The Goosebumps Series 2000 book where a jerkass kid gets his just desserts on Halloween.
Brandon Plush is a cruel bully who loves playing pranks on people, including his little sister and cousin. His teacher Mr. Benson doesn't put up with it though and punishes him. In retaltion, he and his friend Cal go to his house on Halloween night to trash it. However, Mr. Benson's dogs chase them until they reach the legendary Raven's Ravine. Brandon jumps over it and seemingly makes it. But he finds that the other side has some nasty surprises in store for him, and that he may not have gotten there unscathed....
This book provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: Brandon, a total bully who ends up dead early on, and the plot involves him trying to earn the right to come back to life.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Brandon is always doing cruel things to people, often giving the excuse that he's "just joking". In the end, It turns out Norband had no plans of letting him stay alive, saying "Oops, just joking!" as Brandon always did.
- Cool Teacher: One of the first times that trope is played straight, wherein the teacher is not an idiot, a loser, or evil. Mr. Benson, the science teacher, is regarded as cool by most of his students, save for Brandon, the Jerkass protagonist who is always being lectured and punished by Benson for how cruel he acts towards his cousin and other students.
- Creepy Cockroach: Brandon is forced to bob for apples in a tub filled with cockroaches, and isn't allowed to stop playing unless he catches one with his teeth.
- Darker and Edgier: Even for Series 2000, it takes it up a notch by having Brandon discover his own dead body at the bottom of the ravine.
- Death of a Child: Brandon dies by falling into the ravine and the plot become about giving him another chance. But in the end it was all a prank and he's still dead.
- Downer Ending: Brandon saves his friends, only for Norband to reveal he never intended to let Brandon go either way. He decides to continue scaring people as one of Norband's goons, showing he either didn't learn a thing or has no other choice. What's more, Cal, Vinnie, and Maya will have to live with their brother/friend's death, right after he started doing good.
- Enemy Without: Norband is some sort of alternate version of Brandon, though he claims he "dressed up" as Brandon that year.
- Evil vs. Evil: Brandon is a loathsome cowardly bully who's earned everything coming for him but Norband and his crew are hardly any better, as they take sadistic pleasure in psychologically torturing their victim and stringing him along with false hope of redemption. It's further implied this is how they normally add to their ranks.
- Halloween Episode: This is the official one for the 2000 series, with most of the action taking place on Halloween night as Brandon plans some Halloween pranks.
- "Just Joking" Justification: Brandon's cruel pranks end with him telling his victim he's, well, "just joking". He finds himself on the receiving end of this when it turns out that Norband tells him he was "just joking" and his efforts to come back to life were All for Nothing.
- Karma Houdini: Brandon. At first he's horrified when he realizes he fell to his death and begs for a second chance at life. When told the only way to save himself is by helping three scared people, he does exactly that, only to learn it was just a joke. He's then perfectly happy to go back to scaring people with the other dead kids. Kind of debatable, though, since it's unlikely Norband will let him out of the otherworld.
- Karmic Twist Ending: It turns out Norband had no intention of giving Brandon a chance and it was all a big joke. Brandon isn't too bugged by it, as noted below.
- Mythology Gag: At the start of the book, Brandon tells the kids he's babysitting of the story of a boy who got his head ripped clean off.
- Redemption Quest: Brandon is told that if he saves three frightened people in one hour, he can come back to life. It turns out this was all just a lie, and he reverts to his previous personality.
- Shout-Out: Brandon has a cousin named Vinny.
- The Sociopath: Brandon is a very rare case in that he's the main character of the book and is without a doubt rotten to the core. He basically lives his life tormenting kids just for kicks, especially younger kids, and he gets off on seeing them be frightened and suffer. It gets to a point that when his mother (who clearly dislikes her son's behavior) forces him to accompany his little sister, cousin and two of his sister's friends to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, he ditches the three girls by leaving them all alone on a dark street and then locks his scared cousin in an abandoned house, all so he can then go scare other kids and steal their candy, then sneaks into his teacher's house to vandalize it and downright abandons his best friend (a bully himself) when they find that there are guard dogs who have caught on to them.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Subverted. Brandon is a cruel bully who terrorizes those around him. He dies and is told he can come back to life if he redeems himself and saves three frightened people within one hour. He succeeds and shows more empathy than he did before, but when it turns out being able to come back to life was a lie, he reverts back to his previous ways and shows he didn't actually learn anything.
- Villain Protagonist: Brandon Plush, big time. To wit, the first five or so chapters focus on how Brandon is an incorrigible sociopath who loves tormenting others, especially little kids, for sick pleasure.
