The Goosebumps book about reverse aging, and a magic clock.
To get back at his bratty little sister, Tara, for ruining his birthday party, Michael Webster vandalizes his father's new cuckoo clock by twisting the bird's head backwards so Tara will get blamed for it. The plan falls apart, however, when Michael finds himself reliving his disastrous birthday party — and going back in time every time he goes to sleep.
It was adapted into episode 3 of the first season of the the 1995 TV series, with a novelization based on the episode being released as book 2 of the Goosebumps Presents series.
The book provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Michael's parents, but only towards him. They are extremely doting and loving towards their young daughter, Tara, who they see as an angel, and they never notice just how disturbingly rotten she is as a person and in the process treat their son Michael like crap on a daily basis by letting Tara bully him and calling him a liar when he tries to defend himself. Even before Tara was born, Michael's father was mocking him as a baby for not being able to say full sentences yet and not being able to tie his shoes when he was slightly older. Michael's parents are much nicer to him later, though, when Michael is his own age again and Tara is erased from existence.
- Adults Are Useless: Michael Webster's parents, who constantly dote on their youngest daughter Tara and refuse to believe Michael whenever the latter tells them about Tara's torment on him. Also, aside from the fact that they condone every misdeed Tara does to make Michael's life miserable (such as making Michael trip on his birthday cake and opening his presents), Michael gets beat up by a bigger guy thanks to Tara framing him for stealing the guy's cap, and when Michael returns home, his parents don't even care that their only son had just gotten beat up by a bigger guy, as opposed to their concern on Tara when she got a small cut on her leg when falling off Michael's bike for hopping on it earlier.
- And I Must Scream: Downplayed. While, yes, Michael ends up going back in time every time he goes to sleep and in the third act, he's very close to disappearing, it's more of a "Fate Worse than Death scenario" than an And I Must Scream one.
- Alternate Timeline: Michael ends up creating one where Tara was never born. It's implied she was a bad influence on their parents, who end up being nicer and doting to him.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Tara is one of the most infamous, if not the most infamous, examples in the series. She is always messing with Michael, ranging from tripping him up to embarrassing him in front of his crush.
- Artifact of Doom: The title object is a malevolent cuckoo clock with the power to turn back time, and will inevitably Ret-Gone the person who used it unless it's reset.
- Asshole Victim: After all the shit Michael's had to put up with from her, nobody is sad when Tara gets Ret-Gone. Michael does consider fixing the clock to get her back, but keeps it ambiguous.
- "Better if Not Born" Plot: A variation in which the jerk isn't shown the result of their non-existence. Instead, her protagonist brother Michael unwittingly does this to his horrible little sister Tara, and decides the world (or at least his life) is much improved by her absence.
- Big Brother Bully: Inverted. Michael's on the receiving end of his little sister Tara's bullying.
- Birthday Party Goes Wrong: Michael's birthday is ruined by Tara, even falling face-first into his own birthday cake. When he starts to travel back through time due to the titular Artifact of Doom, he's forced to relive the same day. While he doesn't make the same mistakes as the day before, his sister just messes it up some other way. Tara's absence finally allows Michael to avert his trope and actually have a happy birthday.
- Blatant Lies: Michael's statement at the end that he'll go back in time and get Tara comes across very much as this.
- Bratty Half-Pint: It's revealed Mona was this in preschool, where she goads "Mikey" to climb a tree by chanting he's scared. Michael says she was as bad as Tara was.
- Butt-Monkey: Michael just can't get things to go right for him. He does get a happy ending at least after Tara is erased from history.
- Carrying a Cake: Michael is carrying his own birthday cake, when his bratty sister Tara trips him, causing him to land face first in it. When he starts going backwards in time, he tries to prevent the tripping, but it still happens anyway. When Michael relives his birthday a third time at the end of the story he manages to carry the cake to the table without incident, mainly because Tara isn't there to trip him this time.
- Cassandra Truth: Michael's parents always dote on Tara and refuse to believe Michael whenever he tells them about Tara's torment on him.
- Cessation of Existence: It's implied this happens to Tara, as if she was never born it would just be like she never existed in the first place, and never had any consciousness/awareness.
- Close-Enough Timeline: Michael is cursed by his family's cuckoo clock to be repeatedly sent mentally back in time into his own body at younger and younger stages of his life until he might be erased from existence. He alters the timeline so that it never happens, but his annoying and malicious sibling is erased from existence due to the clock's "defect" mentioned earlier in the book (the clock's year dial skips the sister's birth year, something that he caused when fixing the backwards time flow). He promises he should probably go back and try to fix it. Maybe. Eventually. "One of these days..."
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: In one of the humiliating moments that Michael has to relive, Mona and her friends come over to rehearse for a play. Michael goes to his room to change into his costume, but Tara brings the girls into his room (She had broken his bedroom door lock beforehand) to show them Michael in his underwear, much to Michael's utter embarrassment.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover shows a creepy-looking bird emerging from a cuckoo clock, implying that it's the villain of the story. While the cuckoo clock has the power to manipulate time, it has no will of its own, and it's the protagonist tampering with the clock which drives the plot. Evil cuckoo birds don't figure into it at all.
- Death by De-aging: A variation occurs in that Michael is gradually sent further and further into his own past by the eponymous object and has to find a way to reverse the process before he disappears. He eventually manages to stop the rewinding and return to the present, but Tara is gone and he's the only one who remembers that she existed.
- The Diaper Change: An example that is not actually shown, but Michael remembers it quite well, much to his clear discomfort. As Michael cries and whines in baby form, his mother believes that this means that he probably needs his diaper changed, which makes him horrified. He feebly tries to convince her not to, but she persists. There is then a passage of Michael telling the reader that he does not want to describe it, and just leave it at that.I don't like to think about what happened after that. I'd rather block it out of my memory. I'm sure you understand.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: You wouldn't think a cuckoo clock could cause doom, but there it is.
- Door Slam of Rage: Michael does this twice. The first time he does this in Tara's face after she gloats about Kevin beating him up, and the second time when their father agrees that Michael is a bad influence even though Tara is. On the former occasion, of course, Michael gets in trouble for "picking on" his little sister.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Michael has been tormented by his horrible sister all his life, but reverses time by mistake and has to relive every humiliating moment his sister puts him through and almost ceases to exist due to the time reversal reverting him to a baby. At the end he not only fixes the flow of time but as a side effect makes it so his sister never existed, allowing him to enjoy his birthday party and have a good time with his potential Love Interest, among other things.
- Enfant Terrible: Tara Webster. She's been rotten since she was an infant.
- Eye Poke: In a memory relived to when Tara was two, Michael wonders if she is actually sweet at this age. But when he leans in to kiss her, she pokes him in the eye, giving him pain and proving him wrong.
- Fake Better Alternate Timeline: Subverted. Michael's time-travel makes his little sister Tara Ret-Gone. The book ends with him thinking he'll go back for her one of these days, but as the book presents Tara as a genuinely chilling sociopath the timeline really is better off without her.
- Failed a Spot Check: In one time-traveling transition, Michael goes from an eleven year-old to an eight year-old. He doesn't realize this at first, despite being a lot shorter than usual, and it takes him until he goes to his classroom and doesn't recognize any of his classmates and the teacher (whom he doesn't recognize either) calls him a third grader does he finally realize.
- Fate Worse than Death: Often the implication (overt or covert) of the Twist Ending. Michael risks being wiped out of existence itself; Tara really does have this happen to her.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: When Tara runs to her mother claiming that Michael is terrorizing her, she believes her and uses Michael's full name and then scolds him.
- George Lucas Altered Version: Because the book mentions specific years, later reprints have had alterations
to make it less dated...- The original 1995 printing takes place that year and mentions Michael and Tara's birth years as 1983 and 1988, respectively. The 2003 reprint changes their birth years to 1991 and 1996, and the 2015 digital re-release changes them to 2003 and 2008. Tara's birth year is the year Michael finds missing from the clock's year dial, resulting in his accidentally erasing Tara from existence.
- In the original 1995 printing, the year dial ends at 2000. The 2003 reprint extends this to 3000, and the 2015 digital re-release shortens it to 2050. While the 1995 and 2003 versions have Michael theorize the clock maker thought the world would blow up in 1999 or 2999, the 2015 version changes it so Michael says the clock maker thought the world would simply end in 2049.
- In the 1995 and 2003 versions, Michael needs to do his history homework in the den so he can use the encyclopedia, as carrying the whole encyclopedia set up to his room would be inconvenient. The 2015 digital re-release changes this Michael's reason for doing homework in the den to needing to use the Internet on the den computer for his research, as physical encyclopedia books have since become less commonplace.
- While Mona still gives Michael a music CD as a birthday present, the 2015 digital re-release removes any other specific CD mentions, implying that Michael and his guests are streaming music through a stereo system.
- After Michael trips and falls into his birthday cake in the 1995 and 2003 versions, Rosie tells Michael that he looks like The Incredible Hulk. The 2015 digital re-release changes it so Rosie says that Michael looks like The Thing.
- When seven-year-old Michael takes the bus to the antique shop and forgets the fare was lower back then, in the 1995 and 2003 versions the bus driver advises Michael to keep the extra quarter for a phone call. The 2015 digital re-release changes the bus driver's line to telling Michael to keep the quarter for a gumball, due to pay phones being a lot less common in The New '10s.
- Five-year-old Michael wears The Smurfs pajamas in the 1995 and 2003 versions. The 2015 digital re-release changes them to dinosaur pajamas.
- Hate Sink: Not just Tara, but also Michael's parents, who constantly dote on Tara and treat their only son like shit.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Michael's parents, who think of Tara as perfection incarnate and Michael as inferior to her, to the point of being Abusive Parents towards the latter.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Whilst Michael is in the form of a baby, his parents meet up, and they get into a serious discussion about how much of a disappointment he is at the way he is speaking at this age. Michael is annoyed how they are talking about him like this right in front of him. Highly justified, as he is a baby, and they presumed that he could not understand what they were saying about him.
- Karma Houdini: For years, Tara always gets away with being an incredibly nasty child without ever receiving any punishments, as only her brother Michael can see her true colors while their parents not only encourage it, but actively take part in it at times. The ending of the book totally averts this, though, as Tara gets erased out of existence by accident.
- Karmic Twist Ending: Michael's bratty little sister that specializes in making his life a living hell finally gets her comeuppance when he accidentally erases her from existence.
- Kick the Dog: Tara does this in almost every chapter she appears in.
- Kids Are Cruel: Tara may as well be the poster child for this trope, and it's even implied when Michael goes back in time that she was this horrible all her life, even when she was just two years old.
- Mental Time Travel: The book is based around a cuckoo clock which causes the protagonist to jump back to earlier points in his life starting with the previous day. The problem is that it keeps going further back in time with no sign of stopping, probably erasing him from existence eventually.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Tara the Terrible. She really lives up to it.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When his baseball cap ends up in Michael's backpack (Because of Tara), Kevin Flowers beats him up so hard that Michael's mother initially doesn't recognize him when he comes home later that day.
- Parental Favoritism: Michael's parents are a textbook example.
- Parental Neglect: On top of everything already mentioned, Baby Michael is able to easily sneak away because his parents are too busy arguing over which table to get to pay attention to him.
- Pie in the Face: Tara trips Michael up while he's Carrying a Cake, resulting in him landing face first into it. He avoids this in the Close-Enough Timeline by virtue of Tara not being around to do it.
- Puppy Love: Michael is interested in Mona, who finally returns his feelings after he unwittingly erases his sister Tara from existence, meaning she never embarrassed him in front of Mona at his birthday party.
- Pushover Parents: Michael's parents towards Tara. They constantly dote on her and never discipline her whenever she does bad tings to Michael.
- Ret-Gone: Michael erases Tara from existence via the titular object, albeit by accident.
- Sdrawkcab Speech: When Michael complains to his family about how he is in a time warp, the family then starts doing this trope, as well as doing actions in a backwards manner. It turns out that they were just pretending to mess with Michael.Mom: Yenoh, ecir erom?Dad: Esaelp, sey.Tara: Oot, em.Michael: Hey, it's true!Tara: Norom. (starts laughing, to which Dad and then Mom join in, and Michael realizes that he was fooled)
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: This book is a very good example of the cynical attitude of the series. The main character, Michael, is The Unfavorite to his sociopathic little sister, who their parents see as an angel. Michael also gets embarrassed in front of his crush not once but TWICE, everyone (including his parents) laughs at him when he falls and gets cake all over his face and shirt and he gets beat up by a bigger kid. Even before Tara was born, Michael's life was shown to be miserable. While things do get better for him at the end, his parents are also Karma Houdinis as they are never seen or shown getting punished for abusing Michael.
- The Sociopath: Tara Webster, who never shows any signs of compassion or kindness. Considering her age and how long she's been vindictively tormenting her older brother, it's likely she's never going to develop a conscience. Then again, she is erased from existence at the end of the book.
- Spoiled Brat: Tara gets everything she wants, and neither of her parents see anything wrong with it.
- Straying Baby: Michael has to invoke this as a baby when his parents take him to the antique store. He throws a tantrum about being strapped into a stroller and demands to be put down rather than carried. When his mother is distracted, he toddles to the cuckoo clock and twists the bird back to its proper arrangement. His parents freak out that he may have damaged a priceless antique, but it fortunately does the trick and sends him back to his right age.
- Temporal Abortion: The protagonist winds up doing this by accident. Vandalizing the cuckoo clock results in Michael mentally time traveling backwards. Every time he goes to sleep, he wakes up further in the past, reliving the various ways that his sociopathic younger sister Tara made his life miserable. He manages to reverse the effect just before he has to find out what happens if he travels back before his own birth—but by this point he's already traveled to a few years before Tara was born. Michael wakes back up in the present day, but now he's an only child and nobody besides him remembers Tara at all. Turns out Michael accidentally knocked Tara's birth year off the clock's year dial, so restoring the normal flow of time resulted in a new timeline where she was never born. Michael isn't particularly upset by this.
- Tickle Torture: A 4-year-old Mona does this to Michael when he chases her.
- Time Travel Episode: The plot sees Michael undergoing a mental trip back in time.
- The Un-Favourite: Michael is this; his parents treat him as far less important than his bratty little sister.
