The sixth entry in the Goosebumps series, Let’s Get Invisible, is sure to be a unique storyline. This review will likely vanish, but then again, maybe it won’t.

Synopsis:

Max is having his birthday party and is about to turn 12. His younger brother Lefty is a nuisance and always has to get his way. Lefty’s name comes from the fact that he’s left-handed, which may be a plot twist of all time.

Max’s friends come over for his birthday, but the only important ones are April, Erin, and Zach. The birthday is as about as 90s as it can get with multiple references, check below for random references. Later Max is jump scared by Lefty while heading up to the attic to check on Whitey, their dog.

Up in the attic they find Whitey sniffing around the wall with a bunch of old junk all over the place. Whitey discovers a hidden door, which the kids investigate. Max enters the room with Erin, April, and Lefty watching. Behind the door is a small room with a tall mirror in it. The mirror has a light switch with a chain, but nothing else is in the room.

Max pulls the chain to turn on the light. In doing so, he turns invisible. As expected, the other kids are freaked out. However, they think it’s an optical illusion as Max pulls the chain again and reappears. Erin decides she wants to try, but her mom arrives to pick her and April up.

Lefty is a menace as he throws a ball in the house and breaks a vase.

A few days pass by. Max can’t sleep and goes to check out the mirror. Like most people, wandering around in an attic looking at a mirror that turns you invisible is a great way to fall asleep fast. Lefty sneaks up and jump scares Max.

Lefty threatens to their parents that Max is in the attic… Who cares? I would think the parents wouldn’t care. Max agrees to let Lefty turn invisible, so they pull the chain and turn invisible together. While they are invisible, they can’t see each other. However, Lefty can somehow grab Max while invisible and find him.

Max pulls the chain; this time it takes them longer to become visible again.

Zach comes over the next day. He has his head shaved on only one side of his head and has his hair long on the other. This has got to be the worst haircut of all time. However, the haircut is really there for plot convenience.

Max takes Zach up to the attic to show him the mirror. He disappears to show Zach the mirror trick. This leads to Zach thinking there’s a trapdoor, it must also be invisible.

Afterwards Max feels weak and thought the mirror was sucking him into it.

Zach wants to give the mirror a try, but Lefty has disappeared, into a prank. Lefty was hiding behind a carton, shocking. Then Erin and April arrive.

While they come inside and heading up the stairs, it seems Zach has disappeared. After a short conversation, Zach reappears. It turns out, he had somehow been invisible for five minutes. While reading this, it definitely doesn’t read like he disappeared for five minutes.

Erin goes invisible after Zach. Then Max goes invisible. The longer he’s invisible, the further away he feels. The chain to the light breaks while Zach tries to bring back Max. Erin uses a box to reach the remaining chain and bring Max back.

Zach turns into Macgyver as he uses a string to fix the chain, which honestly, I don’t think a string is going to be the most reliable option in the long run.

Max and Lefty’s grandparents arrive, bringing the invisible session to an end. The kids discuss when they will turn invisible again, but due to school, they’ll have to wait a few days. They decide to turn going invisible into a competition to see who can remain invisible the longest.

During the dinner with the grandparents, Lefty leaves to turn invisible. This leads to Lefty pranking Max during dinner. Max’s parents think he’s messing around and sends him away to find Lefty.

This takes a while, as Lefty has been invisible for a long time and it takes him a while to return, to their parent’s annoyance. Max tells Lefty he almost ruined everything.

That night Max hears his voice coming from the mirror, this causes Max to not want to use the mirror again.

The next morning, Lefty has turned invisible again. Lefty starts to mess with Max while invisible by playing with his clothes. After a long time of no response, Lefty turns visible again. This is the longest time anybody has gone invisible.

The next day Zach, April, and Erin arrive. Max had told them previously he didn’t want to mess around with the mirror anymore. However, Lefty told them Max had changed his mind.

Max ends up folding and allows them to come to the attic. While April tries out going invisible, she accidentally goes invisible with Whitey. As fast as they can they bring April and Whitey back.

Erin goes invisible next and goes invisible for the longest yet. She stops responding after 12 minutes and is returned by the others. After she returns, Max thinks she looks different.

Zach goes invisible after her. He takes this opportunity while invisible to prank the neighbors by juggling tomatoes. After 12 minutes Zach stops responding. Upon returning Zach’s awful haircut is now reversed, which makes Max not want to join in going invisible.

Max is forced to turn invisible by Erin and Zach. After 10 minutes or so, Max asks to be brought back. The problem is his mother shows up and starts talking with the other kids and asking questions about where Max is at.

While invisible Max meets his reflection, who is the evil version of himself. Erin and Zach have already been switched with their reflections. His reflection grabs him, but Max is able to break free and starts to run in the mirror universe. Max is finally brought back.

From the mirror his evil version is angry, and the mirror Erin and Zach try to force him to turn invisible again. This confuses April, who does nothing. Luckily Lefty shows up and breaks the mirror by throwing the ball at it.

Everyone returns back to normal, and their mirror counterparts seem to be banished to the shadow realm.

Erin and Zach help clean up the broken glass, while April goes home. Later, Lefty offers to toss the ball with Max. Max agrees, but during the game, he notices Lefty is using his right hand to throw the ball. The end.

Review:

This is a big improvement over the last Goosebumps entry, Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb. The plot is much faster despite the book being longer. There is also a lot more happening throughout and the mirror towards the end is pretty scary for a Goosebumps book. However, the story isn’t without fault.

Lefty is incredibly annoying up until he gets switched, and then after getting switched, we get a much better Lefty. So, I guess evil Lefty is actually good Lefty. The kids in this story are somewhat dumb again, but not as bad as the last few entries. There aren’t any major plot holes or continuity errors in this entry, which makes it more readable than some of the other books so far. The ending is also pretty good.

Despite this Goosebumps book being the longest in the series yet, the pacing is excellent. My only complaint is that the mirror is a bit of a lamer villain, with the real villain being Lefty in the story. Also, the cover art for this entry is pretty boring in my opinion, and never caught my interest as a kid.

This episode is also a bit reminiscent of the movie Us.

This leads to my rating of a 7/10. Lefty is the reason this doesn’t get a higher rating, since for 75% of the book, he’s one of the most annoying characters yet, right up there with Evan.

Twist ending:

Lefty never returned from the mirror dimension, but at least we get good guy Lefty. Not a dark ending.

Memorable line:

“He falls down the stairs a hundred times a day.” Ouch.

Memorable moment, cliffhanger, etc:

The mirror seems to be addictive after first use, which leads to it being talked about like a drug, who can go the longest. Pretty cool, not necessarily a moment, but it does have moments.

Bad parenting:

The parents seem suspicious about the kids running up to the attic every time they come over, but they never investigate or seem too worried. They should probably realize something is up.

Random references:

X-Force, Red Sox, Twister, Coke, Super Nintendo, Quick Cuts, Saturday Night Live, People Magazine, and Terminator. Your mirror. Give it to me, now.

Tropes in book.

Character is 12, sibling pair, twist ending, crazy cliffhanger, dog jump scare, pranks, and chicken. Using chicken as a dare has been added, since it’s been in almost every book.

TV tie-in:

The Goosebumps tie-in episode is quite condensed. It cuts out the birthday, April, most of the dialogue, and even changes some of the events in the book. It ends up being weaker than the book in just about every way.

First, there’s awful green screen. Second, Erin never uses the mirror, and only Lefty and Zach end up being switched. Next, they make the mirror way more complex looking in the book and add pretty bad special effects to it.

The acting in this episode is pretty bad. The ending remains the same with mirror Lefty staying around and being a better Lefty. Also, Lefty doesn’t break the mirror, instead it’s Erin.

The rest remains pretty much unchanged, just the condensed format doesn’t work as well for this story.

Goosebumps episode rating: 5/10. It’s just okay.

Memorable episode line:

“You can’t swear with your left hand it doesn’t count.” Turns out it doesn’t, as Lefty doesn’t keep his promise.

Famous cast:

Kevin Zegers, who has gone on to have many minor roles and some major roles like Dawn of the Dead. More recently, he has had some major roles in the Rookie spin off series, as well as the main series. Out of all of the cast for this Goosebumps episode, he seems to be the only one still acting, and it looks like he has a bright career in his future.

Come back soon for more Goosebumps fun and reviews.

To read the last Goosebumps review: https://goosebumpsblogger.com/goosebumps-5-the-curse-of-the-mummies-tomb/

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