After last year's scary adventure, Gabe's a little nervous about being back in Egypt. Back near the ancient pyramids. Back where he saw all those creepy mummies. Then he learns about an Egyptian superstition. A secret chant that is supposed to bring mummies to life. Gabe's uncle says its just a hoax. But now it sounds like something's moving in the mummy's tomb. No way a couple of dumb words can wake the dead. Can they?
Plot
We open with our protagonist, Gabe, on the plane to Cairo, and not-so-platonically describing the stewardess, Nancy. After this, Gabe takes time to exposit about what happened last time.
Previously on The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb!
Gabe went on a business trip to Egypt with his parents, and ended up getting dumped with his archaeologist uncle, Ben Hassad, who jumpscared him a bunch of times. Together with his cousin, Sari, Gabe went and got lost a bunch of times before stumbling across a conspiracy in which Ben's assistant was murdering people. Through sheer dumb luck and a random mummy hand Gabe bought at a car boot sale or something, they escaped to experience the most ambiguous ending since Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson put a spinning top onto the briefcase from Pulp Fiction.
The plane lands, and Gabe mistakes some bloke he's never met in his life for Uncle Ben. Upon meeting up with Ben and Sari, the latter immediately mocks him because she's the secondary protagonist and related to Gabe; therefore, she is contractually obligated to do so. They immediately drive straight to the dig site back at the pyramid, where they'll be staying. In fairness, the last time he left them alone while he went to work, they wandered off, got kidnapped, and then got lost. Again. And then Gabe gets jumpscared by someone dressed as a mummy. Again. This isn't a very original sequel so far. Ben gives Gabe a gift - an amber pendant with a scarab in it. Because this is in the same universe as The Mummy (1999), scarab bites are lethal here, and so Sari uses this as another opportunity to jumpscare Gabe. I do like the variety of events shown in this book so far.
The next day, Ben explains to Gabe and Sari what they're doing at the pyramid. Apparently, this is the resting place of Prince Khor-Ru, a cousin of Tutankhamen. He then explains that, because of the prominence of grave robbers in history, the tomb itself might be empty. That or the basis of yet another plot to murder a bunch of people. Gabe seems convinced there will be a mummy and a bunch of treasure in the tomb, presumably because the story would be a lot less eventful if there wasn't.
Ben decides to take Gabe and Sari into the pyramid, because that worked out spectacularly last time, but is then interrupted by a journalist whom Gabe proceeds to not-so-platonically describe. Cool it, Cherubino. The reporter, Nila Rahmad, works for the Egyptian version of the Sun, so she must be the villain. Apparently, Ben's assistant, Dr. Fielding, told her they were on the verge of a breakthrough, despite the fact that they clearly aren't. Isn't Nila supposed to be doing that? Because Ben has a crush on Nila, they decide to bring her down into the tomb, but not before she overreacts to the fact that she and Gabe have matching pendants. Well, except for the fact that hers has no scarab in, which is infinitely less cool because it can't be used to set up an Ancient Egyptian Jurassic Park.
The gang set off into the pyramid and Gabe immediately gets lost. Ah, now it's a proper sequel. Gabe then falls through a wall and gets attacked by snakes, because we're 9 chapters in and they haven't ripped off Indiana Jones yet. Luckily, Ben shows up and bails him out. Gabe finally remembers the mummy hand from the last one that's supposed to bring mummies to life. Nila immediately recognises it, yet nobody finds this suspicious.
2 days later, the workers find the pyramid's burial chamber, and there is much rejoicing. Because this is such a delicate operation, Ben brings the suspicious journalist and the two 13 year olds with him to open it. However, as Ben spends about 5 pages building up to opening the tomb, he is interrupted by Dr Fielding, who claims that the tomb shouldn't be opened because there's an inscription on it from Prince Khor-Ru telling everyone to go away and let him sleep. If the magic words are recited 5 times and the seal is broken, the Prince will awaken and seek revenge, but not until he's had his morning coffee. Ben tells Dr Fielding that this is all superstitious nonsense and that there probably is no murderous ploy this time around, so Fielding rage quits the argument and storms off. Ben says that anyone who's worried can leave the pyramid, but the workers decide to stick around to open the tomb. After much effort and buildup, the seal is broken and the doors are opened... and it's a false tomb. Goddammit. That's it, I'm leaving.
Extra toppings
When Ben gets to -
Hang on, there's another door in the false tomb with the seal on it. There we go. Ben opens it and everyone enters the real burial chamber of Prince Khor-Ru. Honestly, I like this scene. The way Ben talks about the tomb really helps with the buildup, and (unusually for this series) the payoff feels very fulfilling. However, then the cops casually stroll into the 4000 year old tomb and tell everyone to get back. Dr Fielding returns, informing Ben that he'd hired them to protect the tomb and its treasures. Dr Fielding says he's immediately changed his mind about the tomb, and shakes Ben's hand warmly, capping off the scene nicely. I get that we're supposed to be suspicious, but Nila's still here and even this series wouldn't be daft enough to reuse the exact same plot twist from the previous book. Not with the same protagonists, anyway.
That night, everybody decides to celebrate. Nila comes over and immediately asks Ben what the six magic words are (keep in mind nobody's specified how many magic words there are). Ben agrees to this, because having a crush makes you stupid. And here we see another justification for bottling your feelings up and just hoping they laugh at your jokes.
That night, after Gabe (oh yeah, he's in this story) decides to recite the magic words five times despite the fact that he's one of the 3 people who knows that mummies can indeed come back to life, Dr Fielding comes into the camp and apparently has a fight with Ben, before dragging him off to the pyramid. Gabe and Sari (oh yeah, she's in this story) decide to follow them into the pyramid, because that sort of thing always goes well, and, shock of all shocks, they get lost. Again. Luckily, they stumble across Prince Khor-Ru's burial chamber, and find Ben, unconscious, in the Sarcophagus. What is it with him and getting stuffed into those? This also raises the question - if Ben's in there... where's the Prince? Probably at the coffee machine, actually. Well, wherever he went, he's back now, as he stumbles into the chamber. Gabe comes up with a cunning plan - because his mummy hand can raise mummies from the dead, this somehow means it could potentially send them back to sleep. It's like assuming a kettle can condense water vapour. It doesn't matter anyway, because it's gone. It's OK, because Nila (who just showed up) has it! And she's the Prince's brother. Oh dear.
Nila seems far too excited about her step-Prince's return, as she melodramatically monologues and tells the Prince to kill Gabe and Sari. However, the Prince is still pretty tired, and he takes the 'antagonistic sibling' trope up to eleven by attempting to throttle his sister. Boys will be boys, as they say. As Gabe tries to save her (for some reason), he knocks her pendant off with enough force to shatter it. I've never tried to shatter amber, but I'd imagine it's not that easy. Nila does the usual NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and then proceeds to tell Gabe and Sari that she turned into a scarab every night and crawled inside the pendant. Somehow. This also made her immortal. Somehow.
Ben has woken up at this point, and reassures Gabe that he didn't wake up the Prince by saying the magic words - Nila did so first using the mummy hand. Just then, Dr Fielding and a bunch of cops burst into the chamber, explaining that Nila had knocked out Ben, but not Fielding, for some reason. In a surprising display of confidence, the gang decide not to tell the cops that a mummy came to life and strangled a suspicious journalist who could turn into a scarab. And everything is lovely once again. Wonderful. And then it's implied that Gabe gets bitten by a scarab in his sleep.
Extra Toppings
When Ben gets to the second seal, he says that they've made a terrible mistake... in underestimating their discovery! In fairness, characters in these books will say anything to set up a cliffhanger.
Conclusion
Return of the Mummy isn't as bad as it's predecessor, owing to the fact that stuff actually happens. In fact, it's mildly decent. The scene where the tomb is opened is wonderful, Ben is pretty likeable now that he's not pranking Gabe, and it's really a site to behold when a mummy in a Goosebumps book actually gets up and does something. I'd recommend giving it a read.
Next Time: Just when you thought PE lessons weren't insufferable enough...
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