It seems that you can’t keep a bad animatronic down. The world of Five Nights at Freddy’s (or FNAF) has grown from that scary game to a multimedia empire. Scott Cawthon, wrote a series of books that retold the story for adults. In this new series, Cawthon along with with some other talented writers have now written a series for younger readers, Fazbear Frights. This is not FNAF World type of stories. This is not even Goosebumps. Think back to Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark and you will know what type of story you are getting into. Scott has said that these stories might fill in some gaps from the games. This is not simply just explaining events. You have to look at themes and do a little thinking. What follows is a look at the three stories and how they might relate to the game series.
1:35 A.M
Delilah loves to sleep. It helps her escape the harsh reality of her waking life. A broken alarm clock sends her to a garage sale where she finds a new one in the shape of a little girl. It does not seem to work and she throws it away. She learns that she set the clock wrong (1:35 A.M instead of 1:35 P.M) but she can’t find it. The clock still performs it’s duty and it’s method of waking goes far beyond a simple alarm.
An adult is the focus of this story, a first for the series. As someone who has suffered insomnia, this story hits harder for me. The clock is Ella, a animatronic from the previous book series. The authors do a good job of tying Delilah’s fear of the clock to an incident in childhood. We are also in the time frame where Fazbear is unknown to the general public.
Room for One More
Stanley is not having a good time. His girlfriend just dumped him and his job is a night security guard at a strange facility where his only mission is to make sure nothing gets out. Things take a turn when a strange little doll appears on his desk and disappears later on. Where is it going and why is his health suddenly starting to deteriorate?
I never thought out of all the characters in FNAF that we would get a story centered on the Minireenas from Sister Location. Those strange giggling creatures that serve Ballora. This is probably the grossest story of the whole bunch. Stanley might not know what is going on, but the reader picks up on it really quick. His employer might be Fazbear and it’s a nice nod to the job of the original games.
The New Kid
Devon and Mick are friends, but also the two outcasts at their school. Devon has his eyes on the popular girl, but he fails to realize that she wants nothing to do with him. Things change when a new kid named Kelsey joins the class. He is popular with everyone and decides to hang out with Devon and Mick. But when Devon believes that Kelsey is making a move on “his” girl, a simple payback prank goes tragically wrong.
This story confused me. I had to reread the last 15 pages a few times and I still don’t quite understand what was going on. It feels like a larger story we only got a piece of. Mick seems to have functioning autism, which is portrayed in a pretty realistic manner. (Trust me, I would know). Fazbear once again stays on the outskirts for this one and the main attraction is everyone’s favorite Easter egg, Golden Freddy
Final Thought
There does not seem to be a constant game we can point to in this collection. I liked the shift from just children characters to adult ones. Devon is probably my lest favorite character, as he seems to not care about anyone but himself. Delilah seems the most real and the one you want to survive. Stanley… well, you should have listened to your sister and mother and gone to the doctor.
Next: A more spoilery look at the books and some of it’s themes