#57 "Not seeing is believing!"
Sammy is into some pretty weird stuff. He likes sci-fi and everything to do with ghosts. But when he starts finding his room dismantled and other strange things start happening he starts to wonder what is going on. Come to find out, Sammy has a new friend. Only this friend is invisible! ( )

And so I continue my life-long dream of reading and reviewing every Goosebumps book from the original series. I'm nearing the end, and the quality of the books is somewhat wavering. After a brief respite, I'm going to try to dash to that distant finish line.

Sammy and his friend Roxanne are both obsessed with ghosts. Unfortunately for Sammy, he's about to meet a ghost of a sort. Brent, an invisible boy, decides to take up residence in Sammy's room in order to make Sammy his new best friend. Unfortunately, Sammy is stupid enough to tell Roxanne about this invisible friend and the process of Sammy's stupidity ruining his life/Brent trying to help him with things and making things worth begins.

[book: My Best Friend is Invisible] is one of those books that both would work better as a TV show or film and.. wouldn't work better as one. It would work better since the action is primarily visual and scenes like the ghost sequence in Hedge House just.. work better on a screen and can be properly paced there. It wouldn't work better due to the eye-roll inducing twist at the end. All in all, not the best or most compelling Goosebumps book and the twist at the end just sealed its mediocrity.

( )

Sammy enjoys everything about horror and science fiction until he meets an invisible boy who insists on being his friend and begins to ruin his life.

This book effectively displays the importance of choosing a proper setting and uses figurative language to describe the settings and characters. A downfall of this book is the plot is somewhat convoluted and tries to go in too many directions. However, the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter entices readers to continue on. Sammy is made fun of by his peers as well as his own teacher and parents because they refuse to listen to his explanation of the invisible boy he often talks to. This issue is not thoroughly addressed or resolved during the book which may lead young readers to believe it is okay to bully and ostracize others. ( )

## Not seeing is believing!

A bit of an unusual entry. My Best Friend is Invisible reaches in too many directions, I think; indecisive on whether it wants to tackle realistic social issues kids may be facing, or just be silly with itself in a very Twilight Zone way. This indecisiveness makes aspects of the story both memorable and forgettable.

[N.B. This review includes images, and was formatted for my site, dendrobibliography -- located here.]

The title plot is immediate: Strange occurrences start happening around Sammy from page one. His window opens on its own; his food keeps disappearing into thin air; he's getting in trouble for messes he didn't make; invisible, clammy, wet, sticky hands keep poking at him and pushing him around. Without any warning, his new invisible friend introduces himself. Brent is an enthusiastic, invisible youth who genuinely likes Sammy, and wants nothing more than to help him in any way he can. The only catch is Sammy has to be his friend. Brent's also kind of a needy jerk, and he won't leave Sammy alone. Every attempt to help ends in an embarrassing blunder for Sammy and only Sammy because -- of course -- no one can see this 'invisible friend' of his make a mess of dinner or accidentally trip him during the school's Olympics (yikes!).

But Brent, the invisible friend of the title, is just continually needy and pushy and happy to be with Sammy. His obsessive behavior is genuinely creepy. It almost seems at times like he wants to hurt the kid he's stalking, that he has no intention of really helping with him anything. (Or if Brent's even human....) A classmate is even nearly killed, all in the name of a dumb joke. There has to be some way for Sammy to get rid of this awful presence without causing any damage, right?

The obligatory twist ending is among the silliest of the series (which I'm not usually keen on, but this one's a bit endearing). Also, like many '90s kids stories, the story demonizes science in a really passive, silly way that I can't ever get along with. Sammy's parents -- both research scientists -- are neglectful and cruel, all in the name of logic and science. Not a fan of that lazy characterization. The darker aspects of the story are memorable, but these are too often interspersed with arbitrary silliness. Overall, My Best Friend... is a perfectly average entry in the series.

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps (1992–1997):
#56 The Curse at Camp Cold Lake | # 58 Deep Trouble II ( )

I never read this series as a kid, and it was a favorite of a friend of mine, so I gave one a go when she started re-reading them for old time's sake.

I thought it was well-written, and I loved the ending. I didn't guess the twist. ( )