Ah, this one. I remember being mixed on this one. Though I guess if it scored any points it was giving me one heck of a weird theory about how it connects to other books. Will this reread open my eyes, or should it remain invisible? Let's discover for ourselves with My Best Friend is Invisible.
MY BEST FRIEND IS INVISIBLE
RELEASE MONTH: July 1997
FRONT TAGLINE: Not seeing is believing!
COVER STORY
This is a goofy cover. And not just with the wacky cat reaction. I mean, there's all the Tim staples. Garish colors, checkerboard tiling, warping. It makes it feel a bit too silly, but I'd be lying if I didn't say it wasn't memorable either, so it works I guess. And the visual of the pizza being eaten by the invisible kid is a really nice touch.
HE'S OUTTA SIGHT... FOR REAL!
Sammy Jacobs is into ghosts and science fiction. Not exactly the smartest hobby—at least not if you ask Sammy's parents. They're research scientists and they believe only in real science.
But now Sammy's met someone who's totally unreal. He's hanging out in Sammy's room. And eating his cereal for breakfast. Sammy's got to find a way to get rid of his new "friend." Only problem is... Sammy's new "friend" is invisible!
STORY
Sammy Jacobs wishes he were invisible. Then maybe he could get some time away from his super serious scientist parents. Sammy really likes sci-fi, but his parents scoff at it because they're super serious scientists. Speaking of serious, so is Sammy's ten year old brother Simon. So he can't get much reprieve from the super seriousness. As Sammy readies himself to go to see a movie with his friend Roxanne Johnson, his window suddenly opens on its own. His cat Brutus is scared of something. Also there's a weird light outside. Sammy thinks it's a ghost, but it's just his dad's latest invention. A molecule laser light that can see the unseen. Everyone laughs at Sammy because everyone in this book kind of sucks a lot.
The next day, Sammy's still curious as to what went down in his room the other night. When he goes down to eat his cereal, he takes a second to check on Simon before coming back to notice his cereal is gone. At school, he has to write an equation, but his hand starts moving on its own, as if by some other force. Suffice is to say, Sammy's being haunted by someone. And he gets more confirmation later when he sees a pizza slice floating in the air and being eaten, similar to the events of the cover, but without the cartoony cat reaction. He tells his mother, but she doesn't believe him because it is unscientific for something invisible to exist, it's just Sammy's over-imagination. Oh and also because Goosebumps parents.
The invisible being then wrecks the parents bedroom, which makes everyone suspect Sammy, because, again, awful family. After that happens, Sammy finally hears a disembodied voice. The voice is of a young boy named Brent Green. He's invisible and he wants to be Sammy's new best friend. Of course, Sammy's not into this idea given he can't even see his would-be new pal. Brent also decides to only speak to Sammy, not anyone else, which means a bunch of scenes where Sammy looks crazy to everyone else because he's claiming there's an invisible kid.
Roxanne and Sammy are still set to go to Hedge House, the local house in town that everyone believes is haunted. Years ago a man was haunted by a voice that wanted something, but nobody knows just what. So of course they're going to investigate. After she leaves, Brent doesn't answer Sammy, making Sammy think that maybe his best friend has other motives. Maybe he's not so friendly after all. But Brent persists, as the next day at school shows. But, if you think Brent sucks, then Roxanne is worse as she told the whole school so now Brent is being mocked for it. You know, Goosebumps Friends are somehow much worse than Goosebumps Parents sometimes...
We learn that Sammy is a great relay racer, and wouldn't you know it? Today is the day of the big race. And wouldn't you also know it? Brent grabs Sammy, costing him the win. Well Sammy's had it. He's already a laughing stock, his life is ruined even more. He tells Brent to go away. That proves to make things a lot worse. Brent shoves Sammy into the wall, but says it was all a joke. Just a harmless joke invisible people make I guess. Sammy yells at Brent as his mother shows up and still thinks that Sammy's gone off the deep end.
When she leaves, Sammy asks why Brent won't talk to anyone, but Brent says that he only trusts Sammy. Why, I have no idea, since we're near the end of this book and that's going to prove to be a stupid idea from Brent. Sammy tries to get Brent to leave by turning up the heat in the house, and it seems to work for now. Saturday comes and Sammy and Roxanne (still friends for some asinine reason) explore Hedge House. Suddenly, something starts attacking them, causing the two to run home. Sammy realizes that it was Brent again. He yells at Brent again, but now Mr. Jacobs is ready to have Sammy committed because Goosebumps Parents. Hey, I get to say it thrice!
TWIST ENDING
Sammy has one last idea. He grabs Chekhov's Molecular Light and flashes it on Brent. They finally see what Brent is and they all are grossed out. He has one head! Two tiny arms! Two eyes! No tendrils on his head! He's not like them at all. Sammy is a human, which is an endangered species. Which means BOOM! SECRET ALIENS BUCKOS! So, yeah. Brent made a dumb decision trusting Sammy because now Sammy's changed his mind on his friend. He'll keep him as a pet.
CONCLUSION
My Best Friend is Invisible is an okay book with a weird twist. One that is similar to Welcome to Camp Nightmare's, but feels more randomly added, as if Stine really hit a wall on how to end this book. Doing so makes a lot of this book seem odd. So, aliens took over Earth, wiped out most of the human race, then just took over human customs? Their food, their activities, their pets, even sports teams like the New York Yankees. They just took over the planet and just became the human race? It's a really confusing way to end this book. Unless...
I've given this book a crack theory that is flimsy, but works enough for me to accept it over the lack of an answer from the book itself. Remember Welcome to Camp Nightmare? Remember its twist? How Billy's ordeal was a training experience to see if he could handle going to Earth? Well, what if Billy and his parents did go to Earth, learned it could easily be taken over, then did so? Then after years of conquest just resumed things as usual. Everything the human race did, only under this new alien regime. It's flimsy given the aliens looked like humans in Camp Nightmare, but it still feels like an explanation. One that not even the TV show made. But the aliens in the TV show were human, but could move their faces behind their heads, so it makes more sense than what Stine supplied. But I don't get why Brent trusted Sammy. Maybe because of Sammy's interest in sci-fi? That maybe he thought Sammy wouldn't rat him out? Well that was an unwise though.
Speaking of Sammy, he's okay. His plight is understandable given how he's constantly mistreated by everyone. And having to deal with an annoying invisible kid doesn't help matters either I can assure you. Brent's an okay antagonist. Why he does the things he does to make Sammy look bad aren't well defined. Again, if his plan was to remain inconspicuous, he should have made a better choice. Scares are minimal, though the ending I guess does feel freaky. The twist is what it is. Unique, but destroys the book otherwise. I'd ay it's fine, but a very mild recommend. It's a book that still feels very see-through.
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