| “ | I don't have to wreck your birthday. It's bad all by itself- just because it's the day you were born. | „ |
| ~ Tara taunting Michael. |
Tara Webster is the main antagonist of the Goosebumps book The Cuckoo Clock of Doom. She is the sociopathic little sister of Michael Webster, who often torments her brother out of enjoyment for seeing his misery.
In the Goosebumps TV show, she was portrayed by Kristen Bone.
Overview[]
Tara is Michael's seven-year-old sister who has done everything in her power to make him miserable ever since she was born. She has managed to manipulate her parents (who prefer her over Michael) into believing Michael is constantly lying and causing trouble while she is a perfect little angel. She has never gotten in trouble despite all the cruel things she has done, from ruining her brother's birthday by scratching up his new bike present, opening all of his presents, and tripping him so he falls face first into his cake, to more disturbing and downright evil behavior such as terrorizing the family cat Bubba and intentionally getting her brother beaten up by another kid at school by framing him for theft of the other boy's cap. Mr. and Mrs. Webster never scold her even when they notice her do things like stomp hard on Michael's foot and call him a moron.
After Michael's father buys the Cuckoo Clock of Doom and Michael notices how protective his father is of the clock (which he has wanted to buy for years), he gets the idea to get Tara in trouble by damaging the clock and framing her for it. Michael twists the head of the cuckoo bird backwards, planning to have his father notice it in the morning and blame it on Tara as payback for everything she has ever done. However, by twisting the head backwards Michael unwittingly activates the clock's special power: time travel. The clock had been created by a sorcerer who enchanted it with time travel powers. By twisting the head backwards, Michael caused time to start going backwards. As time went backwards, only Michael was aware, and everyone became younger. Eventually, after de-aging into a baby (and being forced to relive the moments in his life that Tara ruined), Michael manages to turn the head back to its proper position. Michael returns to his proper age but finds Tara missing. It's revealed that as a baby, Michael accidentally knocked Tara's birth year off of the clock (which is 1988), causing Tara to be erased from existence. Michael says that he may eventually go back and save Tara, but considering all the horrible things she did, it's unlikely.
Personality[]
Tara was a cruel child who loved making her brother miserable for fun. It's clear there was no love between the siblings. Tara even found it amusing when she got Michael beaten by a jock so bad that he was bloody and covered in cuts and bruises and their mother didn't recognize him when he got home. She loved making Michael come off as a chronic liar while making her parents think she was a perfectly behaved child. She always worked to ruin Michael's birthdays and never gave him a break.
Aside from tormenting Michael, Tara also enjoyed terrorizing Bubba, the family cat. Tara enjoyed forcing Bubba to do a handstand and stretching his mouth into a pained, forced smile. Disturbingly, Tara had been like this ever since she was two, as shown when she asked Michael for a kiss only to poke him in the eye and laugh. She was also shown chasing after Bubba while he was still a kitten.
Tara was very manipulative for her age, easily tricking her parents into swallowing every word she said. Her cruel acts and her manipulative streak, as well as the fact she had been like this ever since birth, shows that she was a born sociopath. This is further evidenced by the fact she never showed any empathy and took joy in causing her brother pain, be it directly by stomping hard on his foot, or indirectly by getting him beaten up by a school jock.
Trivia[]
- Before he started writing "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom", R. L. Stine was approached by a young girl whose name was Tara while he was signing books in a bookstore. She asked him to make her a character in a Goosebumps book and she also wanted her character to be bad, so the character named Tara was made for the story.
- In the episode, Tara's cruelty was severely toned down. Her more sociopathic behavior of terrorizing the family cat and getting her brother beaten up by another kid are removed, as is the reveal that she had been like this ever since birth. This was done presumably because of the episode's time limit.
- Reprints of the story keep updating Tara's birth year. In the original version, it's 1988. In the 2003 reprint, it's 1996. In the 2015 E-book, it's 2008.
External Links[]
- Tara Webster on the Goosebumps Wiki
- Tara Webster on the Hate Sink Wiki
