Goosebumps #6: Let's Get Invisible!

Blurb
When exploring the attic on his birthday, Max comes across an old mirror there. No ordinary mirror either - this one is 'magic' - it can turn you invisible!
At first it's fun playing now you see me, now you don't. But soon Max and his friends realize something scary is happening. They're not controlling the mirror. It's controlling them!

Plot
We open with our protagonist, Max Nolastnamegiven, combing his hair and talking about how awesome it is. His brother, Noah, also known as Lefty due to the fact that he supports the Labour party in a Tory household, teases him for this, when Max's best friend, Zack, comes round, because it's Max's birthday. For whatever reason, Zack doesn't know who else is coming over, despite the fact he's supposed to arrive minus 30 seconds from now. Max's other nondescript friends, Erin and April, also come over. Nothing much happens for the next several pages. They go upstairs, when Erin notices that Max has an attic and geeks out, because she loves attics. Even the book acknowledges how weird this is.

So, they all go into the attic. Predictably, not much happens. This is going to be the rest of the book, isn't it? Max's dog who is nigh-superfluous reveals a secret door, behind which is a whole lot more nothing. Wheee. Well, OK, there is one thing - a mirror, which takes up an entire wall. Ah, they've found the house's secret dance studio. April, like anyone with sense, is bored, and asks if they can leave, but Max has more exciting plans in store, like turning the light on. However, upon doing so, everyone starts acting like Max is invisible. Surprisingly, Max doesn't believe this, so Erin goes to switch the light on, but then has to go home because otherwise, something might happen, and we can't have that!

Several days pass without incident until the following Wednesday, when Max can't sleep, because, unlike the book, he's thinking too hard about the last paragraph. So, he goes back to the secret dance studio, and just before he switches on the light he finds that Lefty's in the room as well. Because why not. They decide to both turn invisible, and it indeed works. They attempt to turn back after doing more nothing, though this time it takes them a bit longer to reappear. They chalk this up to being due to the fact that they were invisible for a longer period of time, as if they had been timing both occurrences.

After a while of people going invisible and Max's grandparents complaining about a lack of strawberry soup (no, that doesn't make any more sense in context), the gang (in case you forgot, that's Max, Lefty, Zack, Erin, and April) decide to have a who-can-stay-invisible-the-longest contest. This is by far the scariest story I've ever read in my life!

After various hijinks involving people not immediately turning back to normal, and, like, 10 chapters, Max is made to go invisible by Zack and Erin despite admitting defeat when Zack went invisible for 13 minutes. Maybe they want to see if you can go invisible for the same length of time as a Dream Theatre Song. As Max calls out to be brought back, he discovers that nobody can hear him, and then he gets pulled into the mirror. Suddenly, he hears a familiar voice calling to him. Oh no! Bonnie Sue Bowers is back! Run, Max, or you'll become just as narcissistic as she is! Actually, it's... Max. Or, more specifically, his reflection. The reflection (who I'm just gonna call xaM) explains that he is Max's darker side, which was somehow personified by a mirror (the sad thing is, this has more logic behind it than the majority of occurrences in this series), and is going to switch places with Max. The same thing has happened with Erin and Zach, though not April because that would require for her to be necessary to the book. Max starts asking the book for some semblance of an explanation, but xaM just says "How the hell should I know?"

Max runs around in the mirror dimension for a bit until hcaZ (Mirror Zach) brings him back, and then asks if he made the switch. Suddenly, xaM appears in the mirror and says that he didn't. Also, April has teleported into the room now, and asking what the hell's going on. Again, the book refuses to do so. Suddenly, as if part of a divine intervention by God to help me finish this more quickly, Lefty teleports in front of the door, holding a baseball, assumes that xaM is actually Max, despite the fact that he's in the mirror and his eyes are glowing red, and lobs the ball at the mirror with enough force to shatter it, causing hcaZ and nirE to get sucked back into the mirror, and Erin and Zach get spat back out. Seems legit. But, in spite of how out of left field that was, everything is lovely once again. lufrednoW. Except, wait, there's a twist - Lefty is throwing with his right hand! And voting for the yroT party!

Extra Toppings
How did ytfeL avoid getting sucked back into the mirror, you don't ask? He held onto a door frame. tsirhC suseJ, these villains are lame.
There were some other souls in the mirror, so Max and the gang essentially condemned countless souls to an eternal yrotagrup. Nice job, guys!

Conclusion
drol dooG, this book is boring. So boring, in fact, that I quit this review halfway through and came back to it weeks later. The buildup is stretched out almost to the point of the book itself being ripped in two. The only enjoyment I got out of it was writing some of the words sdrawkcab. I suppose it might have worked if the pacing was better, but somehow I doubt that was the only problem.

Next Time: .gnorw gnihton did namtroM rM