The Goosebumps book where one boy discovers an invisible boy in his house.
Sammy Jacobs enjoys ghosts and science fiction. His research scientist parents don't much approve. But then weird stuff starts happening. Sammy starts to think his house might be haunted... until he finds out the truth: it's Brent, a boy who was turned invisible and is hiding out in Sammy's house. He wants to be Sammy's best friend, but all he does is cause trouble, forcing Sammy to try and figure out how to prove Brent is real to his parents before the other boy goes too far.
Despite a Twist Ending that absolutely doesn't work in a visual medium, it was adapted into the second episode of the third season of the TV series.
The book provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When the students are playing jokes in front of Sammy to make fun of his "imaginary" invisible friend, his teacher decides to join in on them by pretending that his invisible friend is sitting next to him. In front of the class. When the students laugh and Sammy looks incredulously at her, she sheepishly admits that she couldn't resist.
- Ambiguous Situation: Regarding the ending. Is this Earth that has been enslaved by aliens and Brent is the only one? Is it just this town in a secluded area that has been invaded? Or is this Twist Ending all the figment of an Unreliable Narrator?
- Angrish: Jed, a boy in Sammy's running team, has this when he watches Sammy trip and fail the race. Sammy could tell that he's so angry that he has trouble speaking. Unfortunately, Roxanne doesn't have this problem, and savagely yells at him.
- Angry Fist-Shake: Jed and Roxanne also do this to Sammy when they see him losing the race.
- Batman Gambit: In an attempt to get Brent out of his house, Sammy turned on all the hot water, opened up the radiators, and kept the window shut. This distresses Brent, so he decides that he can't stay here anymore, and leaves. This plan worked... for a short while.
- Cats Are Mean: Sammy's cat, Brutus. He claims that Brutus has scratched everyone in his neighborhood at least once.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Molecule Detector Light, which Sammy's dad shows off early on. In the climax, Sammy remembers it and uses it to turn Brent visible again.
- Denied Food as Punishment: Brent eats pizza in the kitchen, and Sammy's mother catches her son in there, making it seem as though he was eating before dinner. She scolds him, and later when she is furious at him and tells him to clean up his room, she tells him not to come down for dinner, as he's eaten quite enough already.
- Failed a Spot Check: For some reason, at one point, Sammy's brother believed he pulled the chair away from him to cause him to fall over to the floor, even though Sammy was standing right in front of him.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: This book has quite a bit of brutality for a Goosebumps book. Sammy is running on the school track for a marathon, only to be picked up by Brent and thrown ahead, causing him to land hard on the cinder path. His head banged down, his elbows were scraped raw, and his knees were bleeding. And Roxanne was pushed around quite roughly and had a pillow pressed hard against her face at Hill House.
- Funny Background Event: When Roxanne is in Sammy's room and telling him about the ghost at Hedge House and what happened there, Brent takes out objects and starts copying what Roxanne is saying. Sammy can't help but burst out laughing at these antics, which infuriates Roxanne and she thinks he's laughing at her.
- Get Out!: Sammy says this twice to his family and Roxanne when they get on his nerves making fun of him in his room.
- Go to Your Room!: Sammy's agitated mother tells him this when she gets fed up with his claims that something paranormal is going on in the kitchen.
- Humans Are Ugly: Utilized as part of the twist ending. Brent is revealed to be a human, much to the disgust of Sammy and his family, who find what we consider to be normal features absolutely abhorrent.
- Imaginary Enemy: The "best friend" often gets the main character in a lot of trouble out of boredom, and of course no one will believe his wild stories about an invisible friend. Then the ending reveals that the main character is actually an alien and the invisible friend is a scared human boy who survived the invasion of Earth by becoming invisible.
- Invisible Stomach, Visible Food: Sammy notes how last week, he saw a movie which involved an invisible man, and when he ate, you could see the food digesting in his invisible stomach. Sammy thought it was totally gross, yet he loved it.
- Invisible Streaker: Discussed but Averted — when asked, the eponymous character says that he is wearing clothes.
- Kick the Dog: As if Roxanne wasn't a lousy enough friend to Sammy already, she decided that it would be hilarious to tell the whole school about the invisible friend he has. This makes him a pariah there, and when he confronts her about this, she does not feel sorry at all and merely laughs.
- Mad Scientist: Sam's parents, who built the device that ultimately turns Brent visible again.
- Mandatory Twist Ending: The climax reveals that every character except Brent is a multi-headed creature with more than two eyes and suction cups on their head who have taken over the Earth and have found the last human, who was seen as invisible so the aliens wouldn't spot him.
- Never Trust a Title: Brett is decidedly not Sammy's best friend. At best, he's a nuisance, and at times seems like a straight-up enemy.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: The invisible friend is revealed to be the last survivor of an alien invasion. The main character and his parents are actually alien abominations.
- Old, Dark House: Hedge House, the place that Sammy and Roxanne decide to investigate for their school project. It has been abandoned for years, with tall hedges growing to obscure the place, and people have reported haunted antics going on in there. Legend says that the Stilson family once resided there, and their son Jeremy was targeted by a ghost living there. And when Sammy and Roxanne visit the place, they are attacked by a ghost claiming to want Jeremy. That turns out to actually be Brent, who overheard Roxanne telling the legend about Hill House that she researched, and decided to take on the role whule pretending to be a ghost. Whether the ghost actually is haunted or not is not revealed.
- Ominous Fog: Occurs on the morning when Sammy and Roxanne visit Hill House.
- Pet the Dog: When Ms. Pinsky sees Sammy not only talking loudly in the library but also eating there, he is horrified and braces himself, expecting her to give him a major punishment. However, she seems genuinely worried about him, and asks him if he should see the school guidance counselor.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: After a disastrous math class that Sammy suffered because of Brent, Roxanne tells him that she could help him with his math problems, causing him to say through gritted teeth, "I... don't... need... your... help."
- Scary Librarian: Ms. Pinsky, the librarian at Sammy's school. According to him, she hands out very severe punishments to people in the library who she catches breaking the rules, such as making them write over a hundred book reports, three pages each. And when she catches him breaking what she claims are her two most essential rules, he is scared out of his wits and assumes the worst.
- Spoiler Cover: The Korean cover
◊ gives away the twist that Sammy and the others are aliens. - Sssssnake Talk: Ms. Pinsky initially speaks like this when she confronts Sammy.
- Starfish Aliens: The main characters are revealed as aliens who look anything but human at the end.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Simon hears Sammy talking to Brent, he incredulously asks him if he was talking to himself. Knowing that he won't believe him if he told the truth, Sammy says that yes, he was.
- Tomato Surprise: Sammy and his family are actually members of a hostile species of alien who invaded the Earth years ago and replaced humanity, and his invisible friend is really a young human boy who managed to hide by remaining invisible.
- Vorpal Pillow: At the "haunted house", the "ghost" presses a pillow against Roxanne's face hard. Luckily, Sammy manages to tug it off her.
- With Friends Like These...:
- Roxanne is very competitive, easy to anger and very bossy to Sammy, making you wonder why they're friends.
- Brett is even worse in this regard. Despite the title, he's not Sammy's best friend by any stretch of the imagination.
