This was a hard read. Not because of the content or source material or anything like that. I know what I'm getting with a Five Nights at Freddy's tie-in novel - killer robots possessed by the spirits of the victims of a serial killer trying to stop it from happening again. But, dammit, who was the editor on this? Could you AT LEAST have given it another editing pass? Or six?

The narrative was so clunky. It read like a high school senior trying to shove in every SAT vocabulary word into a college entrance exam. Which is fine for a college entrance exam. Not for a novel based on a popular video game that is supposed to add to the complex lore of said game. Also, it is perfectly fine for an author to put contractions into their prose. All the instances of "it was" "she is" "did not" "could not", etc. would have read so much better written as "it's", "she's", "didn't", "couldn't". The prose was way too formal otherwise. This should have been an easier read.

I'm not even mad that the characters were flat and boring. That's normal in the horror genre. The characters in horror are either boring or evil, so you don't feel bad about them when they finally die. If there was a moral and heroic character, you'd feel terrible for liking them and hate it when they get killed in the story. It's obvious that the only character you're supposed to connect with in this story is Charlie. The rest are animatronic fodder (though no one actually dies in this installment. Maybe in the next one).

I dunno - the FNAF story is fascinating to me, even though I've never played any of the games (nor do I plan to). I do enjoy watching people on YouTube play the games and put together all their nutty theories. I feel like an anthropologist (of sorts) watching people get really worked-up over timelines and bites and springlock suits. It's not my tribe or fandom necessarily, but I appreciate the determination and I admire their tenacity and passion for it. But I figured the books would try to fill in the gaps, which is why I'm reading them.

I want to read the other two novels still. But I guess I need to lower my expectations even further as far as writing quality goes. But I will say this - I have read a fair number of indie-published books that were far better edited than this traditionally published one. Clearly, Scholastic thought that they could slap the Five Nights at Freddy's label on this and rake in the cash and not worry about putting out anything of quality. Which is a shame, because the story here could have been good, if they cared enough to put some polish on it. Or any polish at all.

Excelente historia (incluso si no eres fan del juego) tiene escenarios interesantes, personajes divertidos, una narrativa disfrutable y buenos momentos de terror. Yo se lo leí a mi hijo, pero ambos disfrutamos la historia

this wasn’t good but i’m in it now, boys

Well.....disappointing. The writing is too verbose and filled with useless descriptions which makes reading this story a chore. The backstories are interesting but this would be better served as a MTV-ish, Final Destination type movie.

I don't know if I can overlook my own opinion of this writer to pick up book 2.

I listened to about 1/3 of this book and just could not get into it. It keeps seeming to nod to parts of the video game, but having not played it I don't get it.

To make it worse, the characters act like college graduates, meeting back up after being apart for 4 years. But instead, they are high school seniors, who parted ways when they were 6?! What 6 year olds keep in contact for 10+ years after parting. And more importantly, what group of people have enough stories to fill dozens of reminiscing conversations from when they were 6?!

The characters are flat and unlikable, and I just didn't care what was happening.

After 3 hours i'm done, I give up. So much better horror fiction out there.

I've never played this game or anything, so I know nothing about the FNAF lore. I picked this book up because the premise speaks to me. The animatronic characters at Chuck E. Cheese's were always disturbing in a dead-eyed macabre way. I always found myself staring at their eyes and creeped out by their jerky motions. I imagine the FNAF creator saw the same potential for creepiness.

As for the book, I do not have any comparison with which to base it because I do not know what the game story is. I do know that this book was written by two accomplished storytellers and that one of them is the creator of the game so it should fit well within the confines of the game. Theoretically. I worried that, since the game is played by kids that it might be written for kids. It isn't.

And yes, I realize that adults play games too.

I get that.

It's probably a good thing since all those underutilized basements at their mom's houses need some activity in between meatloaf-eating sessions in bed. The lack of a job or romantic companionship leaves a void in their lives, so my hat's off to creators of successful mobile games!

Where was I?

Oh, the book. The Silver Eyes is not half bad. Thankfully not written for middle schoolers, though I'm sure it they'd enjoy it. It's got some "Saw" elements to it, and I thought those were probably the most effective chills.

I had a couple of questions that were unanswered when I finished the book, a couple of gross things they kinda hinted at but never fully revealed, but there are two sequels so maybe that's by design.

All in all, not the worst way to get acquainted with FNAF.