The Goosebumps Series 2000 book where aliens test an intelligence-boosting substance on a couple of kids.
Nathan and Lindy Nichols are dumb, or at least they consider themselves to be, They ask their scientist uncle, Dr. Frank King if he can make something to make them smarter. He gives them grape juice, claiming it is an intelligence boosting formula, thinking that if they believe they are smart, they will start to be more confident. It actually works but only because two aliens hiding on Earth have switched it out with an actual intelligence boosting drink. They want to kidnap the kids and make them slaves but they need their victims to be smart. Soon the kids find out being smart isn't all its cracked to be, but their problems have only begun....
This book provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Averted, the parents do actually care when the kids get hounded by everyone and their uncle at least tries to make them feel better early on. But it eventually does get played straight when the kids try to tell them about the aliens.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The kids want to be smart, but find that it makes them cocky and everyone is either afraid of them or wants to take advantage of them.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The aliens have two mouths. They also don't breath through them.
- Big Brother Instinct: The kids don't agree to go with the aliens until they threaten their little sister Brenda.
- Crown-Shaped Head: The kids are creeped out when they notice that the alien emperor's crown is actually growing out of his head.
- Decontamination Chamber: Played for Drama, as the aliens' version of this would have involved putting a hose down the kids' throats and spraying their insides with acid. Fortunately, the Emperor got impatient and let them skip the procedure.
- "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: The intelligence boosting drink seemingly wears off, and the kids loose their smarts, which is a good thing as the aliens let them go and they get their normal life. Subverted as it turns out they were just faking it so they escape the aliens.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: The aliens find humans to be disgusting.
- Insufferable Genius: The protagonists become this after ingesting the eponymous juice, Nathan more so. Played with in that the two are more naïve than outright insufferable as they initially don't recognize how off putting their enhanced intelligence is. Lindy is more aware than Nathan and tries to hold back, but he feels that it's hard to stop once he gets started.
- The aliens, too, which sometimes crosses into Know-Nothing Know-It-All due to their misunderstandings of humanity.
- Joisey: The story is set in New Jersey and at one point one of the aliens says they should have landed in a nicer place.
- Literal-Minded: The aliens are hanging around Uncle Frank because he's a scientist with the surname "King," which to them means he must be the king of Earth's scientists.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: The kids pretend to be losing their intelligence so that the aliens will let them go.
- Parents as People: Nathan and Lindy's parents haven't done much to recognize their children have a legitimate difficulty with retaining knowledge and doing schoolwork, but they do everything they can to get the kids back in school after they're unfairly expelled for being too smart. Their mom especially refuses to let the kids be exploited for their intellect and stops them from being taken by the government. The parents have limits to how they understand their kids, but do everything they can within those limits.
- Placebo Effect: Dr. King gives the kids grape juice disguised as a brain boosting drink, as he hopes that them thinking they are smarter will make them more confident.
- Shirtless Scene: In a minor example, Nathan is sleeping shirtless when the aliens go to check on him.
- Shout-Out: The premise of aliens giving humans a special power is likely inspired by a Twilight Zone episode with a similar premise.
- Switching P.O.V.: Very unusually for a Goosebumps book, it's not only told in third-person, but switches between the protagonists, the antagonists, and side characters at various points.
