Gooseblog: Goosebumps #57: My Best Friend Is Invisible

The amount of books remaining in the original 62 for Goosebumps is rapidly vanishing. And speaking of vanishing, that's an adequate segway to today's take. It's My Best Friend Is Invisible AKA A Hidden Sequel?

COVER STORY

What the hell is this cover? No, seriously. What the hell is this cover? I like the detail of the pizza being eaten by the invisible kid and everything floating in the air. And we have some of Tim's classics like the warping, the checkerboard tiles, and the almost sickening abundance of pink. But all that is moot when you look at that cat. I mean, it would be fine enough if the cat was reacting in panic, but The cartoony facial expression just really weakens it for me. I guess after a really great creepy cover last time, we needed to be brought back to earth I guess. Weak cover, sorry Tim.

STORY

Our protagonist is a kid named Sammy Jacobs. He has a ten-year old brother named Simon who is the more serious of the pair, along with two scientist parents. They're the kind of stick-in-the-mud parents who scoff at science fiction movies because they're not real science. But regardless, Sammy still plans to go with his friend Roxanne Johnson to see a movie called School Spirit. Sammy and Roxanne go to his room to get ready, but see the window mysteriously open and Sammy's cat Brutus in a panic over something. After some jaw jacking between the kids, they see an eerie white light from outside his room. Sammy thinks it's a ghost, but his realist father says that it's not a ghost but his new laser light invention. A molecule laser light, which can spot things that are usually too well hidden.

After everyone laughs at Sammy for being scared of the light, he goes to his room to do his homework, still wondering how the window opened itself. The next day, he goes down for cereal, but when he goes to check on Simon, he sees that his cereal bowl has suddenly been emptied. He goes to class and is forced to write an equation on the chalkboard that he didn't study for, when suddenly his hand moves the chalk on its own. When he gets home, he sees the events of the cover with a pizza being eaten by something invisible. But when Sammy tells his mother, she doesn't believe him and mocks him for his story. Been a couple books, but welcome back Goosebumps parents! After they see mom and dad's room a wreck, they blame Sammy for it and ground him for everything.

It's here where Sammy hears a disembodied voice of a young boy, who introduces himself as Brent Green. He's 12 and has no idea what became of his parents. But he does want to be Sammy's friend. But Sammy has some concerns about befriending people whose faces he can't even see. Of course, Brent, as you'd expect from these types of stories, keeps mute whenever anyone else is around, making Sammy look crazy for trying to introduce others to his invisible friend. Roxanne comes over to help him with his homework, and he tries to show her Brent, but Brent remains silent and still. She also reminds him that they're still going to the haunted house on Saturday. Hedge House is a house owned by a man who would hear the sounds of a ghost calling for him every night. What the ghost wanted isn't explained yet since Roxanne doesn't know.

After Roxanne leaves, Sammy calls for Brent again, but doesn't get an answer. He's still not convinced that Brent doesn't have some ulterior motive as to why he's trying to be Sammy's friend. The next day he goes to school and Roxanne, being a GREAT friend, tells the entire school about Sammy's invisible friend, which gets Sammy mocked. Even by his teacher. I guess mocking someone for their "invisible friend" isn't as bad as fat shaming, but jeez. He promises to get revenge on Roxanne for all this. Sammy is also a relay race runner, and it's conveniently the day of the big race. And Brent shows up and grabs Sammy, trying to help him, but ultimately screws him over. That night he feeds Brent some chicken and tries to coax him into trying to be Roxanne's friend instead. Then, when Brent won't budge, he just tells him to leave him alone. This leads Brent to grab him and shove him by the window, only to say that he was just joking with his best friend.

Sammy yells at Brent some more, prompting his mother to show up and think he's acting insane. After she leaves Sammy asks Brent why he won't speak near others, only for Brent to say he doesn't trust anyone but him. So Sammy comes up with a plan to get rid of Brent once and for all. And that cunning plan is... turn the radiators to maximum heat. It seems to work and Brent leaves the house. That Saturday, Roxanne and Sammy head to Hedge House with a camcorder in hopes of finding a real ghost. They get inside and soon get attacked by what they think is the ghost from the story. The two kids run back to their homes. Eventually Sammy discovers that it was Brent all along. Sammy's had enough of this and screams at Brent to leave him alone. Sammy's dad shows up and is ready to throw him into a nut house but Sammy has one last idea.

TWIST ENDING

Sammy grabs the molecule detector light and runs to his bedroom. He shines the light, finally revealing Brent. The family and Roxanne recoil in horror at the sight of him. He only has one head! And tiny arms! Brent is a human, and was turned invisible by his parents to save him. Sammy changes his mind on Brent, and decides to keep him as a pet. After all, humans are an endangered species. In other words... BOOM! SECRET ALIENS, BITCHES!!

CONCLUSION

So, hear me out on this. I have a bit of a theory on this book that could turn a mediocre at best Goosebumps book into something far more inspired than I think Jovial Bob had any intention for it to be. I said in my opening preamble that this might be a secret sequel book. And that Sequel could be Welcome To Camp Nightmare. Remember how that book ended, with Billy learning that the whole experience at camp was a test to see if he could handle the expedition to the planet Earth? Now what if Billy and his family successfully made it to Earth and their studies concluded that the planet was not only safe to live on, but extremely easy to invade? The invasion happens and the aliens deplete the human species to only a handful of beings left. These aliens are now overlords of the planet Earth, but eventually after years of osmosis, begin to live lives much like the humans did long ago. Hence why they still celebrate things like the New York Yankees (in a scene, Brent tries to wear Sammy's jacket). It's really the only way to make any sense of this twist ending, because without that crucial piece, this is the most random twist of the whole series.

I get what Stine was intending for the twist. It was akin to something out of The Twilight Zone, but through this being a story without any pictures, he tries to catch you in the end with surprise aliens. And without justifying it with something like my theory, it really doesn't work as well as Stine hoped. As for the book otherwise, it's kind of run-of-the-mill. Granted, it's actually paced pretty well and you do feel bad for Sammy with how much Brent ruins his life. Though in fairness, Roxanne ruined it far worse and she got off easy. In the end, I'd say this is an example of Stine trying too hard to get you, and unless you're crazy enough to actually try and tie these damn books together, it doesn't work out as well as he'd hoped. Leaving you with a book that unfortunately winds up pretty see through. My Best Friend Is Invisible gets a C-.




You know, this book also had an episode. Let's see how they handled the alien reveal. I mean how bad could it possibly...

Oh dear.