray to write this well, but for Bradbury it just wasn't the same as the early stories. October Country, The Small Assassin, The Foghorn, A Sound of Thunder, and on and on. I will continue going back into his work for the power and magic he channelled. I don't think I'll read this one again. Ray would understand why I'm so sad.

Did I just read this in two days? Why yes, yes I did. I confess, the first time I read this, I just didn't "get" Bradbury's novel-in-stories style. On a second try, this was marvelous, absolutely marvelous. Timothy is the October-version of Douglas Spaulding, chronicling the last days of the Family in Green Town's haunted house. Lyrical prose, hopeful, delightful melancholy...it's all here.

Great story by a great storyteller. Bradbury makes the great mysteries in life feel knowable in ways that give hope if only by way of saying what can’t be understood together makes us that much less alone.

A delightful example of Ray Bradbury's ability to describe events and scenes in an extraordinary way. If you like "Something Wicked This Way Comes" or "Dandelion Wine" you will likely enjoy this book. There are moments of 'What is he talking about' but if you just keep reading the imagery will become clear and often with a moment of awe. I found the story to be a clever mix of current and ancient lore involving a great cast of characters. Readers unfamiliar with Bradbury's work might not appreciate the style of writing but for a few dollars I think it is worth a try.

I am a great admirer of Ray Bradbury’s work. I am saving this book up for reading and relaxing by the beach.

The great master of all storytellers brilliantly weaves together, and expands upon, several of his most famous stories of the supernatural Elliott family to create a magnificent, wondrous, and hauntingly moving ode to childhood and mortality. Someone please get this book to Tim Burton, it's a story he was born to put on screen.

Bradbury en su mejor forma, con una fantasía que cala en la parte más húmeda del corazon. Es un libro recomendable para niños y adultos que aún se atreven a leer acerca de los mounstros que hay en nosotros.

La historia de esta familia de fantasmas, momias, espíritus y vampiros es más poética que terrorífica y Bradbury despliega toda la magia y la belleza de su escritura en la narración. Uno de sus mejores libros.