Goosebumps #06: Let's Get Invisible

With strange elements sucking unsuspecting kids’ souls, secret doors, tensed protagonists, and annoying girls, Say Cheese and Die and Let’s Get Invisible are practically the same book. Except, I actually liked Say Cheese and Die. When I first grabbed Let’s Get Invisible off my shelf, I thought I was actually going to enjoy it. I thought, finally, an actual copy from 1992! Time to get comfortable. But oh boy…

Okay, so the story begins on Max’s twelfth birthday. After the party, he along with his friends, brother and dog decide to come up to the attic – under the request of Erin whom Max has a big goopy crush on. Whitey scratches by a hidden door, the kids open it, they see an old mirror, they turn on the mirror light – Max gets invisible! The story mostly sets in Max’s attic too, so every chapter is almost basically all “mirror”. His friends competing for the title of “the person with the longest time to be invisible” can get really annoying as well.

Aside from Lefty’s arrogance, Erin’s competitiveness, and Zack’s silliness, the mirror actually is the only thing I can focus on. Who made it? How can people become invisible? Why does your reflection seem to come to life? RL Stine never revealed. Of course, logically, not every question has an answer. But I would have believed it more if only RL Stine had not created a Grammy and a Poppy. I thought those were their stuffs stored in the attic – yet Max never asked them about the mirror when I thought he had the chance! The scary thing about getting invisible is that after ten minutes or so, the kids starts to become light-headed “as though a force is pulling them into the mirror itself”. The only sane kid in the group was April. While everyone wanted to beat records, she was getting cynical, irritated and constantly gets the urge of going outside to do something else - like I was.

There were parts that really irked me. Like that night before their trip to Springfield and Max was still wide awake. He actually went up to the attic because he wanted to know what causes them to disappear. I just read about him sitting there for at least fifteen minutes. The he hears a faint voice call name. I didn’t even get to find out what or whose tone was that. But that part was definitely strange. Another one was Max’s chasing scenario with his reflection. It was short-lived and undeniably ineffectual. Accidentally or purposely, it doesn’t matter – but Lefty was actually the one to “break” the mirror. And it is a bit odd because Lefty’s fate is actually the most surprising of all.

I just don’t like this edition; I was constantly bored reading it. I only liked two things in this book. Primarily, I enjoyed the first person narration. And second, the eighth paragraph in page 117. I also didn’t like RL Stine’s writing here. I mean, when it comes to the attic and the mirror, everything seems to happen slowly. And again with the “I couldn’t sleep so I counted sheep”, the storming and... ehh, scratch that, I’m getting used to those anyway. Over all, I just really wanted to refrain from the attic and the mirror and the competition and Max’s friends, and the attic and Lefty’s hubbubs and the mirror and the bright mirror light and the competition and the attic and the mirror and the competition. And repeat.

Two out of five.