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The October Game
The October Game, by Ray Bradbury, was published in the March 1948 (Vol. 40, No. 3) edition of Weird Tales.
"It isn't enough to just punish someone; the suffering must be prolonged...".
"It isn't enough to just punish someone; the suffering must be prolonged...".
10 pages, ebook
Published June 23, 2005
255 people want to read
About the author
Ray Bradbury
2,570 books25.5k followersRay Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
September 19, 2020
“Oh, I know how this game is played.”
After reading this short story, you’ll wonder if you really do know how to play the game. I like that it allows the reader to examine the possibilities and choose the ending they like best.
After reading this short story, you’ll wonder if you really do know how to play the game. I like that it allows the reader to examine the possibilities and choose the ending they like best.
March 6, 2025
Ray Bradbury’s The October Game is one of the few times when Bradbury went dark. Yet its grisly elements, its horror, is never actually shown — except in the reader’s mind. Like those great Val Lewton produced films of the 1940s, the horror is left to the reader's imagination; implied, rather than shown. Bradbury showed that vulgarity and disgusting carnal acts, sometimes carried out by children in "modern" horror books, is not horror, just horrific. In October Game, which is about as dark as Bradbury ever went, evil and its manifestation is only inferred, as this great writer schooled other writers in how to tell a disturbing story without blood and gore, and without explicitness in showing such. Bradbury proved those elements were unnecessary to create a truly chilling story.
From the opening moments on a crisp October day at Halloween, we are in the head of a husband as his wife prepares for the arrival of children and guests to a Halloween party. We quickly learn that he loathes his wife, Louise, so much so that simply killing her isn’t going to be enough; he wants her to suffer. With growing trepidation from the reader of this short story, it gradually becomes clear that eight-year-old Marion, blonde and blue-eyed, and quiet, might be in great danger.
A party game at Halloween, a pitch-black basement, and a final line that leaves the truth about the matter entirely to the imagination of the reader, make this a suspenseful and — perhaps — grisly masterpiece of short fiction. Both Ray Bradbury and Cornell Woolrich hold the distinction of being two writers whom no one else ever wrote like. Here, Bradbury schools writers on how to tell a gruesome and genuinely creepy tale by using the imagination of the reader. Much darker than Bradbury usually went, but unforgettable.
From the opening moments on a crisp October day at Halloween, we are in the head of a husband as his wife prepares for the arrival of children and guests to a Halloween party. We quickly learn that he loathes his wife, Louise, so much so that simply killing her isn’t going to be enough; he wants her to suffer. With growing trepidation from the reader of this short story, it gradually becomes clear that eight-year-old Marion, blonde and blue-eyed, and quiet, might be in great danger.
A party game at Halloween, a pitch-black basement, and a final line that leaves the truth about the matter entirely to the imagination of the reader, make this a suspenseful and — perhaps — grisly masterpiece of short fiction. Both Ray Bradbury and Cornell Woolrich hold the distinction of being two writers whom no one else ever wrote like. Here, Bradbury schools writers on how to tell a gruesome and genuinely creepy tale by using the imagination of the reader. Much darker than Bradbury usually went, but unforgettable.
May 28, 2024
A disturbing little story, and a very good one at that, I can't think of another tale by Bradbury that is quite this dark. So well written, it manages to convey the gut wrenching denouement without buckets of gore and gruesome descriptions, it just kinda creeps up and smacks you in the face.
A cracking little tale, 5 stars.
A cracking little tale, 5 stars.
May 27, 2017
I just love Bradbury! Whether I’m reading his speculative fiction or his literary fiction (like the lyrical Dandelion Wine), his writing strikes me as sheer poetry. My favorite line from The October Game creates a vivid picture and completely sets the scene with one partial sentence. I had to stop and replay it just because I enjoyed it so much:
“apples in new skins of toffee… scooped, vented pumpkins peering triangularly from each cold window…”
This is a creepy Halloween short story – one that would be gory in another writer’s hands. Instead, without the tiniest bit of gore, Bradbury – as he does so well – invokes the imagination of the reader to do the work. I ended this story with a shiver and an “Ew”… but the images in my head were self-conjured with only nudges from Bradbury’s use of tone and innuendo.
Brilliant!
“apples in new skins of toffee… scooped, vented pumpkins peering triangularly from each cold window…”
This is a creepy Halloween short story – one that would be gory in another writer’s hands. Instead, without the tiniest bit of gore, Bradbury – as he does so well – invokes the imagination of the reader to do the work. I ended this story with a shiver and an “Ew”… but the images in my head were self-conjured with only nudges from Bradbury’s use of tone and innuendo.
Brilliant!
July 22, 2018
This may be one of the nastiest stories that I have ever come across in the horror genre, written by Bradbury in 1948 when he was in his late twenties and worthy of an author within the EC Comics stable. Yet it is well worth reading.
The reason is that Bradbury captures something of the simmering rage of the male beast trapped in a loveless relationship by the expectations and conformity of post-war America. It is the domestic detail in the first half of the story and the menace rather than the gore that makes the story good.
The anti-hero's rage may be taken to unaccountably inhuman ends in the story but, as in Jack London's 'Moon-face', the author has brilliantly extrapolated a secret but common emotion into some sort of logical conclusion where all pity and 'humanity' has been removed to feed it.
The story descends into gruesome grand guignol but we won't ruin it here by explaining what that means. Suffice it to say that I suspect any 'humane' person will be shocked to the core. The story is not to be read lightly by sensitive souls.
November 24, 2019
Creepy and twisted. It's the kind of story that relies heavily on the reader's imagination, the things insinuated, and the things left unsaid. I liked how instead of expressly spelling it out, the ending leaves the onus with the reader to put together all the pieces scattered around in the story in order to arrive at one's own interpretation of what really happened.
September 29, 2016
Very disturbing, probably the most gruesome Bradbury story I've ever read. Describes a Halloween party thrown by a very toxic, despicable seeming man for his wife and daughter. Draw your own conclusion about the ending, but I know what I think happened. Very well written.
January 3, 2019
Puts you inside the disturbed mind of a man on the brink..... and leaves off with a stunning cliffhanger.
January 25, 2024
It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on sexual violence, rape, psychological distress, violence, & others.
Every time I read what Bradbury has written I am overwhelmed. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to host so much depth; so many avenues in the mind for words to take shape. It is an understatement to declare Bradbury a titan, a Goliath among men. Yet, these words are all I have, so stunned am I by what I have just read. It starts like this; the introduction of a man standing in the shadow of his reflection. The mirror reflects him the man everyone sees but this person does not feel intertwined with his skin.
The first words of this story drew me into my own mind. This experience is one that I long to be given, the shape-shifting of my surroundings by the invisible flicker of ink across my iris. When I come upon stories that allow me to blink myself into their world I feel that I have come upon a tale that I am sure to love. In this case, that deduction proved factual. I was standing alongside Mich as he placed the gun in the drawer, as he regained the fractured parts of himself to form a whole; categorizing everything around him.
This is a story that will require you to think; ask you to reflect; demand you make note of every detail, in the hopes that the final scenes might be made more clear. Yet, what happens in this story is wholeheartedly up for debate. I remain nudged by the descriptions of the autumnal days that have passed. When Mich remembers the sadness that consumed him, leaving him with a tear-soaked face, my feet plant themselves in the frosty earth never to move again.
This scene is very comprehensive & yet I cannot move past it. Bradbury’s use of words has a bludgeoning effect on me. It never really matters what he is describing or where the story is going, Bradbury makes the journey feel like an Odyssey through the darkened waters of Atlantis. In this case, I found the ways in which he described the changes brought on by autumn to be both fascinating & relatable. I felt so sad for the young child who wept into the leaves, alone.
The greater question that arises from this story is whether or not Mich murdered his daughter. I do not believe that he did. There are two reasons why I believe this to be the case: firstly, there was not enough time for the act of desecration to take place. Even accounting for the ride down the slide in anticipation of the arrival in the cellar, during which one might say that Marion was stabbed to death, there was no time in between the descent & the commencement of the 1-3minute monologue which would have left sufficient time for Marion’s body to have been sliced open, pieced & shared around the room. The game is intended for children and therefore follows very obvious rules; one presents what the child-like mind can fathom.
My second reason for feeling this way is because that is not whom I believe Mich to be. During the entire build-up, we never see Mich as being a violent person, especially not toward his child. The scene in which he describes Marion’s character leads me to believe that she resembles him more so in character than in appearance. He feels sorrow for Marion because she suffers the consequence of living between two adults who are jaded from the world & each carries too much of their own load to ever give her the love & tenderness she deserves. In these moments, Mich describes Marion as the pinnacle of innocence.
It would not be ignorant to note that the innocent are often penalized by sheer proximity to those of us who have lost that spark. Therefore, some readers might choose to believe that because Marion had no choice she fell victim to the preying knife that her father wielded. The question that remains, in that case, is, why? Why would Mich have murdered his daughter? Why would he have cut up her body to pass it around to a group of random people—people who had no ties to the business at hand? This lessens the value of his goal which was to directly harm Louise. If her pain is drowned out by the soaring terror of everyone else, Mich does not get the validation that would arise from murdering the child that Louise was forced to birth.
The card that Mich chooses to play is one that he does not yet hold. The relationship that he shares with Louise is something of a mystery to him &, I would wager to say, to her as well. Their interactions are plagued with disgust & distrust. What would lead two individuals who avoid each other so intently to pursue a lifetime commitment? Perhaps because this story was published in 1947 we might gleam the answer to their lack of action. Perhaps it is enough to say that two people who dance to similar tunes do not know how to begin anew. I cannot say for certain.
This fact, however, supports my choice of interpretation. In the introduction, Mich explains that a gun is too quick, & there is no suffering; what is needed is duration. He then goes on to mention that pursuing legal action against his wife to seek full custody of Marion would be the thing that would bring her the most pain. This, I believe is true. Should Mich be granted full custody of their daughter he would certainly not allow Louise to ever see her child again. Though I am not a parent, I can speak to the level of distress that exists with knowing that someone you love is alive & out of reach. This is simply amplified by the legal details that would prevent Louise from ever seeking to free Marion from the guardianship of her father.
What would Louise be left with in her solitude? We learn that Louise was forced into having a child; Mich wanted something like himself to exist in the world. When Marion was born it was almost out of spite that Louise poured all her genetic makeup into Marion’s appearance, ensuring that Mich could not look at their child & recognize any part of himself. The ostracization that took place within this throuple is catatonic.
The person who suffers the most in these situations is the child. Marion is described as being a silent partisan to life. This fact is then used against her when her father encourages a situation in which Louise would lose her sanity in the company of guests in their home. I’m sure he knew that the thought of losing Marion would send Louise over the edge. This situation does nothing but highlights her as being unstable. Why is she screaming at the top of her lungs during a children’s game? What part of this make-believe scenario would lead her to believe that Mich murdered their child?
I am not taking sides. I’m not trying to insinuate that Louise was at fault nor am I saying that Mich holds the blame. What I am saying is that their joint efforts lead the reader to feel a growing urge to have the lighted room revealed to them. This fact is withheld & we are never given the gift of knowledge; the truth outside our grasp. This fact allows the story to carry as much weight as it does. Who is to say what really happened? Mich carried Marion down the slide while Louise sat waiting in the dark. Was the knife already in the basement alongside the rest of the scene’s set-up? Why would Louise put down her guard to appease guests when she feared her husband so much? Why is fear equated to darkness?
What then of the third option? What if we have misjudged the scene? What if what we are watching takes place is simply taken out of context? Marion is said to have known what she was going into. She remains on the sidelines as she watches everyone else approach a slide that leads to a place she helped create. What if she manufactured, inadvertently, the terror by simply being herself? Her silence, poise, disconnect, & youth grant her the benefit of neutrality. A shared initial with her father leads me to believe they are, as I posited earlier, more alike than the author wants us to remember.
When all is said & done, I hold feelings above love & adoration towards this story. I cannot wait to read it again, to be met with minute dust mites that I had missed the first time around. Language has built a haunted house out of five pages of text; a mansion of doom murkier than the grime that birthed the Orcs in Mordor. I am so pleased to have found my way through the window as a slinking spider learning to transform flies on the walls into demons of the past.
If you would like to read this story, please visit this •LINK•.
Every time I read what Bradbury has written I am overwhelmed. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to host so much depth; so many avenues in the mind for words to take shape. It is an understatement to declare Bradbury a titan, a Goliath among men. Yet, these words are all I have, so stunned am I by what I have just read. It starts like this; the introduction of a man standing in the shadow of his reflection. The mirror reflects him the man everyone sees but this person does not feel intertwined with his skin.
The first words of this story drew me into my own mind. This experience is one that I long to be given, the shape-shifting of my surroundings by the invisible flicker of ink across my iris. When I come upon stories that allow me to blink myself into their world I feel that I have come upon a tale that I am sure to love. In this case, that deduction proved factual. I was standing alongside Mich as he placed the gun in the drawer, as he regained the fractured parts of himself to form a whole; categorizing everything around him.
This is a story that will require you to think; ask you to reflect; demand you make note of every detail, in the hopes that the final scenes might be made more clear. Yet, what happens in this story is wholeheartedly up for debate. I remain nudged by the descriptions of the autumnal days that have passed. When Mich remembers the sadness that consumed him, leaving him with a tear-soaked face, my feet plant themselves in the frosty earth never to move again.
This scene is very comprehensive & yet I cannot move past it. Bradbury’s use of words has a bludgeoning effect on me. It never really matters what he is describing or where the story is going, Bradbury makes the journey feel like an Odyssey through the darkened waters of Atlantis. In this case, I found the ways in which he described the changes brought on by autumn to be both fascinating & relatable. I felt so sad for the young child who wept into the leaves, alone.
The greater question that arises from this story is whether or not Mich murdered his daughter. I do not believe that he did. There are two reasons why I believe this to be the case: firstly, there was not enough time for the act of desecration to take place. Even accounting for the ride down the slide in anticipation of the arrival in the cellar, during which one might say that Marion was stabbed to death, there was no time in between the descent & the commencement of the 1-3minute monologue which would have left sufficient time for Marion’s body to have been sliced open, pieced & shared around the room. The game is intended for children and therefore follows very obvious rules; one presents what the child-like mind can fathom.
My second reason for feeling this way is because that is not whom I believe Mich to be. During the entire build-up, we never see Mich as being a violent person, especially not toward his child. The scene in which he describes Marion’s character leads me to believe that she resembles him more so in character than in appearance. He feels sorrow for Marion because she suffers the consequence of living between two adults who are jaded from the world & each carries too much of their own load to ever give her the love & tenderness she deserves. In these moments, Mich describes Marion as the pinnacle of innocence.
It would not be ignorant to note that the innocent are often penalized by sheer proximity to those of us who have lost that spark. Therefore, some readers might choose to believe that because Marion had no choice she fell victim to the preying knife that her father wielded. The question that remains, in that case, is, why? Why would Mich have murdered his daughter? Why would he have cut up her body to pass it around to a group of random people—people who had no ties to the business at hand? This lessens the value of his goal which was to directly harm Louise. If her pain is drowned out by the soaring terror of everyone else, Mich does not get the validation that would arise from murdering the child that Louise was forced to birth.
The card that Mich chooses to play is one that he does not yet hold. The relationship that he shares with Louise is something of a mystery to him &, I would wager to say, to her as well. Their interactions are plagued with disgust & distrust. What would lead two individuals who avoid each other so intently to pursue a lifetime commitment? Perhaps because this story was published in 1947 we might gleam the answer to their lack of action. Perhaps it is enough to say that two people who dance to similar tunes do not know how to begin anew. I cannot say for certain.
This fact, however, supports my choice of interpretation. In the introduction, Mich explains that a gun is too quick, & there is no suffering; what is needed is duration. He then goes on to mention that pursuing legal action against his wife to seek full custody of Marion would be the thing that would bring her the most pain. This, I believe is true. Should Mich be granted full custody of their daughter he would certainly not allow Louise to ever see her child again. Though I am not a parent, I can speak to the level of distress that exists with knowing that someone you love is alive & out of reach. This is simply amplified by the legal details that would prevent Louise from ever seeking to free Marion from the guardianship of her father.
What would Louise be left with in her solitude? We learn that Louise was forced into having a child; Mich wanted something like himself to exist in the world. When Marion was born it was almost out of spite that Louise poured all her genetic makeup into Marion’s appearance, ensuring that Mich could not look at their child & recognize any part of himself. The ostracization that took place within this throuple is catatonic.
The person who suffers the most in these situations is the child. Marion is described as being a silent partisan to life. This fact is then used against her when her father encourages a situation in which Louise would lose her sanity in the company of guests in their home. I’m sure he knew that the thought of losing Marion would send Louise over the edge. This situation does nothing but highlights her as being unstable. Why is she screaming at the top of her lungs during a children’s game? What part of this make-believe scenario would lead her to believe that Mich murdered their child?
I am not taking sides. I’m not trying to insinuate that Louise was at fault nor am I saying that Mich holds the blame. What I am saying is that their joint efforts lead the reader to feel a growing urge to have the lighted room revealed to them. This fact is withheld & we are never given the gift of knowledge; the truth outside our grasp. This fact allows the story to carry as much weight as it does. Who is to say what really happened? Mich carried Marion down the slide while Louise sat waiting in the dark. Was the knife already in the basement alongside the rest of the scene’s set-up? Why would Louise put down her guard to appease guests when she feared her husband so much? Why is fear equated to darkness?
What then of the third option? What if we have misjudged the scene? What if what we are watching takes place is simply taken out of context? Marion is said to have known what she was going into. She remains on the sidelines as she watches everyone else approach a slide that leads to a place she helped create. What if she manufactured, inadvertently, the terror by simply being herself? Her silence, poise, disconnect, & youth grant her the benefit of neutrality. A shared initial with her father leads me to believe they are, as I posited earlier, more alike than the author wants us to remember.
When all is said & done, I hold feelings above love & adoration towards this story. I cannot wait to read it again, to be met with minute dust mites that I had missed the first time around. Language has built a haunted house out of five pages of text; a mansion of doom murkier than the grime that birthed the Orcs in Mordor. I am so pleased to have found my way through the window as a slinking spider learning to transform flies on the walls into demons of the past.
If you would like to read this story, please visit this •LINK•.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2024
"Then …… some idiot turned on the lights."
Of all the horror stories that I've ever read, this has to take the award for the most iconic, most ironic, perhaps the most heartstopping last line of a horror story.
As a person belonging to a country without any real Halloween celebration, I did not know how the October Game was played.
And so I smiled, because at first, the story seems like that of a cold hearted father warming up to his eight year old daughter one last time, probably because he is planning to...ditch her? Steal her from her mother?
Perhaps, he has stolen the show of the whole Halloween party to one-up his (equally) cold wife, because he wants to *hurt* her as much as she hurt him. Typical *stuck in a vengeful marriage with some dark dark undertones** (did he rape his wife eight years ago coz he wanted a child, and she did not? Was that the start of all their cold war?)
And then. And then. THE GAME BEGINS.
As another reviewer rightly said, perhaps in someone else's hands, this story would have been a story of gore. But Ray Bradbury knows how to deck his words so carefully, so exquisitely, that when the deck tumbles, it takes you aback, and the silence scares you.
Of all the horror stories that I've ever read, this has to take the award for the most iconic, most ironic, perhaps the most heartstopping last line of a horror story.
As a person belonging to a country without any real Halloween celebration, I did not know how the October Game was played.
And so I smiled, because at first, the story seems like that of a cold hearted father warming up to his eight year old daughter one last time, probably because he is planning to...ditch her? Steal her from her mother?
Perhaps, he has stolen the show of the whole Halloween party to one-up his (equally) cold wife, because he wants to *hurt* her as much as she hurt him. Typical *stuck in a vengeful marriage with some dark dark undertones** (did he rape his wife eight years ago coz he wanted a child, and she did not? Was that the start of all their cold war?)
And then. And then. THE GAME BEGINS.
As another reviewer rightly said, perhaps in someone else's hands, this story would have been a story of gore. But Ray Bradbury knows how to deck his words so carefully, so exquisitely, that when the deck tumbles, it takes you aback, and the silence scares you.
October 29, 2019
A short story for October.
Read
September 28, 2022*read for school*
January 28, 2026
Bradbury was a genius of disturbing short fiction.
September 30, 2024
A disturbing little story with great tension
December 25, 2019
As a teen, I tried to read Bradbury a couple of times and was turned off by his nostalgia for the halcyon days of the mid-1950s, as captured in The Martian Chronicles, which were less about Mars than about a United States that, frankly, never was. I recall trying some of the other collections, like R is for Rocket, and finding them similar, so I never got to his fantasy or horror, like this story. And, my, what a different story this is. Yes, there’s the nostalgia—here depicted in the negative. All the trappings of a traditional Halloween, but seen through an extremely dark glass. Rather than Bradbury, this perverse tale reminded me more of Roald Dahl, who loved to portray people at their most wicked. There’s a subtleness to the horror, where the crime is implied rather than overtly stated, but that’s where the imagination kicks in and makes it worse than anything Bradbury could have actually written.
October 12, 2018
He had never liked October. Ever since he had first lay in the autumn leaves before his grandmother’s house many years ago and heard the wind and saw the empty trees. It had made him cry, without a reason. And a little of that sadness returned each year to him. It always went away with spring
This is the kind of horror story where you have to think real hard after reading to realize the full horror Ray Bradbury has just painted.
This is the kind of horror story where you have to think real hard after reading to realize the full horror Ray Bradbury has just painted.
October 23, 2016
This short story is a perfect Halloween read. I cannot say anything about it, without giving too much away.
December 1, 2017
Grossly horrific yet absolutely brilliant.
October 5, 2018
Immensely disturbing and depressing. A short, wonderful October read!
August 3, 2022
Stories like this really do portray exactly how close and cut of the same cloth Stephen King and Ray Bradbury both are. This is a short but horrifying story, easily read with them or under an hour. Nonetheless it does just the right amount of horror much like a Stephen King short.
I can see the inspiration that hit Stephen King and kept him going to this very day it's clear as can be that this guy inspired everything that King became. And with each story I listen to of Ray Bradbury I just fall a little bit more in love with the world he created it's just such a great idea the things he tells the stories he weaves. I definitely recommend listening to this even if you know what's going to happen and even if you've listened to it once hearing in a second time just makes the build up even better.
A very solid short horror story definitely for those people who adore Halloween. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
I can see the inspiration that hit Stephen King and kept him going to this very day it's clear as can be that this guy inspired everything that King became. And with each story I listen to of Ray Bradbury I just fall a little bit more in love with the world he created it's just such a great idea the things he tells the stories he weaves. I definitely recommend listening to this even if you know what's going to happen and even if you've listened to it once hearing in a second time just makes the build up even better.
A very solid short horror story definitely for those people who adore Halloween. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
October 26, 2022
"It isn't enough to just punish someone; the suffering must be prolonged...”
Halloween at it's best when you play scary games. All dressed up with outfits ready for this madness. Kids arrive for a party then the lights get switched on - the mother scream and ......
I love how the husband, narrator, is angry and hateful towards his wife and doesn't love his daughter - very scary this one, very weird and very different than the usual - read with caution.
I didn't get it at the beginning so had to think about then thought of Louise's scream when the lights got switched on...very sick...very psychotic.
Characters: The Narrator (Mitch), Louise, Marion
Other Characters: The Children x20 and their parents x12
Place: The Narrator's House
Halloween at it's best when you play scary games. All dressed up with outfits ready for this madness. Kids arrive for a party then the lights get switched on - the mother scream and ......
I love how the husband, narrator, is angry and hateful towards his wife and doesn't love his daughter - very scary this one, very weird and very different than the usual - read with caution.
I didn't get it at the beginning so had to think about then thought of Louise's scream when the lights got switched on...very sick...very psychotic.
Characters: The Narrator (Mitch), Louise, Marion
Other Characters: The Children x20 and their parents x12
Place: The Narrator's House
October 31, 2019
I first read it in the early 1990´s when I was about 12 or so, and it has remained one of my favourite works by Ray Bradbury (and I have read a lot by him). I tend to re-read this story almost every Halloween to get in the spirit, even though Halloween isn´t actually celebrated in my country. At any rate, when you get a chance to read The October Game, give it a try. (Review written on 31st October - might fetch the old, dog-eared magazine with Bradbury stories in it later on, and travel back in time).
April 1, 2020
I read this for my American Literature class and the only thing I can say that our professor can certainly pick good stories.
This was gloomy and unsettling. Just a great, short horror story that takes up no time to read but still makes you feel the frightening reality that is playing out before your very eyes. The moment you realize what the husband did...oh man, that's a pleasure and curse.
And the poetic language in which this story is told gives the story itself so much atmosphere.
This was gloomy and unsettling. Just a great, short horror story that takes up no time to read but still makes you feel the frightening reality that is playing out before your very eyes. The moment you realize what the husband did...oh man, that's a pleasure and curse.
And the poetic language in which this story is told gives the story itself so much atmosphere.
October 19, 2023
Rating: 3.61 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 2.75/5
-Cover: 3/5
-Story: 4/5
-Writing: 4.5/5
Genre: Horror, Classic, Mystery
-Horror: 3.5/5
-Classic: 5/5
-Mystery: 2.5/5
Type: Ebook
Worth?: Yes
Hated|Disliked|Meh|It Was Okay|Liked|Loved
A short and easy read. It was mid for most of it but the ENDING. Wow wow wow.
-Characters: 2.75/5
-Cover: 3/5
-Story: 4/5
-Writing: 4.5/5
Genre: Horror, Classic, Mystery
-Horror: 3.5/5
-Classic: 5/5
-Mystery: 2.5/5
Type: Ebook
Worth?: Yes
Hated|Disliked|Meh|It Was Okay|Liked|Loved
A short and easy read. It was mid for most of it but the ENDING. Wow wow wow.
October 13, 2024
again, super short & read this for class BUT this one is good. i just wrote a goshdarn essay fleshing out my opinions on horror writing so like this is it for me. i have come to understand that i really don't care for details, for gore or yucky imagery. i much much prefer the subtle, the psychological. i love that this is from the pov of the antagonist so to speak but we're still left in the dark (ha) and the ending is so brilliant i think. bradbury over lovecraft any day of the week.
October 5, 2025
I read this every October. As a kid I got in trouble for bringing it home from the library, which only made me want to read more horror novels. It’s macabre and scary—and very well written. You are forced to picture everything in your mind as you read ( unless you happen upon the comic strip version, but even then, the terrifying bits happen out of frame.) Some say the ending is ambiguous. I think not. Well worth getting in trouble over.
January 9, 2023
It's official. I don't like horror. I think I'm done reading horror shorts for a while.
This was a tight, well written story, with tension that built and built and built. Mid-way through, I started having a horrible feeling about this story, and the ending proved me right.
It's Ray Bradbury and so is well written, but damn. I'm now sad and gonna go hug my kids.
This was a tight, well written story, with tension that built and built and built. Mid-way through, I started having a horrible feeling about this story, and the ending proved me right.
It's Ray Bradbury and so is well written, but damn. I'm now sad and gonna go hug my kids.
August 17, 2023
He had never liked October. Ever since he first lay in the autumn leaves before his grandmother’s house many years ago and heard the wind and sway the empty trees. It has made him cry, without a reason. And a little of that sadness returned each year to him. It always went away with spring.
Short, chilling, and perfect for Halloween.
Short, chilling, and perfect for Halloween.
April 2, 2020
Decent story, read it as research for a school assignment. 3/5. Nothing too scary, I did really like the ending but overall just an average story. I would like to use a similar family relationship for one of my characters though.
December 10, 2020
A classic short story by Bradbury. Yes, the ending is gruesome, but I feel the really chilling aspect of the story is the portrayal of the husband who hates both his wife and child, and slowly, patiently plans his special revenge on them...
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