Re: The Barking Ghost (Goosebumps S.)
Mina Spartin
Scared of his own shadow. That's what everyone says about Cooper Holmes. But when the Holmeses move into a new house deep in the woods, scary things really do start happening. Problem is, no one believes a scaredy-cat like Cooper. But then no one else heard the bone-chilling barking late at night. Or ran into two evil-looking dogs who disappeared into thin air...
Cooper Holmes and his family have just moved from Boston to a new home within the woods of Maine. Cooper is easy to scare, so his obnoxious brother, Mickey, takes pleasure in pulling cruel pranks. The first night after the family moves in, Mickey hides under Cooper's bed in an attempt to scare him. After sending his brother out, Cooper is kept up by frightening sounds outside. The one that catches his attention the most is the sound of a dog barking. This is odd because there isn't another house for miles, and he hasn't seen a single dog in the forests. Cooper believes it could be another trick by his brother, but when he hears that there is actually two dogs barking, he begins to think otherwise.
The next morning, Cooper investigates outside for any signs of the dogs, but finds nothing. Not even paw prints are to be seen. While investigating, Cooper runs into a strange girl named Margaret Ferguson. She introduces herself as "Fergie" and says she is one of Cooper's neighbors. She tells Cooper he needs to move far away from the woods, as both the woods, and his house are haunted. Unexpectedly, Margaret becomes incredibly frightened. She begins screaming about dogs, and she runs away. Cooper runs after her, hoping to obtain some answers. When he finds her, Margaret acts as though she has no recollection of the event. Cooper goes home to warn his parents, but, on the way there, he is chased down by two large, ghostly, black labradors. He tells his father, but his father is skeptical, as none of the neighbors own dogs.
Later that night, Cooper wakes up to the sound of barking and finds a bag of potato chips torn to shreds on the floor. The following morning, Margaret knocks on Cooper's door and says she needs to talk to him. Margaret reveals her warning was only a joke, made up by Mickey in attempt to scare Cooper. She apologizes, but Cooper tells her that he saw two dogs in the woods. Margaret believes him, and she admits that she's scared of dogs.
Cooper spots the dogs outside, so he and Marget go outside to investigate. The two friends eventually find the dogs, who seem to want to show them something. They follow the dogs, who eventually vanish through the walls of a large shack in the woods. Cooper and Margaret realize that the dogs are actually ghosts. They enter the shack, and the dogs begin speaking in human voices. The dogs reveal that they were once human, and they have been searching for a way to revert to human form. The dogs are able to swap bodies with Margaret and Cooper. As a result, Margaret and Cooper's minds are swapped into the dog bodies.
The two friends, now dogs, try to hunt down their impostors, who have made their way into Cooper's home. Cooper breaks into his house to warn his parents, but his voice only comes out as barking. His mother panics, as she is allergic to dogs. They attempt to drive the dogs out, but the two come back to the house. Cooper tries everything to get his family to realize its him, but nothing works. Cooper's mother says they may need to call animal control to put the dogs down. The two come to an agreement; the only way to get back to their normal selves is to drag their impostors back to the same shack that they originally swapped bodies in.
Once Mickey leaves, Cooper hears two dark shadowy ghost dogs barking outside his window. Cooper thinks it could be Mickey again. Still, Cooper believes it could be real dogs, and this scares him. The next morning, Cooper investigates his back yard and the surrounding woods for any evidence of the two ghost dogs, but finds none. He decides to be brave and go into the woods.
That night, Cooper hears barking from the living room. When he goes down to investigate, he sees a bag of potato chips torn open and scattered all over the floor. Mickey shows up and makes fun of Cooper. Cooper picks up and throws the gutted potato chip bag at Mickey.
Cooper and Fergie see the two dogs running around the house and Cooper insists that the two go out and investigate. This leads to the two ghost dogs holding them captive outside their house, and then dragging them to a shack out in the woods.
Even before then, not much interesting really happens. The fake outs are especially bad here, and Cooper can be a bit too wimpy to like. I do like a couple of the ghost dog moments though, and when Mickey gets scared by the dogs.
After moving to a new house, Cooper starts to hear unusual barking noises in the nearby woods and sees threatening dogs which no-one else can. With the help of new friend Fergie, he uncovers a secret which could be the end of him.
WOOF! This book's (and TV episode's) bark is absolutely worse than its BITE. And don't be fooled - we're dealing with barking GHOSTS here, not just one! Listen to Daniel and Matthew Scott Montgomery (them TERROR TWINS) roll over and play DEAD after digging thru this ghostly canine caper.
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Cooper and Fergie in dog form are cornered by his angry family, the two try to stand on their hind legs to convince them that they're actually human. This only causes them to fall over while doing so, which makes his family laugh, despite wanting them to leave.
- Animorphism: The story bases its entire plot around this, in which the titular "ghosts" are actually a pair of men who got turned into dogs. Now they want to switch bodies with someone else.
- Animals See in Monochrome: While Cooper is stuck in the body of a dog, he can only see in black and white vision.
- Baby Talk: After scaring Cooper at the beginning of the book, by hiding under his bed in the middle of the night, Mickey asks him in a baby voice if he wants a night-light for his bed. This causes Cooper to lose it, and attack him.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: Especially ones that are ghosts!
- Big Brother Bully: Mickey to Cooper. He spends most of his free time frightening Cooper every chance he gets.
- Copycat Mockery: Cooper sees Mickey fall unconscious with ripped clothing and fake blood on, and he worriedly asks him if he's alright. Mickey then stopped pretending and gloatingly copies Cooper's ramblings.
- Cruel Twist Ending: In the climax, the two human protagonists return the two former-dogs that stole their bodies into the log that swapped their minds, only to get their bodies swapped with chipmunks instead.
- Didn't Think This Through: How Cooper's first two attempts in dog form to prove to his family that he was really him work out. Firstly, he goes into his father's office and attempts to write a letter saying that he and Fergie are actually them in the bodies of dogs. But because dogs don't have opposable thumbs, he tries to grab a pen with his paw, but is unable to hold onto it, let alone write with it. Secondly, at dinner when the fake in his original body shows a dislike for liver (his favorite), Cooper goes in and starts eating it to show that it's really him because he loves liver. This does not work at all, and simply looks to his family as though a stray dog came in and starts eating his food, just like any typical dog would do.
- Epic Fail: One time at summer camp, Cooper got lost in the woods on his way back to the bathroom cabin. He became so scared, he just stood there shaking in fright. Then his bunkmates found him and pointed out that he was merely standing a few feet away from the dining hall the whole time.
- Fate Worse than Death: The heroes end up trapped in the bodies of chipmunks.
- Foreshadowing: After Cooper and Fergie leave embarrassed in their failed attempt at scaring, Mickey calls after them to run away with their tails between their legs. Later in the story, the two would end up in the bodies of two dogs.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Between a pair of humans and some evil ghost dogs.
- Lame Comeback: After Mickey scares Cooper in bed, he gloats to him how he got him good. A stupefied Cooper tries to think of a clever comeback, but just blurts out, "You're a jerk!" Mickey tells him to grow up.
- Man Bites Man: After Mickey scares him in front of Fergie, Cooper retaliates by biting him on the arm. This shuts up Mickey for once.
- Never My Fault: Cooper gets into a fight with Mickey at night for scaring him. His parents wake up and break the two up whilst scolding him, and Cooper defends himself by doing the typical immature "He started it!"Mr. Holmes: (rolls his eyes) And you're totally innocent, right?Cooper: Yes!Mr. Holmes: (shakes his head) Go to sleep, Cooper.
- Nightmare Face: The evil, snarling, red-eyed dog on the cover.
- Operation: [Blank]: Cooper at one point refers to his and Fergie's revenge plan toward Mickey as Operation "Scare Mickey."
- Ordered Apology: At breakfast, Mickey pours salt all over Cooper's french toast. His mother demanded that he apologize. Mickey is reluctant, but eventually does so. But as soon as their mother turns away, Mickey silently teases Cooper. This causes Cooper to leave the table in protest.
- Out-of-Character Alert: At dinner, Mrs. Holmes serves the phony Cooper liver, only for him to be quite disgusted and say he hates it. Mrs. Holmes is shocked at him, saying that he loves liver. This causes the phony Cooper to awkwardly pretend that he was just joking. The real Cooper, in the body of a dog, takes advantage of this by coming in and eating the liver himself, to try and convince them that it's really him. Needless to say, it doesn't work.
- Out-Gambitted: Cooper and Fergie devise a scheme to get back at Mickey for all the times he scared the former. They plan on scaring him in the middle of the night with a rubber rat in his bed and then bursting out of his closet to further scare him. However, Mickey saw them bringing in the supplies for this prank that morning, so he decided to make a fake him in bed and hide in the closet and scare them.
- The Prankster: Mickey, who takes advantage of his younger brother Cooper being easily scared.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The book ends with the protagonists stuck in the bodies of chipmunks while the chipmunks are now in the bodies of the dogs and the dogs still have the bodies of the protagonists. However, if they can lure the chipmunks in the bodies of the dogs (or another pair of stronger animals) back into the Changing Room, they can get stronger bodies and once again try to swap bodies with the ghost dogs who stole their bodies. Most notably, Cooper describes his physical appearance of his human form in the present-tense, implying that he got it back.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: After Mickey tricked him into thinking that he was really hurt by the dogs, Cooper asked him if he didn't have anything better to do than to try and scare him. Mickey smugly replies, "I don't even have to try."
- Shout-Out: Cooper is nervous about moving to his wooded Maine home because he's only read two horror novels, both of which take place in the woods of Maine.
- Sleeping Dummy: How Mickey fools Cooper and Fergie in their attempted prank. He planted a bunch of rolled up sheets and towels under the blanket of his bed to make it seem as though he was asleep.
- Teens Are Monsters: Mickey, who constantly tries to scare his easily-scared brother Cooper.
- "You!" Exclamation: Cooper says this when he finds out that the person that scared him and Fergie in the closet was none other than Mickey.