Goosebumps #28: The Cuckoo Clock of Doom

Michael hates his little sister Tara and I kind of hate her too! She trips him, humiliates him and is constantly getting him in trouble with their parents. When his birthday arrives, she jumps on his brand new bike before him, knocks it over and leaves a huge scratch on it. Even worse, his parents snap at him for yelling at her.

At his birthday party, Tara keeps hanging around and the girls think she’s cute. Michael is in a school play with some of the girls and they want to see him in costume. When he goes upstairs and changes clothes, she lets them all into his room and they see him in his underwear. Once again, his parents blame him and say he’s overreacting.

Then Michael’s dad brings home a new/old cuckoo clock from a local antique store. He wanted to buy it a long time ago, but it was always too much. The owner found a flaw on it and reduced the price. They all look for the flaw, but find nothing. That night, he sneaks downstairs and sees the clock chiming. He touches the bird and time goes backward.

When he wakes up, it’s the day of his birthday and he has to relive all the embarrassing moments. The next time he wakes up, it’s the day before his birthday. He tries to make his parents listen to him, but they think he’s playing a prank. Then he wakes up and he’s eight again. He tries sneaking into the antique store, but his dad catches him.

The next thing he knows, he’s five again and then a baby. His parents take him to the antique store, where he tries to get to the clock. They keep dragging him off to look at tables. He escapes and toddles to the clock, even as the owner shouts to keep him away from it. He touches the bird and within a few seconds it’s back to the day of his birthday.

Tara doesn’t get to the bike and when he asks about her, his parents don’t know what he’s talking about. He runs up to her room and sees that it’s now a guest room. He checks the clock over and notices the dial that tells the year. Then he notices that the year 1988 is missing, the same year Tara was born. He points it out to his dad and realizes that they don’t even remember her ever existing. The book ends with him deciding that at some point, he might try to find a way back in time to save her.

*I’m sorry, but I’ve done a lot of flea market selling in my days and know a lot about selling. There is no way this guy would have kept a clock in his shop for over 10 years without it selling.

*At one point, Tara and his parents start talking backward to freak him out. It’s kind of funny, but there’s no way I could ever start talking backwards, like “yeh leahcim”.

*Michael thinks that at one point she must have been a nice kid and when she’s a baby, she asks for a kiss. He kisses her and she stabs him in the eye and his mom yells at him. I’d be a little worried about my psychopath daughter.