My Best Friend Is Invisible is the fifty-seventh book in the original Goosebumps book series. It was first published in 1997.
The illustration shows an invisible Brent Green having pizza and a soda as Brutus, Sammy's cat, is surprised at what it sees.
Blurb
He's Outta Sight...For Real!
Sammy Jacobs is into ghosts and science fiction. Not exactly the smartest hobby--at least not if you ask Sammy's parents. They're research scientists and they only believe in real science. But now Sammy's met someone who's totally unreal. He's hanging out in Sammy's room. And eating his cereal at breakfast. Sammy's got to find a way to get rid of his new "friend." Only problem is...Sammy's new "friend" is invisible!
Plot
Sammy Jacobs has two scientist parents and a scientist-in-training younger brother, Simon. Sammy is the black sheep of the family, because he does not care about science, he cares about science fiction. He busies himself reading books about ghosts and aliens while his brother is fast at work measuring the growth of his body every day. Sammy’s friend Roxanne comes over to berate Sammy for being such a poor athlete. Sammy lost a track meet earlier in the day and Roxanne wants to make sure he does a better job at the mini-Olympics later in the week. Sammy says he merely let her win and assures Roxanne that he will run faster.
Roxanne and Sammy then get to work brainstorming about their English term project. Sammy suggests studying the life cycle of a moth or charting the growth of plants. Roxanne wants to film a haunted house over the weekend.
Their wild speculation is interrupted by a mysterious light that appears in Sammy's bedroom. The source of this light is revealed to be a special magic flashlight belonging to Sammy's father that allows invisible organisms to be made visible. This light scared Sammy and Roxanne. Roxanne resumes trying to sell Sammy on the haunted house idea. The haunted house is called the Hedge House, because there are hedges in front of the house. Instead of visiting a haunted house, Sammy would much rather spend his Saturday watching the new horror movie, School Spirit. His father overhears and confuses this with his son actually having school spirit.
After Roxanne leaves, Sammy becomes convinced that someone is messing with him, as his window is open and his homework thrown on the floor of his bedroom. He is sure that a ghost is responsible. The next morning he discovers that Brutus, his cat, opted not to sleep in his bedroom which was unusual. He sits down for a nice bowl of cereal, only to discover that while his head was turned away from the bowl, the ghost has eaten all of his cereal.
At school, Sammy is called to the front of the class to solve a math problem. The polynomial equation takes a turn though, as an invisible clammy hand grasps Sammy's and he runs from the classroom in hysterics.
Back at home, Sammy witnesses the scene depicted on the cover of the book. Sammy's mother scolds him for eating the pizza. She then tells him to clean up his bedroom. When he heads upstairs to do as instructed, he discovers that someone has strewn cereal, lunch meat and other foodstuffs all over his floor. He comes to the conclusion that only a ghost could have caused this food fight. Then the ghost speaks up and confirms this.
Except the voice is not a ghost at all, but an invisible boy named Brent Green. He is twelve too and wants very badly to be Sammy's friend. He explains that he does not know how he got to Sammy's house or who his parents are, but he is hungry and wants to be Sammy's friend. Sammy tries to get his family to come see his invisible friend, but they do not believe him. Roxanne does not even believe him, though she does tell the entire student body about it so they can mock him properly at school the next day.
Things get so bad for Sammy that he has to eat lunch alone in the library. Brent followed him to school and starts eating his sandwich. Sammy pleads with him to go away, but Brent insists that he is just trying to be his friend. Brent proves his friendship by ruining Sammy's turn in the relay race, costing his team the game.
To make up losing the race to Roxanne, Sammy is forced to agree to accompany her to the haunted house that weekend. Beforehand though, Sammy tries to convince Brent to leave. He tries to get him to live with Roxanne, because she has better food. But, Brent does not want to be friends with a girl.
Brent sees that Sammy's trying to get rid of him and attempts to throw him out the window. He stops himself, before he actually murders Sammy though and explains that he was just goofing around in a familial way. Brent finally leaves after Sammy turns up the radiator high enough to produce steam in his bedroom.
Roxanne and Sammy are at the Hedge House and a ghost does show up. Upstairs in the spooky house, the ghost angrily picks up Roxanne and starts throwing her around the room. Then the ghost picks up a pillow and tries to smother her. Roxanne and Sammy flee from the house. Back at home, Brent reveals that he was behind the whole charade.
Sammy's parents announce that his erratic behavior has caused them to set up an appointment with a mental institution for their son. Before he can be taken away though, Sammy breaks free and runs down to his parents' basement to grab the magic flashlight. He forces the rest of the family and Roxanne to follow him to his room, where he shines the light on Brent, revealing a hideous monster. Brent reveals that his mother made him invisible, so it would be easier for him to make friends.
Sammy and his family can't stop being disgusted at how he has one head, two arms that aren't long enough to wrap around his body and dark stuff growing on top of his head (this explains that Brent has dark hair) instead of tendrils and suction pods and where is his antenna? And how can he see with only two eyes? Brent says that he just wants to be Sammy's friend. Simon asks Brent to be his friend and he needs him for his science project and begs his dad to let him keep him. Sammy's mom says that she has seen pictures of Brent's species in a textbook and says she will go have a look. Brent shyly says that he is called a human and mom says she remembers now. Sammy takes his five eyes away from him and asks his dad if he can keep him. Sammy's dad says no and he has to live in a zoo because he will get much better care there. Then he says "After all, humans are an endangered species!"
Reprints and rereleases
| Book | Release date | Type | Media |
|---|---|---|---|
2003 - 2007 reprint series  |
June 2007 | Standalone | Paperback |
International releases
| No. | Book | Country/Language | Translated title | Release date | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57 | My Best Friend Is Invisible  |
United Kingdom
English |
My Best Friend Is Invisible | June 19, 1998 | Scholastic |
| 57 | Mi mejor amigo es invisible  |
Spain
Spanish |
My Best Friend Is Invisible | April 2, 1999 | Ediciones B |
| 32 | Mein unsichtbarer Freund  |
Germany
German |
My Invisible Friend | May 1, 1999 | Omnibus Verlag |
| 57 | Un amico invisibile  |
Italy
Italian |
An Invisible Friend | June 1999 | Mondadori |
| 13 | 투명인간의 저주  |
South Korea
Korean |
Curse of the Invisible Man | July 17, 2015 | Gorilla Box |
| 37 | 我的朋友是隱形人  |
China
Chinese |
My Friend is a Stealth Man | October 6, 2016 | Shang Zhou Publishing |
Television adaptation
My Best Friend Is Invisible was adapted into an episode of the Goosebumps TV series. It is the second episode of season three, and the forty-sixth episode overall.
Artwork
Trivia
- When Roxanne and the whole class make fun of Sammy, he swore that he will pay her back. But when Brent scares the wits out of Roxanne, Sammy is angry at him.
- This is the second book/episode where it's revealed that the main protagonist and their family are the real monsters. The first being The Girl Who Cried Monster.
References in other Goosebumps media
- Brent Green appears as a minor antagonist in the Goosebumps film. He is refereed to as "The Invisible Boy".