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Five Nights at Freddy's: Tales from the Pizzaplex #3
Somniphobia (Tales from the Pizzaplex, #3)
Five Nights at Freddy's fans won't want to miss this collection of three chilling stories that will haunt even the bravest FNAF player… What are you running from? . . . Sam is afraid of just about anything and everything that’s unhealthy ever since his father died . . . Something about the Springtrap costume in the roleplaying area of Freddy Fazbears Mega Pizzaplex chills Luca to the core . . . And Grady’s fear of being trapped in small spaces makes working as a Pizzaplex technician extremely challenging. But in the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, our deepest fears have a way of chasing us . . . In this third volume, Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon spins three sinister novella-length tales from uncharted corners of his series' canon. Readers beware: This collection of terrifying tales is enough to rattle even the most hardened Five Nights at Freddy's fans.
256 pages, Paperback
Published December 6, 2022
138 people are currently reading
1794 people want to read
About the author
Scott Cawthon
145 books2,365 followersScott Cawthon is an American independent video game developer, animator, and writer, best known for his creation of the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
January 24, 2023
Usually, I like to start my reviews off with a favourite or particularly striking quote from each book I read - for the first time in over 40 consecutive reviews, I'll be breaking that streak, because there is not one single memorable, descriptive, or even remotely noteworthy quote anywhere in this nightmare of a book. Let me backtrack with some context here, first, before I jump into my full review for Somniphobia.
Obviously, I'm a Five Nights at Freddy's fan, because I'm not sure anyone who's never heard of the franchise is just picking up a Tales from the Pizzaplex book at random. What I love most about Five Nights at Freddy's in general is that, nine times out of ten, this franchise does remarkable horror storytelling. The games were the first of their kind, and really defined a new era of horror gaming, but the novel series (The Silver Eyes novels, also YA) is just incredibly written. To date, The Silver Eyes continues to be one of my all-time favourite horror books ever, and so I went into Somniphobia with some very high expectations, despite the fact that I'm not the biggest fan of anthology novels.
What a complete waste of time, energy, and paper Somniphobia was. God. First off, the writing is absolutely awful. It's not descriptive, it has no rhythm, no flow, no voice - the entire book is just sentences of factual statement (the room looked dark. he walked forward. she screamed. they ran quickly to a brighter room. etc.), and not a single one of the characters are realistic, believable, or more than one-dimensional. I don't think I've ever read a single book in my life where the characters are this badly written, but then again, considering the rest of the book is the same way, I shouldn't be surprised.
Now, there's one of my biggest gripes about Somniphobia: it's a YA book, right? Classified as 13+. That's the age range this is for. And yet, it reads like a middle-grade book, with adult-level gore. This is quite literally one of the most nauseatingly gory books I've ever read, and these fucked-up depictions are within a book that reads like a knock-off, infinitely worse Goosebumps book. This is not suitable for any one range range, and quite frankly, I think the addition of such heavy gore came from the fact that this book would be stuck in the middle grade section of a bookstore without it, and they needed to make it 'more mature.'
On top of all of this, uh, hey, guys? This is a Five Nights at Freddy's book, right? You know, Five Nights at Freddy's, that franchise with the killer animatronics? Okay, no, yeah, because only one story has a killer animatronic in it, and even then, I don't know if that was supposed to be the scary part? Again, speaking to the questionable age demographic this book was written for, every story in Somniphobia seems to have some dubious life lesson about picking your friends more carefully. Because in all three of these stories, the man character is left to die and rot by a group of people they considered 'friends,' and who should have stuck up for themselves better, or they wouldn't be, y'know, brutally and viciously murdered. Is that supposed to be the lesson, here? 'Choose your friends carefully, because if you don't, your eyes are going to get ripped out of your head and you'll be left to bleed to death alone in the dark'? What the fuck?
I know I'm not alone in the line of thinking that Security Breach really shifted the tone of the Five Nights at Freddy's genre for the worse, and the Tales from the Pizzaplex seem to be doing the same for the franchise's novels. What an incredible disappointment after how phenomenal The Silver Eyes was. Cawthon is clearly abandoning genuinely good horror writing for a cash grab, and no one's having a good time with it in any leg of the franchise. I'm literally donating this book, because I'm not having it take up unnecessary space on my shelf. Damn.
Obviously, I'm a Five Nights at Freddy's fan, because I'm not sure anyone who's never heard of the franchise is just picking up a Tales from the Pizzaplex book at random. What I love most about Five Nights at Freddy's in general is that, nine times out of ten, this franchise does remarkable horror storytelling. The games were the first of their kind, and really defined a new era of horror gaming, but the novel series (The Silver Eyes novels, also YA) is just incredibly written. To date, The Silver Eyes continues to be one of my all-time favourite horror books ever, and so I went into Somniphobia with some very high expectations, despite the fact that I'm not the biggest fan of anthology novels.
What a complete waste of time, energy, and paper Somniphobia was. God. First off, the writing is absolutely awful. It's not descriptive, it has no rhythm, no flow, no voice - the entire book is just sentences of factual statement (the room looked dark. he walked forward. she screamed. they ran quickly to a brighter room. etc.), and not a single one of the characters are realistic, believable, or more than one-dimensional. I don't think I've ever read a single book in my life where the characters are this badly written, but then again, considering the rest of the book is the same way, I shouldn't be surprised.
Now, there's one of my biggest gripes about Somniphobia: it's a YA book, right? Classified as 13+. That's the age range this is for. And yet, it reads like a middle-grade book, with adult-level gore. This is quite literally one of the most nauseatingly gory books I've ever read, and these fucked-up depictions are within a book that reads like a knock-off, infinitely worse Goosebumps book. This is not suitable for any one range range, and quite frankly, I think the addition of such heavy gore came from the fact that this book would be stuck in the middle grade section of a bookstore without it, and they needed to make it 'more mature.'
On top of all of this, uh, hey, guys? This is a Five Nights at Freddy's book, right? You know, Five Nights at Freddy's, that franchise with the killer animatronics? Okay, no, yeah, because only one story has a killer animatronic in it, and even then, I don't know if that was supposed to be the scary part? Again, speaking to the questionable age demographic this book was written for, every story in Somniphobia seems to have some dubious life lesson about picking your friends more carefully. Because in all three of these stories, the man character is left to die and rot by a group of people they considered 'friends,' and who should have stuck up for themselves better, or they wouldn't be, y'know, brutally and viciously murdered. Is that supposed to be the lesson, here? 'Choose your friends carefully, because if you don't, your eyes are going to get ripped out of your head and you'll be left to bleed to death alone in the dark'? What the fuck?
I know I'm not alone in the line of thinking that Security Breach really shifted the tone of the Five Nights at Freddy's genre for the worse, and the Tales from the Pizzaplex seem to be doing the same for the franchise's novels. What an incredible disappointment after how phenomenal The Silver Eyes was. Cawthon is clearly abandoning genuinely good horror writing for a cash grab, and no one's having a good time with it in any leg of the franchise. I'm literally donating this book, because I'm not having it take up unnecessary space on my shelf. Damn.
Read
December 6, 2022wtf
December 6, 2022
• Luca's friends might not have believed the mythology of Freddy's, but Luca did. And part of the mythology was that these old suits could be lethal.
There was a reason Springtrap was called Springtrap. •
💤🎭🪜
Klassischer FNaF-Horror, der dieses Mal wirklich alles gegeben hat. Insbesondere die zweite Geschichte, "Pressure", hat viel Interpretationsraum gelassen, was mittlerweile zum Reiz dieses Fandoms dazugehört.
There was a reason Springtrap was called Springtrap. •
💤🎭🪜
Klassischer FNaF-Horror, der dieses Mal wirklich alles gegeben hat. Insbesondere die zweite Geschichte, "Pressure", hat viel Interpretationsraum gelassen, was mittlerweile zum Reiz dieses Fandoms dazugehört.
July 25, 2023
"I want to be a damsel in distress," the ONLY girl character says.
I haven't finished this book yet, but it already sucks. I hate it and the rest of these stupid ass books because there are themes that I've noticed are recurring throughout this series and Fazbear Frights.
1) Every single character is one-dimensional and unbelievable. Most of them are even copied and pasted from previous stories. If the leading kid characters aren't outcasted and misunderstood geeks who are trying to ditch their friends because they're either too immature or aren't actually their friends at all, then they're school bullies who clearly the authors want us to believe deserve what happen to them (did I mention they're literally children?). There's also a lot of pointless exposition and backstory for these characters, who we're probably not even going to remember the names of after the story ends.
2) You know that really important tip that people tell you to remember when writing a book? You know, "show, don't tell?" Yeah, there's none of that in any of these books. They're ALL tell. I've had to reread pages more times than I can count because I get so bored of ten-page long exposition or setting descriptions that don't SHOW me anything. Sometimes, the authors even do that thing where you put an exclamation point after a sentence that isn't dialogue. This, in my opinion, shows that the authors are AWARE that the reader doesn't know they should be excited because they're not showing us why we should be.
3) Who the hell are these books for? I refuse to believe they're for "the most hardened Five Nights at Freddy's fans" because I, certainly, am not rattled. Seriously, these books are written like a poor middle grade cashgrab with child characters, but then some of the deaths are incredibly gory or shocking (or at least are meant to be, but again, show don't tell is important for a reason). If these stories are meant for children, tone down the graphic deaths for fuck's sake. If these stories are meant for adults, hire better authors because the ones working on this series are clearly better geared towards a middle grade style of writing. And drop the child characters.
4) Stop with the damn romance plots. They're boring and are entirely pointless to the actual story. Plus, for the most part, they're all the cliche "nerd boy likes popular girl but popular girl doesn't like nerd boy." If these are a must-keep in the series, at least add some variety!! Maybe add queer characters because for the love of god they're not THAT hard to write!! At the very least, just drop the cliche. It's overdone and it's not fun to read.
Anyway thanks for coming to my TedTalk I'm gonna finish this dumbass book so I can do better things with my life.
I haven't finished this book yet, but it already sucks. I hate it and the rest of these stupid ass books because there are themes that I've noticed are recurring throughout this series and Fazbear Frights.
1) Every single character is one-dimensional and unbelievable. Most of them are even copied and pasted from previous stories. If the leading kid characters aren't outcasted and misunderstood geeks who are trying to ditch their friends because they're either too immature or aren't actually their friends at all, then they're school bullies who clearly the authors want us to believe deserve what happen to them (did I mention they're literally children?). There's also a lot of pointless exposition and backstory for these characters, who we're probably not even going to remember the names of after the story ends.
2) You know that really important tip that people tell you to remember when writing a book? You know, "show, don't tell?" Yeah, there's none of that in any of these books. They're ALL tell. I've had to reread pages more times than I can count because I get so bored of ten-page long exposition or setting descriptions that don't SHOW me anything. Sometimes, the authors even do that thing where you put an exclamation point after a sentence that isn't dialogue. This, in my opinion, shows that the authors are AWARE that the reader doesn't know they should be excited because they're not showing us why we should be.
3) Who the hell are these books for? I refuse to believe they're for "the most hardened Five Nights at Freddy's fans" because I, certainly, am not rattled. Seriously, these books are written like a poor middle grade cashgrab with child characters, but then some of the deaths are incredibly gory or shocking (or at least are meant to be, but again, show don't tell is important for a reason). If these stories are meant for children, tone down the graphic deaths for fuck's sake. If these stories are meant for adults, hire better authors because the ones working on this series are clearly better geared towards a middle grade style of writing. And drop the child characters.
4) Stop with the damn romance plots. They're boring and are entirely pointless to the actual story. Plus, for the most part, they're all the cliche "nerd boy likes popular girl but popular girl doesn't like nerd boy." If these are a must-keep in the series, at least add some variety!! Maybe add queer characters because for the love of god they're not THAT hard to write!! At the very least, just drop the cliche. It's overdone and it's not fun to read.
Anyway thanks for coming to my TedTalk I'm gonna finish this dumbass book so I can do better things with my life.
September 26, 2023
I'm starting to notice that when a romantic subplot is introduced, I'm just bound to not like the story at all. I liked the story Cleithrophobia the best (I swear, the final stories in these end up being the best ones), and I liked how the bonus story at the end was a continuation of the previous installment's, but I was desperately trying to get to the end of the first two stories--Somniphobia and Pressure. I was even tempted to skip over the short bonus story at the end because of how much talk there was about the character's relationships with each other before it finally ended.
A lot of he likes her but she likes him and he also happens to like her--very little payoff when the scares end up being the shortest scenes throughout the book and are always found at the end, no matter if they're actually impactful or not (the conclusion to Pressure was fine while Cleithrophobia's was incredibly gruesome, but Somniphobia's was underwhelming).
As a lot of people have also said in their reviews, it's getting harder and harder to tell what age group these books are actually for... I've been categorizing them as middle-grade this whole entire time because, in most cases, the stories leading up to the scares feel incredibly juvenile, but the gore said stories lead up to definitely aren't. Was especially squeamish while reading the end of Cleithrophobia. Bro who are these books for 'cus I STILL haven't figured it out yet
A lot of he likes her but she likes him and he also happens to like her--very little payoff when the scares end up being the shortest scenes throughout the book and are always found at the end, no matter if they're actually impactful or not (the conclusion to Pressure was fine while Cleithrophobia's was incredibly gruesome, but Somniphobia's was underwhelming).
As a lot of people have also said in their reviews, it's getting harder and harder to tell what age group these books are actually for... I've been categorizing them as middle-grade this whole entire time because, in most cases, the stories leading up to the scares feel incredibly juvenile, but the gore said stories lead up to definitely aren't. Was especially squeamish while reading the end of Cleithrophobia. Bro who are these books for 'cus I STILL haven't figured it out yet
Want to read
March 7, 2022(I'm writing this before the official release of the book, but seeing as this page hasn't been updated as of 03/05/2023, I am going to place what I have seen so far here.)
This book is going to be called "Somnophobia", as was shown with the recent cover release. It has the image of the Daycare Attendant in his Moon phase. (I'm very excited, as Sun/Moon was my favorite animatronic from Security Breach). It also seems that these 3 books are going to tie in with the game itself, as the blurb on the back of "Somnophobia" mentions a child afraid of falling asleep (hence Somnophobia), and I believe it has to do with the in-game message regarding children afraid of the Daycare Attendant.
It revolves around the mother of one of the children, who works at a children's hospital. I don't know much more than that, at the moment. Will update, when able.
This book is going to be called "Somnophobia", as was shown with the recent cover release. It has the image of the Daycare Attendant in his Moon phase. (I'm very excited, as Sun/Moon was my favorite animatronic from Security Breach). It also seems that these 3 books are going to tie in with the game itself, as the blurb on the back of "Somnophobia" mentions a child afraid of falling asleep (hence Somnophobia), and I believe it has to do with the in-game message regarding children afraid of the Daycare Attendant.
It revolves around the mother of one of the children, who works at a children's hospital. I don't know much more than that, at the moment. Will update, when able.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 7, 2023
So i'm not a prude when it comes to horror. during my college years i was on a MASSIVE horror kick and read/watched a lot. so i can safely say, without any bias, that this book was just awful. Like, very very bad.
It seems to be a theme with the freddy anthology books that either 1 of the stories is good and the rest is trash, or they're all just terrible. and this is the latter. I love the location of the pizzaplex and was excited to see stories based on this. Sadly, the first tale barely involves the pizzaplex, and the other two are just weird offshoots. Let me explain the three stories
Story 1: Guy gets a magical hallucinogenic ball as a ticket prize that mimics a drug addict's personality downfall and then he dies.
Story 2: Guy decides to larp with his friends at the pizzaplex being springtrap. they have a real springlock suit and he slowly dies.
Story 3: worker gets stuck in a tube and slowly dies as he's pulled through by ballora.
So safe to say, no feel good stories here. But that's to be expected as it's horror.
The problem is, this isn't GOOD horror. it's edgy, tween, LOOK HOW EDGY AND GROSS I CAN BE! horror. like hot topic horror. there's no build up, no reason, just... gross and depressing.
The biggest problem i have with all three stories is that the punishment isn't justified by the action.
story 1, shut in kid uses toy globe he got too much from a prize counter so he dies.
story 2, guy decides to have a fun larping game so he dies
story 3, guy decides to work late by himself so he doesn't have to work saturday so he dies.
None of these warrant the violent ends they get. and i UNDERSTAND there doesn't always need to be a moral, but i feel like every story here is TRYING to tell a moral, at least be ironic or something? Every character here has a tragic backstory which they talk about that leads into their death. So they try to make you feel bad for them, and then they die horribly on top of that. It's not like there's a message. It's more like a "man that sure sucked for them as a kid. NOW it sucks even more because they died horribly! isn't that edgy! it's like saying 'life sucks and then you die' PLEASE LOVE US TWEENS! WE'RE COOL RIGHT!?!"
it just screams of a sad desperation of trying to be hip and cool.
One of the biggest issues i had with these stories is that they were all related to actual real things at a freddy's. what i mean by that is,
the orb that can kill you costs 1000 tickets at the prize counter. it's not like the kids stole some secret item from the backroom storage they weren't supposed to have, it was a literal prize item you get from the prize counter. i don't think they would have that because they'd....you know, be sued off their asses. Same thing with the second story. in the larping section where they give costumes, there's an actual springtrap suit. How'd it get there? why is there a deadly suit there? WHO KNOWS?! there just is. Third story, there's a 'get through the tunnel' section where if you get stuck a robot yanks you through. yep. can't see a problem with that!
Yes, i know fazbear's in universe has a history of people going missing and accidents, but within 3 short stories you have 3 deaths. it's like... no. this place would not still be in business. At all. And at the end of the 3rd story the guy's still barely alive and his two friends are like "ah man. well we can't save him because then we'd get in trouble for leaving early yesterday" and i'm just sitting there like.... what? It's like the people who wrote this book have never come across human beings or lived in the real world. yes i know it's a fictional world, but things like accountability and negligence exist. it's one thing to have a missing kids situation, but when bodies literally pile up inside and out of your place, it's gonna get shut down.
The stories weren't good. they were just depressing, long, and drawn out. it's not scary it's just gross and uncomfortable. like you're reading somebody's fetish book. Yes, i understand that not every story needs a moral, happy ending or what have you, but i shouldn't finish 3 short stories and go "...the hell was the point of that?"
However, this MIGHT be just a bad compilation. it happens. I'm going to give the first one a shot and see if maybe that one is better. who knows.
oh. also at the end there's a part in black pages that's a continuation of earlier volumes. so like me, not having read 1 or 2, i had no idea what was going on since you had to read volumes 1 and 2 epilogues to know the story. all you have to know is they see animatronics and 2 kids die awfully. the end.
ugh. this was a waste of time for everyone involved. Glad i only spent $1 for it a book sale. Going right back out the door.
1.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 2.
It seems to be a theme with the freddy anthology books that either 1 of the stories is good and the rest is trash, or they're all just terrible. and this is the latter. I love the location of the pizzaplex and was excited to see stories based on this. Sadly, the first tale barely involves the pizzaplex, and the other two are just weird offshoots. Let me explain the three stories
Story 1: Guy gets a magical hallucinogenic ball as a ticket prize that mimics a drug addict's personality downfall and then he dies.
Story 2: Guy decides to larp with his friends at the pizzaplex being springtrap. they have a real springlock suit and he slowly dies.
Story 3: worker gets stuck in a tube and slowly dies as he's pulled through by ballora.
So safe to say, no feel good stories here. But that's to be expected as it's horror.
The problem is, this isn't GOOD horror. it's edgy, tween, LOOK HOW EDGY AND GROSS I CAN BE! horror. like hot topic horror. there's no build up, no reason, just... gross and depressing.
The biggest problem i have with all three stories is that the punishment isn't justified by the action.
story 1, shut in kid uses toy globe he got too much from a prize counter so he dies.
story 2, guy decides to have a fun larping game so he dies
story 3, guy decides to work late by himself so he doesn't have to work saturday so he dies.
None of these warrant the violent ends they get. and i UNDERSTAND there doesn't always need to be a moral, but i feel like every story here is TRYING to tell a moral, at least be ironic or something? Every character here has a tragic backstory which they talk about that leads into their death. So they try to make you feel bad for them, and then they die horribly on top of that. It's not like there's a message. It's more like a "man that sure sucked for them as a kid. NOW it sucks even more because they died horribly! isn't that edgy! it's like saying 'life sucks and then you die' PLEASE LOVE US TWEENS! WE'RE COOL RIGHT!?!"
it just screams of a sad desperation of trying to be hip and cool.
One of the biggest issues i had with these stories is that they were all related to actual real things at a freddy's. what i mean by that is,
the orb that can kill you costs 1000 tickets at the prize counter. it's not like the kids stole some secret item from the backroom storage they weren't supposed to have, it was a literal prize item you get from the prize counter. i don't think they would have that because they'd....you know, be sued off their asses. Same thing with the second story. in the larping section where they give costumes, there's an actual springtrap suit. How'd it get there? why is there a deadly suit there? WHO KNOWS?! there just is. Third story, there's a 'get through the tunnel' section where if you get stuck a robot yanks you through. yep. can't see a problem with that!
Yes, i know fazbear's in universe has a history of people going missing and accidents, but within 3 short stories you have 3 deaths. it's like... no. this place would not still be in business. At all. And at the end of the 3rd story the guy's still barely alive and his two friends are like "ah man. well we can't save him because then we'd get in trouble for leaving early yesterday" and i'm just sitting there like.... what? It's like the people who wrote this book have never come across human beings or lived in the real world. yes i know it's a fictional world, but things like accountability and negligence exist. it's one thing to have a missing kids situation, but when bodies literally pile up inside and out of your place, it's gonna get shut down.
The stories weren't good. they were just depressing, long, and drawn out. it's not scary it's just gross and uncomfortable. like you're reading somebody's fetish book. Yes, i understand that not every story needs a moral, happy ending or what have you, but i shouldn't finish 3 short stories and go "...the hell was the point of that?"
However, this MIGHT be just a bad compilation. it happens. I'm going to give the first one a shot and see if maybe that one is better. who knows.
oh. also at the end there's a part in black pages that's a continuation of earlier volumes. so like me, not having read 1 or 2, i had no idea what was going on since you had to read volumes 1 and 2 epilogues to know the story. all you have to know is they see animatronics and 2 kids die awfully. the end.
ugh. this was a waste of time for everyone involved. Glad i only spent $1 for it a book sale. Going right back out the door.
1.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 2.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 29, 2022
Me esperaba mucho más de este pizzaflex. Moondrop no tiene mucho protagonismo aqui pese a ser portada del propio libro. Echo mucho de menos las historias manejadas e infartantes de los frights. Aqui solo se encuentran 3 relatos con desarrollo muy predecible y finales... Rebuscados.
En este libro nos encontramos con historias tan alocadas que son dificiles de creerse y, obviamente, no se sienten en profundidad; incluso me cuesta acordarme de todos los hechos narrados porque es un libro omitible en la saga.
El epílogo no está a la altura tampoco, en 3 libros no ha avanzado lo suficiente y vemos un circulo de circunstancias en el que solo sucede una persecución que se puede alargar a lo largo de los demás libros. Repetitivo en su totalidad.
Aun así no es un mal libro, solo digo que no está a la altura de lo que eran antes (como el anterior libro, Happs, que solo tenía uno de sus relatos como meh). No falta el gore, las malas decisiones, los protagonistas estup– interesantes y otros personajes odiables.
En este libro nos encontramos con historias tan alocadas que son dificiles de creerse y, obviamente, no se sienten en profundidad; incluso me cuesta acordarme de todos los hechos narrados porque es un libro omitible en la saga.
El epílogo no está a la altura tampoco, en 3 libros no ha avanzado lo suficiente y vemos un circulo de circunstancias en el que solo sucede una persecución que se puede alargar a lo largo de los demás libros. Repetitivo en su totalidad.
Aun así no es un mal libro, solo digo que no está a la altura de lo que eran antes (como el anterior libro, Happs, que solo tenía uno de sus relatos como meh). No falta el gore, las malas decisiones, los protagonistas estup– interesantes y otros personajes odiables.
January 3, 2024
Książka bardzo przyjemna i szybka, my honest reaction to the first story? SMACZNEGO BRUTUS!! :D Druga historyjka bardzo pozytywnie mnie zaskoczyła, fala nostalgii która mnie zalała naprawdę uwielbiam. Trzecia historyjka bardzo fajna, oczywiście zrobiło mi się lekko niedobrze w pewny momencie… ale i tak CUDOWNE. Epilog to oczywiście też wspaniały, jakby inaczej? Mimo że na początku byłem lekko sceptycznie nastawiony w stosunku do mimica to po dłuższym czasie muszę stwierdzić że pozytywnie odmienia fnaf lore.
October 27, 2025
This sat half read for way too long. It's just not as good as the OG short story run. It was repetitive, it was boring... it made me question who these books are for. Children? Adults? YA? Fans of the video game? People who haven't yet played the game?
Also, why aren't the majority of these stories about actual places in the game or about the actual game? We had Springtrap in this but he's not really part of the Pizzaplex?
It'll be a minute before I pick up the next one.
Also, why aren't the majority of these stories about actual places in the game or about the actual game? We had Springtrap in this but he's not really part of the Pizzaplex?
It'll be a minute before I pick up the next one.
December 14, 2023
Why did I not enjoy this.. I am not sure… hard pass!
June 11, 2025
Honestly, I'm not a big fan of FNaF: SB but this book is a bit more scary than the game itself. it's an eerie book that gives you a sense of uncertaincy
Read
July 14, 2025"hey guys"
-"MOONDROP!"
"NOT WHAT I'M CALLED"
-"MOONDROP!"
"NOT WHAT I'M CALLED"
May 25, 2023
Another terrifying addition to the FNAF book collection.
August 21, 2023
somniphobia: this story was a REALLY good opening story, potentially better than help wanted (#2 book). i really enjoyed the buildup and how quickly it got into the story with the globe. it was really scary and the foreshadowing with sam telling the story about the dog eating a persons face off and then it happening to him??? crazy. i really enjoyed this story. wish moondrop was a little scarier though tbh and i wish we found out what happened with his mom and how she found out/ how the boys reacted when they found the body
pressure: THIS MIGHTVE BEEN THE BEST STORY YET??? the idea of them recreating the spring lock scene is such a good idea for a story and this story is no exception. i loved it so much. i loved the slow pace of the spring lock failure and the fact that you don’t even expect it to happen, like i thought he’d just see the actual failure happen to william in a dream or something but no this was even better that that. i loved it so much
cleithrophobia: this is probably the goriest story of them all and i’m just so shocked. like i’m at a loss for words. not only is ballora on this story (which is shocking in itself, what is she doing here????) but the fact that she just broke every bone in the man’s body and gouged out his eye has left me at a loss for words. like i’m just utterly shocked. this story was really good and i enjoyed them showing the future where kids are wondering what happened to it. very good overall i don’t have anything bad to say about it!
extra story: honestly this mimic story just keeps getting better and better. they keep cranking up the scare factor and i’m all here for it. i really enjoyed this story and them actually killing off the kids. i’m so excited to see where this goes
pressure: THIS MIGHTVE BEEN THE BEST STORY YET??? the idea of them recreating the spring lock scene is such a good idea for a story and this story is no exception. i loved it so much. i loved the slow pace of the spring lock failure and the fact that you don’t even expect it to happen, like i thought he’d just see the actual failure happen to william in a dream or something but no this was even better that that. i loved it so much
cleithrophobia: this is probably the goriest story of them all and i’m just so shocked. like i’m at a loss for words. not only is ballora on this story (which is shocking in itself, what is she doing here????) but the fact that she just broke every bone in the man’s body and gouged out his eye has left me at a loss for words. like i’m just utterly shocked. this story was really good and i enjoyed them showing the future where kids are wondering what happened to it. very good overall i don’t have anything bad to say about it!
extra story: honestly this mimic story just keeps getting better and better. they keep cranking up the scare factor and i’m all here for it. i really enjoyed this story and them actually killing off the kids. i’m so excited to see where this goes
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 24, 2024
A Spooky But Flawed Collection Of Short Stories That Are Horrific.
Okay this is a huge improvement from the first and second collection but again it's not great. These writers are just not very talented and thoughtful with their writing and I've come to accept that. The stories were disturbing, gory and reflective but there still felt like there was something missing. The stories are very spooky but they all felt unreleastic, especially Somniphobia. I also think it was very well executed showing how Heartless "friends" can be in survival situations. This collection is a mixed bag but it's definitely the best one if I had to pick between Lallys Game, Happs and Somniphobia.
There's a lot I could break down in this sort of mid collection but I'm gonna talk about the negatives before I get to the positives. I did enjoy this though as the horror made me uncomfortable in the way I was suppose to.
First I think the writing style. After reading several books in the Tales and Frights book all the writers styles are getting very bad and hallow. I appreciate these books are YA and middle grade but I think even for a younger kid these books have gotta be tedious. The writing is so repetive and hollow. Every short story should be experimental but the writing style is practically the same style every story and it's physically exhausting. Horror is suppose to be show don't tell but the three writers won't to spoon feed the reader and tell us what's happening instead of showing it on the page. The non horror bits are also poorly thought out and boring. Especially the High School bits, these adults cannot write kids and it's really showing every time they tackle a High School setting.
Related it's becoming more and more noticeable that nearly every story with a child/teen protagonist has an awkward love triangle, one sided crush or corney writers. These writers need to find some orginal ideas. There's more to teen life then crushes and love triangles. So much potential because the writers can be bothered to steer away from awkward crushes or love triangles. It's getting repetive to the point I'm groaning or rolling my eyes everytime a crush is mentioned. Bullying, Low Self Esteem, Secret Nerds there's so much more the writers could try. It's also really annoying that it's mainly male teen characters having these plotlines. If they want to create interesting teen protagonists they need to stop regurgitating the same plotline over and over again.
Finally the ableism. Man there is a lot of ableism in the FNAF books but specifically in Somniphobia Sam is heavily Autistic coded with his strict food preferences an info dumping about dangerous stuff. But all of his "Friends" are absolutely despicably ableist to the point Jules physically assaults Sam and tries to force feed Sam when he doesn't want it. Its quickly brushed over and dismissed as Jules being fed up of Sams fear and that's not okay. This kind of assault regularly happens to Autistic people and it peeved me off how easily it was shrugged off cos Sam's a boy. Sam's fear characteristics and paronia are turned into a horrible caricature and it's not okay at all. Unintentional or not it's still very harmful.
Now with the negatives out of the way let's get onto the positives. Ignoring Somniphobia, the other two stories in this collection absolutely nailed their endings and gave me that true horrific feeling I'd been missing from the other two Tales collections. It's nowhere near perfect but it truly was so much easier to get through.
First I want to praise the horror and gore. Tales compared to the Fazbear Frights books I read, is much more bolder and braver with its horror. Which is why I'd consider this series more for a YA audience and Frights as a Middle Grade series. Cawthon, Parra and Waggener are not afraid to make the reader grossed or scared and it's especially evident in this collection. The battering our characters receive in this collections make you nauseous and it's ultimately for the better as it shows truly how dangerous and evil the fazbear more evil then they already are. The increased horror also allows for characters like Ballora, Moondrop and Springtrap to be used better then they have been in the games or at least expand on their creepiness. The horror in this collection will not leave you disappointed.
Secondly the interconnectivity, this is a great collection that strings together through one fear and the fear is the fear of being trapped. Whether in a dream, in the costume of a killer you hate or a literal small space, it explores the feelings of being trapped and how it can mess with your brain. By exploring one single theory it threads the short stories as different examples of what feeling trapped can feel like which is what makes the fnaf interesting. It can show the same fear but from a different point of view. I just love in genuine when stories have interesting themes woven throughout together.
Finally the running psychological and philosophy morals throughout the three stories. The "friends" and Co Workers in these three stories are what makes the collection so interesting. It's common in horror but perfectly explores what humans will do for survival and how they feel about other people's boundaries. The darkside of humanity is truly shown in this collection especially with the poor decisions are side characters decide to make into this one. I don't want to spoil but thanks to the interesting way the side characters are written, the endings of Cleithrophobia and Pressure will leave you with the feelings of pure rage and wondering the philosophy of the side characters and why they treated their "friend" the way they did. Somniphobia too to an extent but the ending of that is just way too bizarre for me.
Overall not bad it's an interesting collection with short stories that will be buzzing in your heads for days. You'll always be wondering about why people always pick the worst of friends. Definitely give this one a go but it depends on you own personal preference.
Overall Rating: 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My rating for each individual story goes as followed.
Somniphobia: 3.5 Stars (An interesting concept and metaphor for addiction ruined by ableism and a truly unreleastic ending)
Pressure: 4 Stars (The Love Triangle annoyed me but it was a disturbing, gorey story with am unexpected ending)
Cleithrophobia: 4.25 Stars (Way too short but really disturbing, gross and spooky. Poor Grady, creepy Ballora)
Epilogue 3: 4 Stars (Cool villian in the Mimic but it was bit annoying that it was a direct continuation of Epilogue 2 as its unhelpful for readers who might not be reading Tales books back to back)
Okay this is a huge improvement from the first and second collection but again it's not great. These writers are just not very talented and thoughtful with their writing and I've come to accept that. The stories were disturbing, gory and reflective but there still felt like there was something missing. The stories are very spooky but they all felt unreleastic, especially Somniphobia. I also think it was very well executed showing how Heartless "friends" can be in survival situations. This collection is a mixed bag but it's definitely the best one if I had to pick between Lallys Game, Happs and Somniphobia.
There's a lot I could break down in this sort of mid collection but I'm gonna talk about the negatives before I get to the positives. I did enjoy this though as the horror made me uncomfortable in the way I was suppose to.
First I think the writing style. After reading several books in the Tales and Frights book all the writers styles are getting very bad and hallow. I appreciate these books are YA and middle grade but I think even for a younger kid these books have gotta be tedious. The writing is so repetive and hollow. Every short story should be experimental but the writing style is practically the same style every story and it's physically exhausting. Horror is suppose to be show don't tell but the three writers won't to spoon feed the reader and tell us what's happening instead of showing it on the page. The non horror bits are also poorly thought out and boring. Especially the High School bits, these adults cannot write kids and it's really showing every time they tackle a High School setting.
Related it's becoming more and more noticeable that nearly every story with a child/teen protagonist has an awkward love triangle, one sided crush or corney writers. These writers need to find some orginal ideas. There's more to teen life then crushes and love triangles. So much potential because the writers can be bothered to steer away from awkward crushes or love triangles. It's getting repetive to the point I'm groaning or rolling my eyes everytime a crush is mentioned. Bullying, Low Self Esteem, Secret Nerds there's so much more the writers could try. It's also really annoying that it's mainly male teen characters having these plotlines. If they want to create interesting teen protagonists they need to stop regurgitating the same plotline over and over again.
Finally the ableism. Man there is a lot of ableism in the FNAF books but specifically in Somniphobia Sam is heavily Autistic coded with his strict food preferences an info dumping about dangerous stuff. But all of his "Friends" are absolutely despicably ableist to the point Jules physically assaults Sam and tries to force feed Sam when he doesn't want it. Its quickly brushed over and dismissed as Jules being fed up of Sams fear and that's not okay. This kind of assault regularly happens to Autistic people and it peeved me off how easily it was shrugged off cos Sam's a boy. Sam's fear characteristics and paronia are turned into a horrible caricature and it's not okay at all. Unintentional or not it's still very harmful.
Now with the negatives out of the way let's get onto the positives. Ignoring Somniphobia, the other two stories in this collection absolutely nailed their endings and gave me that true horrific feeling I'd been missing from the other two Tales collections. It's nowhere near perfect but it truly was so much easier to get through.
First I want to praise the horror and gore. Tales compared to the Fazbear Frights books I read, is much more bolder and braver with its horror. Which is why I'd consider this series more for a YA audience and Frights as a Middle Grade series. Cawthon, Parra and Waggener are not afraid to make the reader grossed or scared and it's especially evident in this collection. The battering our characters receive in this collections make you nauseous and it's ultimately for the better as it shows truly how dangerous and evil the fazbear more evil then they already are. The increased horror also allows for characters like Ballora, Moondrop and Springtrap to be used better then they have been in the games or at least expand on their creepiness. The horror in this collection will not leave you disappointed.
Secondly the interconnectivity, this is a great collection that strings together through one fear and the fear is the fear of being trapped. Whether in a dream, in the costume of a killer you hate or a literal small space, it explores the feelings of being trapped and how it can mess with your brain. By exploring one single theory it threads the short stories as different examples of what feeling trapped can feel like which is what makes the fnaf interesting. It can show the same fear but from a different point of view. I just love in genuine when stories have interesting themes woven throughout together.
Finally the running psychological and philosophy morals throughout the three stories. The "friends" and Co Workers in these three stories are what makes the collection so interesting. It's common in horror but perfectly explores what humans will do for survival and how they feel about other people's boundaries. The darkside of humanity is truly shown in this collection especially with the poor decisions are side characters decide to make into this one. I don't want to spoil but thanks to the interesting way the side characters are written, the endings of Cleithrophobia and Pressure will leave you with the feelings of pure rage and wondering the philosophy of the side characters and why they treated their "friend" the way they did. Somniphobia too to an extent but the ending of that is just way too bizarre for me.
Overall not bad it's an interesting collection with short stories that will be buzzing in your heads for days. You'll always be wondering about why people always pick the worst of friends. Definitely give this one a go but it depends on you own personal preference.
Overall Rating: 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My rating for each individual story goes as followed.
Somniphobia: 3.5 Stars (An interesting concept and metaphor for addiction ruined by ableism and a truly unreleastic ending)
Pressure: 4 Stars (The Love Triangle annoyed me but it was a disturbing, gorey story with am unexpected ending)
Cleithrophobia: 4.25 Stars (Way too short but really disturbing, gross and spooky. Poor Grady, creepy Ballora)
Epilogue 3: 4 Stars (Cool villian in the Mimic but it was bit annoying that it was a direct continuation of Epilogue 2 as its unhelpful for readers who might not be reading Tales books back to back)
December 23, 2022
Sominphobia: A pretty tragic story as we get Sam using a moondrop toy to experience lucid dreams and we do see him slowly get addicted to the dreams so much so that he uses it whenever he gets a chance to. How it ends is both tragic and horrifying to think about and I do like it focuses on him just wanting to spend more time with his deceased father.
Pressure: This story does a really good job of you feeling sorry for Luca and you really hating all of the other characters as Luca is basically physically tortured throughout the story. While the Earl subplot is kind of random but I still like that we see Luca just start getting more and more deranged as the Springtrap suit slowly harms him.
Cleithrophobia: An ok story about a man who is afraid of small spaces being forced to face his fears. But it just ok nothing really stand out except that I do like that the main character is a technincian and they do a good job of showing the Pizzaplex from another point of view.
Pressure: This story does a really good job of you feeling sorry for Luca and you really hating all of the other characters as Luca is basically physically tortured throughout the story. While the Earl subplot is kind of random but I still like that we see Luca just start getting more and more deranged as the Springtrap suit slowly harms him.
Cleithrophobia: An ok story about a man who is afraid of small spaces being forced to face his fears. But it just ok nothing really stand out except that I do like that the main character is a technincian and they do a good job of showing the Pizzaplex from another point of view.
November 3, 2025
okay that like actually rattled me. it was genuinely scary
April 21, 2025
Историята на Кели, дала началото на сборника, е повече от страхотна, направо ме омая, но другите две на Андреа са майка плаче. Епилогът е ОК, но далеч от нивото, което очаквам от FNAF. Някой би казал, че съм уморен от поредицата след толкова прочетени книги, но по-скоро съм уморен от писането на Уогънър. Липсва ми Кира Брийд-Райсли :(
По-подробно ревю може да прочетете в Цитаделата:
https://citadelata.com/somniphobia/
По-подробно ревю може да прочетете в Цитаделата:
https://citadelata.com/somniphobia/
August 27, 2025
There is one very important tenet core to horror that these short stories tend to fall, ahem, short of. Yes, they are gross and scary, but importantly, FNAF has always been child-friendly horror. The horror genre, especially middle grade horror, tends to include some sort of allegory or message which lingers with the reader/viewer largely due to the dramatic events that play out during the story. The Tales from the Pizzaplex series often seems like it has these ideas for a message, but for one reason or another, the story gets distracted instead of sticking the landing.
Somniphobia was particularly frustrating for that reason. It opens with the implication that a sphere with Moon in it caused a boy to go into a coma. We are then introduced to the sphere as being a device that helps you concentrate, à la ADHD medication. Sam, the main character, likes the sphere's effects so much that he starts to ignore the instructions and uses it for longer than recommended. The sphere's effects begin to weaken, he's becoming more and more dependent on it, the whole thing is totally an allegory for addiction. Of course, the story ends with Sam overdosing, as overuse of the sphere leaves him immobile. This would work well and good, except the story doesn't end there. No, instead, his friend's dog comes in and eats his face off. What?
Not only does the dog not have any function in the story's allegory, but it's also so unnecessarily gruesome. These books are in children's and YA sections. Late elementary and middle schoolers probably pick them up at Schoolastic Book Fairs. Why are we trying to make kids afraid of dogs eating their face off?
Pressure is also frustrating, although it's so ridiculous from the get-go that I wasn't as let down as I was with this book's first story. The Pizzaplex has roleplay rooms where you can pretend to be Springtrap and murder kids. Cool. This also entails putting on an entire mascot suit. Sure. Luca's friends intensely pressure him to get in the suit, and while I get that the whole point of this story is to not fall to peer pressure, their pressure is so overblown that it feels absurd. Once the springlocks start to activate, Luca lets us know that he's known about springlocks this whole time and was worried about it from the start. It's odd that they haven't been mentioned until now! Luca, dying in the suit and left non-verbal, tries to chase after his friends to get them to help him, but they assume he's playing the game. The whole time, there is an exit door that he could just wait beside until they decide to leave. He does not need to be doing all this. This is so dumb.
Notably, this story HAS PEDOPHILIA IN IT??? I didn't know FNAF was willing to go there? Considering how vehemently the pedophile William Afton headcanon is denounced, I was very surprised that there is an actual pedophile in this story. Also, y'know, I didn't think the kids book would have a very obvious pedophile and describe his attempted assault of a little girl. This is Five Nights at Freddy's. The story ends with Luca intervening and killing the pedophile, but... what does this have to do with the moral? The story tries to tie it in to this idea of "peer pressure" by ending with the lines "His final act had not been someone else's idea. It had been his own." I feel like this misses the entire idea of what a story about peer pressure should convey. The whole moral around peer pressure is that you need to say no when people are trying to get you to do something, but that's not quite the conclusion the story ends on.
Cleithrophobia is the least objectionable of the three, and the only one I'd heard about before reading this. The image of a man's body stretched through climbing tubes is a strong one. The pain Gary goes through is described in excruciating detail, because kids really need to know about bones breaking and bodies being torn apart. It does feel a bit dumb when Grady's decision to continue sliding and leave the safe platform is spurred by not wanting to get made fun of. Is he 10?
I like what the epilogue chapters are trying to do. It has the vibe of a horror movie, where the trapped group gradually gets whittled down to a final girl. I don't like how much they're focusing on the girls' appearances, but hey, that's true to horror too. The first kill is pretty well done, the second doesn't have a good enough build up to hit in any way. The group is being a bit dumb, but again, that's accurate to horror! Here's betting Lucia will be the last one standing!
Somniphobia was particularly frustrating for that reason. It opens with the implication that a sphere with Moon in it caused a boy to go into a coma. We are then introduced to the sphere as being a device that helps you concentrate, à la ADHD medication. Sam, the main character, likes the sphere's effects so much that he starts to ignore the instructions and uses it for longer than recommended. The sphere's effects begin to weaken, he's becoming more and more dependent on it, the whole thing is totally an allegory for addiction. Of course, the story ends with Sam overdosing, as overuse of the sphere leaves him immobile. This would work well and good, except the story doesn't end there. No, instead, his friend's dog comes in and eats his face off. What?
Not only does the dog not have any function in the story's allegory, but it's also so unnecessarily gruesome. These books are in children's and YA sections. Late elementary and middle schoolers probably pick them up at Schoolastic Book Fairs. Why are we trying to make kids afraid of dogs eating their face off?
Pressure is also frustrating, although it's so ridiculous from the get-go that I wasn't as let down as I was with this book's first story. The Pizzaplex has roleplay rooms where you can pretend to be Springtrap and murder kids. Cool. This also entails putting on an entire mascot suit. Sure. Luca's friends intensely pressure him to get in the suit, and while I get that the whole point of this story is to not fall to peer pressure, their pressure is so overblown that it feels absurd. Once the springlocks start to activate, Luca lets us know that he's known about springlocks this whole time and was worried about it from the start. It's odd that they haven't been mentioned until now! Luca, dying in the suit and left non-verbal, tries to chase after his friends to get them to help him, but they assume he's playing the game. The whole time, there is an exit door that he could just wait beside until they decide to leave. He does not need to be doing all this. This is so dumb.
Notably, this story HAS PEDOPHILIA IN IT??? I didn't know FNAF was willing to go there? Considering how vehemently the pedophile William Afton headcanon is denounced, I was very surprised that there is an actual pedophile in this story. Also, y'know, I didn't think the kids book would have a very obvious pedophile and describe his attempted assault of a little girl. This is Five Nights at Freddy's. The story ends with Luca intervening and killing the pedophile, but... what does this have to do with the moral? The story tries to tie it in to this idea of "peer pressure" by ending with the lines "His final act had not been someone else's idea. It had been his own." I feel like this misses the entire idea of what a story about peer pressure should convey. The whole moral around peer pressure is that you need to say no when people are trying to get you to do something, but that's not quite the conclusion the story ends on.
Cleithrophobia is the least objectionable of the three, and the only one I'd heard about before reading this. The image of a man's body stretched through climbing tubes is a strong one. The pain Gary goes through is described in excruciating detail, because kids really need to know about bones breaking and bodies being torn apart. It does feel a bit dumb when Grady's decision to continue sliding and leave the safe platform is spurred by not wanting to get made fun of. Is he 10?
I like what the epilogue chapters are trying to do. It has the vibe of a horror movie, where the trapped group gradually gets whittled down to a final girl. I don't like how much they're focusing on the girls' appearances, but hey, that's true to horror too. The first kill is pretty well done, the second doesn't have a good enough build up to hit in any way. The group is being a bit dumb, but again, that's accurate to horror! Here's betting Lucia will be the last one standing!
February 6, 2023
Grady breathed in and out six more times. The next breath, though, caught in his throat. Her signature thrumming whir was heading his way.
When he heard the sound, Grady tried to pull his arms in. Unfortunately, they had no place to go. Grady's arms were outstretched, and his shoulders were wedged between the tube walls. His arms were dangling below him. They were ripe for the robotic picking.
Grady closed his fingers into a fist. Maybe that would make his hands less appealing to an unhelpful "helpful" robot.
Grady remained perfectly still, and he held his breath again. He closed his eyes.
Tales from the Pizzaplex #3: Somniphobia is one of those hit or miss anthology books that balances out to being acceptably good. Far more brutal than most FNaF content, it's a varied and interesting read that definitely does deliver on the scares.
The first story, Somniphobia (the title story is back to being first this time around), is my least favourite of the stories so far (it's just Okay though). It's about an overly cautious kid named Sam who gains a fascination with a Pizzaplex prize called the 'dream sphere'. Although featuring one of my favourite FNaF characters on the cover, the Daycare Attendant, he's really just a mascot for this story; the animatronic himself doesn't appear and he's only represented in miniature statue form. The narrative is unfortunately bland and uses an actually interesting character to tow interest. Also, the ending to this tale is absolutely ridiculous! Still, it's not really... bad... I'd give it a 3/5 stars.
The second story, Pressure, is somewhat of a fan favourite, but I honestly didn't think much of it. It's about Luca, a late teen who is forcibly coerced into a villainous role in the Pizzaplex's roleplaying arena by his friends. The great fan reception towards this story is easily explained by the role's identity; the universally beloved Springtrap from Five Nights at Freddy's 3. I like Springtrap, not as much as most, but I still found this story a bit dull, drawn out, and repetitive. Again, an alright story, but it's as boring as they could do the concept. Without giving too much away, the majority of the story focuses on a type of incident that FNaF has shown us several times before, but for a far longer stretch of time than needed. Then this is punctuated with a very unique ending with a weird tacked-on sort of feel. Besides some cool fan service, I wasn't really impressed. I would juuust give it a 3.5/5 stars.
The third story, Cleithrophobia, is honestly GREAT, and the first time I've felt a main story was better than the epilogue in one of these books. It's about a technician named Grady who has to test Pizzaplex attractions before the place opens, with one particular facet triggering his intense fear of confinement in small spaces. This story features a new version of a character from one of the original games that I don't really want to spoil because it was a fun reveal for me and they don't say it on the back of the book (I minorly edited my opening quote to comply here). But this character is horrifying here. Conceptually, this villain and their environment bears a lot of similarities to Happs from #2 (who is actually referenced funnily enough) but they're far more effective in the horror department. This tale goes for some terrifying situations and visuals and nails them on the head, and I'd give it a 4/5 stars.
The epilogue in this story doesn't add much more to what we had seen in the previous two, but I still really liked it. I do hate how it throws away chances to directly reference the games in really cool ways, but the writing remains properly horrifying and tragic. I'd give it another 4/5 stars.
Overall, not as good as Tales #1, but better than Tales #2, and a good read overall. Now while I wait for Submechanophobia to show up in stores over here, I'm going back to finish Fazbear Frights!
When he heard the sound, Grady tried to pull his arms in. Unfortunately, they had no place to go. Grady's arms were outstretched, and his shoulders were wedged between the tube walls. His arms were dangling below him. They were ripe for the robotic picking.
Grady closed his fingers into a fist. Maybe that would make his hands less appealing to an unhelpful "helpful" robot.
Grady remained perfectly still, and he held his breath again. He closed his eyes.
Tales from the Pizzaplex #3: Somniphobia is one of those hit or miss anthology books that balances out to being acceptably good. Far more brutal than most FNaF content, it's a varied and interesting read that definitely does deliver on the scares.
The first story, Somniphobia (the title story is back to being first this time around), is my least favourite of the stories so far (it's just Okay though). It's about an overly cautious kid named Sam who gains a fascination with a Pizzaplex prize called the 'dream sphere'. Although featuring one of my favourite FNaF characters on the cover, the Daycare Attendant, he's really just a mascot for this story; the animatronic himself doesn't appear and he's only represented in miniature statue form. The narrative is unfortunately bland and uses an actually interesting character to tow interest. Also, the ending to this tale is absolutely ridiculous! Still, it's not really... bad... I'd give it a 3/5 stars.
The second story, Pressure, is somewhat of a fan favourite, but I honestly didn't think much of it. It's about Luca, a late teen who is forcibly coerced into a villainous role in the Pizzaplex's roleplaying arena by his friends. The great fan reception towards this story is easily explained by the role's identity; the universally beloved Springtrap from Five Nights at Freddy's 3. I like Springtrap, not as much as most, but I still found this story a bit dull, drawn out, and repetitive. Again, an alright story, but it's as boring as they could do the concept. Without giving too much away, the majority of the story focuses on a type of incident that FNaF has shown us several times before, but for a far longer stretch of time than needed. Then this is punctuated with a very unique ending with a weird tacked-on sort of feel. Besides some cool fan service, I wasn't really impressed. I would juuust give it a 3.5/5 stars.
The third story, Cleithrophobia, is honestly GREAT, and the first time I've felt a main story was better than the epilogue in one of these books. It's about a technician named Grady who has to test Pizzaplex attractions before the place opens, with one particular facet triggering his intense fear of confinement in small spaces. This story features a new version of a character from one of the original games that I don't really want to spoil because it was a fun reveal for me and they don't say it on the back of the book (I minorly edited my opening quote to comply here). But this character is horrifying here. Conceptually, this villain and their environment bears a lot of similarities to Happs from #2 (who is actually referenced funnily enough) but they're far more effective in the horror department. This tale goes for some terrifying situations and visuals and nails them on the head, and I'd give it a 4/5 stars.
The epilogue in this story doesn't add much more to what we had seen in the previous two, but I still really liked it. I do hate how it throws away chances to directly reference the games in really cool ways, but the writing remains properly horrifying and tragic. I'd give it another 4/5 stars.
Overall, not as good as Tales #1, but better than Tales #2, and a good read overall. Now while I wait for Submechanophobia to show up in stores over here, I'm going back to finish Fazbear Frights!
January 29, 2023
Warning 1: If you're not familiar with the 'Five Nights at Freddy's' franchise in any way, you will not enjoy this. More of the fact you'll be unfamiliar with important names and events that are a part of this series.
Warning 2: If you are not a fan of reading about gore or anything related to it, stay away from this book. I can't speak for the rest of the series as this is my first book reading from it. But it gets graphic, especially if you're squeamish.
I will note that this is my first book read from the series overall. But it's not needed to go in order for the main three of the stories offered in the book. However, there is an ending chapter that would have clearer narrative if I read the previous books. Can't confirm, but I know that was done for the previous series of books, so this is an assumption.
Story #1: This was the weaker of the three stories. The idea is interesting. An object that helps you remember items easier, but if it's used to much, you can become trapped in your memories. But the ending is a little confusing if you're not aware in remembering a small comment made at the beginning of the story. The flow of the story if very choppy as well. It took me awhile to finish this story, which is not great considering it's a short story. Gore Level: Mild.
Story #2: Better than the first. But I will admit that the reason this kept my attention was due to the fact that there were more 'action' moments. In comparison to the previous story. As well as this one took place in a few hours and not over the span of a few days. The writing, while not overly great, was snappier than the previous one. It may have also helped that this revolved around a item really heavy in the lore of the franchise, so I connected to it easily. Gore Level: Medium/High
Story #3: This one made me REALLY uncomfortable. Between the cleithrophobia/claustrophobia and gore near the end and the details that it goes into, this chapter made me squirm a little. I was able to finish it because I was (stupidly) hopeful that there was something of a happy ending. Didn't even get close to that. So just a heads up. This also ends with one of my biggest fears: dying alone. While I was 'uncomfortable', this was probably my favorite story out of the three. I know that sounds strange, but this story got me hooked.
Bonus Story: HOLY CRUD THIS HAD THE MOST INTENSE POINTS OF GORE. Also, this is the part that I think the narrative is more connected with the previous books. So it takes awhile to figure out what's happening or where the characters are.
Overall, this is not a book I will pick up again unless I want a spooky read. Something during the Fall/Halloween season. Not bad, but a better read when it matches the season. I do have the next book in the series and I do plan on reading it over the summer. So I'll have to see if this need of 'seasonal setting' still holds true.
Warning 2: If you are not a fan of reading about gore or anything related to it, stay away from this book. I can't speak for the rest of the series as this is my first book reading from it. But it gets graphic, especially if you're squeamish.
I will note that this is my first book read from the series overall. But it's not needed to go in order for the main three of the stories offered in the book. However, there is an ending chapter that would have clearer narrative if I read the previous books. Can't confirm, but I know that was done for the previous series of books, so this is an assumption.
Story #1: This was the weaker of the three stories. The idea is interesting. An object that helps you remember items easier, but if it's used to much, you can become trapped in your memories. But the ending is a little confusing if you're not aware in remembering a small comment made at the beginning of the story. The flow of the story if very choppy as well. It took me awhile to finish this story, which is not great considering it's a short story. Gore Level: Mild.
Story #2: Better than the first. But I will admit that the reason this kept my attention was due to the fact that there were more 'action' moments. In comparison to the previous story. As well as this one took place in a few hours and not over the span of a few days. The writing, while not overly great, was snappier than the previous one. It may have also helped that this revolved around a item really heavy in the lore of the franchise, so I connected to it easily. Gore Level: Medium/High
Story #3: This one made me REALLY uncomfortable. Between the cleithrophobia/claustrophobia and gore near the end and the details that it goes into, this chapter made me squirm a little. I was able to finish it because I was (stupidly) hopeful that there was something of a happy ending. Didn't even get close to that. So just a heads up. This also ends with one of my biggest fears: dying alone. While I was 'uncomfortable', this was probably my favorite story out of the three. I know that sounds strange, but this story got me hooked.
Bonus Story: HOLY CRUD THIS HAD THE MOST INTENSE POINTS OF GORE. Also, this is the part that I think the narrative is more connected with the previous books. So it takes awhile to figure out what's happening or where the characters are.
Overall, this is not a book I will pick up again unless I want a spooky read. Something during the Fall/Halloween season. Not bad, but a better read when it matches the season. I do have the next book in the series and I do plan on reading it over the summer. So I'll have to see if this need of 'seasonal setting' still holds true.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2024
Overall, this volume felt very "meh" to me. It's not my favorite or my least favorite. Very middle of the road.
This volume was better than Vol. 2, but still not as good as Vol. 1, in my opinion. I enjoyed all of the concepts of the stories quite a lot, but the actual writing of them isn't that great, and I found myself being bored through large sections of the stories.
(But at no point did I find myself thinking "this is strangely offensive and harmful to real life audience members" like I did with Vol. 2, so that's a step in the right direction.)
- "Somniphobia" gets a 3 star rating from me. I like the concept, but the story is too obviously an anti-drug psa for me to really enjoy. The author also unintentionally which I thought was a weird portrayal to include in a story that isn't even about dogs.
- "Pressure" gets a 3 star rating from me. Super into the idea, loved the ending, and really enjoyed all the time we spend with the protag as he contemplates his wounds and impending death. Loved all of that. But I also hated every single character in the story, and there were large parts of the story that left me either bored or confused, so I have to remove some stars.
- "Cleithrophobia" gets a 2.5 star rating from me. I was very happy to see Ballora featured in this one. And I enjoyed the description of the agonizing death that occurs in this story. But so much of the story was spent on understanding a specific evening from years ago in the protag's childhood, when that much detail was absolutely not necessary to explain his trauma, that I really only enjoyed about half of the story. The half I enjoyed though, I loved a lot!
I also really enjoyed the epilogue to this one. It's probably the first epilogue in this series that I've gotten any enjoyment out of, so far.
This volume was better than Vol. 2, but still not as good as Vol. 1, in my opinion. I enjoyed all of the concepts of the stories quite a lot, but the actual writing of them isn't that great, and I found myself being bored through large sections of the stories.
(But at no point did I find myself thinking "this is strangely offensive and harmful to real life audience members" like I did with Vol. 2, so that's a step in the right direction.)
- "Somniphobia" gets a 3 star rating from me. I like the concept, but the story is too obviously an anti-drug psa for me to really enjoy. The author also unintentionally which I thought was a weird portrayal to include in a story that isn't even about dogs.
- "Pressure" gets a 3 star rating from me. Super into the idea, loved the ending, and really enjoyed all the time we spend with the protag as he contemplates his wounds and impending death. Loved all of that. But I also hated every single character in the story, and there were large parts of the story that left me either bored or confused, so I have to remove some stars.
- "Cleithrophobia" gets a 2.5 star rating from me. I was very happy to see Ballora featured in this one. And I enjoyed the description of the agonizing death that occurs in this story. But so much of the story was spent on understanding a specific evening from years ago in the protag's childhood, when that much detail was absolutely not necessary to explain his trauma, that I really only enjoyed about half of the story. The half I enjoyed though, I loved a lot!
I also really enjoyed the epilogue to this one. It's probably the first epilogue in this series that I've gotten any enjoyment out of, so far.
October 22, 2024
Somniphobia is the third book in this eight book series.
Somniphobia is the first story in this collection. This one is a great lesson in caution. It's even a bit scary when you really think about it. I really liked how they used Moonsdrop in this story, though I'm a bit sad that they didn't include Sundrop. The two are kind of always assumed to pair together but this story only has Moon and he definitely lives up to the hype.
Pressure is the second story in this collection. This was a pretty long one, and it does drag a bit. It's worth the read though. There's a couple of nice twists that make the slow parts worth pushing through.
Cleithrophobia is the third story in this collection. This one is split timelined. We don't stick with the first timeline very long, but the second one is much more interesting and a lot gorier than previous stories in series. It's definitely more twisted than the others thus far and Ballora does her job to the best of her ability.
With further digging, I've learned these bonus chapters are a story that takes place after the events of the video game Freddy Fazbear's Pizzaria Simulator and is written solely by Scott Cawthon (just like the bonus story contained in Fazbear Frights). I still have no idea what the story is actually called.
Scott wasted little time getting to the frights and gore with this one and the action really starts in this chapter. Like the other two chapters, this one ends leaving readers wanting the next piece.
This book is definitely not aimed at the younger FNaF fans as each story has proven quite dark and twisted.
I give this book 5 of 5 Paws and move on to book 4.
Somniphobia is the first story in this collection. This one is a great lesson in caution. It's even a bit scary when you really think about it. I really liked how they used Moonsdrop in this story, though I'm a bit sad that they didn't include Sundrop. The two are kind of always assumed to pair together but this story only has Moon and he definitely lives up to the hype.
Pressure is the second story in this collection. This was a pretty long one, and it does drag a bit. It's worth the read though. There's a couple of nice twists that make the slow parts worth pushing through.
Cleithrophobia is the third story in this collection. This one is split timelined. We don't stick with the first timeline very long, but the second one is much more interesting and a lot gorier than previous stories in series. It's definitely more twisted than the others thus far and Ballora does her job to the best of her ability.
With further digging, I've learned these bonus chapters are a story that takes place after the events of the video game Freddy Fazbear's Pizzaria Simulator and is written solely by Scott Cawthon (just like the bonus story contained in Fazbear Frights). I still have no idea what the story is actually called.
Scott wasted little time getting to the frights and gore with this one and the action really starts in this chapter. Like the other two chapters, this one ends leaving readers wanting the next piece.
This book is definitely not aimed at the younger FNaF fans as each story has proven quite dark and twisted.
I give this book 5 of 5 Paws and move on to book 4.
February 3, 2024
here we go again
Somniphobia: the pizzaplex employees really said "hey I know what we can do for prizes... create a sphere that makes kids trip out and feel like they're in another universe! what could go wrong?" honestly this one was just okay. sam didn't really deserve any of that, so it made for a lousy story. compared to the next two though, it was the one I enjoyed most.
Pressure: sorry but when I read the words "Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex Roleplay Venue" I started dying and that set the tone of this one for me... I want to go to there! also the girl being like "you're obsessed with murderous animatronics and that's stupid" and the one guy being like "THEY'RE NOT STUPID :(" ok he's me. anyway this was bad.
Cleithrophobia: girl since when is BALLORA involved with the pizzaplex 💀 I know there's apparently multiple locations but like idk can't we keep some of the old characters out of the pizzaplex vibes... I feel like these stories would hit so much more if we had a focus on the actual characters we love from security breach like the glamrocks!! but alas, what did I expect from these aside from mind-numbing brief entertainment. I truly think Scott just gives vague instruction to the authors and they write whatever - I don't think there's as much thought put into these like many fans will claim, but whatever. at the very least, they're entertaining little short stories.
unfortunately I will be continuing to read the series because I need to get to the GGY story so bad
Somniphobia: the pizzaplex employees really said "hey I know what we can do for prizes... create a sphere that makes kids trip out and feel like they're in another universe! what could go wrong?" honestly this one was just okay. sam didn't really deserve any of that, so it made for a lousy story. compared to the next two though, it was the one I enjoyed most.
Pressure: sorry but when I read the words "Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex Roleplay Venue" I started dying and that set the tone of this one for me... I want to go to there! also the girl being like "you're obsessed with murderous animatronics and that's stupid" and the one guy being like "THEY'RE NOT STUPID :(" ok he's me. anyway this was bad.
Cleithrophobia: girl since when is BALLORA involved with the pizzaplex 💀 I know there's apparently multiple locations but like idk can't we keep some of the old characters out of the pizzaplex vibes... I feel like these stories would hit so much more if we had a focus on the actual characters we love from security breach like the glamrocks!! but alas, what did I expect from these aside from mind-numbing brief entertainment. I truly think Scott just gives vague instruction to the authors and they write whatever - I don't think there's as much thought put into these like many fans will claim, but whatever. at the very least, they're entertaining little short stories.
unfortunately I will be continuing to read the series because I need to get to the GGY story so bad
February 18, 2025
I want to start off by saying I don’t think this is a bad read, and Cleithrophobia was in my opinion, a pretty good quick read. However, both pressure and somniphobia are painfully boring. Both have details that don’t really strike me as important, a lot of the characters are extremely unlikeable, and feels very loosely based on the pizzaplex. The one pro of security breach is the pizzaplex. The pizzaplex is one of the most versatile and vibrant video game environments ever, and due to its large scale environment, you think the writers would say “hey let’s make use of this environment”
No, Unforunately all of these stories are contained to a singular place, both pressure and somniphobia take place in one singular place of the pizzaplex the whole time, with somniphobia barely even taking place in the pizzaplex, forget the title “tales of the pizzaplex” ??? Also, as a 17 year old, I felt like this is not for me, while the horror tries to be scary it just comes off as unrealistic, and the writing is almost insulting, almost written for a 10 year old.
With all that said, why did I give this a 3 and not a 1? For one, I feel like some people might enjoy it, and I will say in my opinion Cleithrophobia is a 4 star read, Pressure is a 3 and Somniphobia is a 1, kinda averaging to a 3. Cleithrophobia uses multiple places of the pizzaplex to immerse world building. And pressure was interesting at some points. It’s just disappointing the star title - “Somniphobia” was, no pun intended, an absolute snooze fest.
No, Unforunately all of these stories are contained to a singular place, both pressure and somniphobia take place in one singular place of the pizzaplex the whole time, with somniphobia barely even taking place in the pizzaplex, forget the title “tales of the pizzaplex” ??? Also, as a 17 year old, I felt like this is not for me, while the horror tries to be scary it just comes off as unrealistic, and the writing is almost insulting, almost written for a 10 year old.
With all that said, why did I give this a 3 and not a 1? For one, I feel like some people might enjoy it, and I will say in my opinion Cleithrophobia is a 4 star read, Pressure is a 3 and Somniphobia is a 1, kinda averaging to a 3. Cleithrophobia uses multiple places of the pizzaplex to immerse world building. And pressure was interesting at some points. It’s just disappointing the star title - “Somniphobia” was, no pun intended, an absolute snooze fest.
June 14, 2024
We did better with this one. I do feel like we actually put more fnaf back in all 3 of these stories. Somniphobia was interesting and I only half predicted the ending which was new lol Pressure was my least favorite with it basically being torture porn after the halfway point. (I skipped like 5 pages of that one once I saw we were just dragging it out to fill space)That one just didn't need to be that long but we got some insight and details on the pizzaplex so it wasn't a total waste atleast. And Cleithrophobia was also a decent spooky read although this one also was unrealisticaly gorey and I don't buy for a second the protag wouldn't have died halfway through what we put him through. The Black pages at the end pick up where the last ones left off but thankfully these we actually have something worth reading happen. We get details that got gears turning in my brain and thats really all I want out of the end bits so we improved there too. Every story even made it to an end! I still have mixed feelings because this series is treating humans like bloodbags just ripe for the dramatic mutilating and it just doesn't fit the tone of fnaf for me and because of that and this series inconsistency so far I am unsure if I will be continuing it or not.
December 7, 2022
Read this in about 2 hours as soon as it got to my house yesterday. Comment number 1: Not enough Moon, but I'm not going to base the whole review off of that. I was very underwhelmed by the first story. I thought the progress was okay, but then the ending felt so random. Talked with a friend about it and I'm very glad I wasn't the only one who felt that way.
The second and third stories were better, but I have some opinions about them as well. Overall, the Tales from the Pizzaplex series tends to be more gory than the other series. I wonder if I'm the only one who is noticing this. It is still okay for a teen series, giving it 3.5 stars (rounding up to 4), but a part of me wishes that they weren't short stories and gave us more consistent lore about the pizzaplex. It very much is a series of fanfictions all bundled together.
The second and third stories were better, but I have some opinions about them as well. Overall, the Tales from the Pizzaplex series tends to be more gory than the other series. I wonder if I'm the only one who is noticing this. It is still okay for a teen series, giving it 3.5 stars (rounding up to 4), but a part of me wishes that they weren't short stories and gave us more consistent lore about the pizzaplex. It very much is a series of fanfictions all bundled together.
September 16, 2023
I actually think this book is pretty good. The first story is one of the best from the whole series. The characters are so good and when Sam dies because of his own superstitions and addiction it’s actually kinda sad. It also has a really good message about drug abuse. I think this story is the best of this book. The second story is ok at best though you get to know the characters pretty well but the story is just whatever. Luca gets trapped in a spring lock suit during a role play then he kills some random guy because he’s a pedophile I geuss. Idk it was weird. Then one of the worst stories out of the entire franchise. The book went from the best to pretty good really fast. This story was horrible and another one that made me feel pshyical Ly Ill. You don’t get to know the characters because you spend the whole story hearing about Grady being tortured by ballora and it honestly sucks. But over all it’s a really good book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 22, 2023
Fear is so much more than being afraid. A teenage boy who lives in fear of death discovers a way to reconnect with his deceased father through the power of memory. A young man trapped in a horrific crushing yellow rabbit suit uses his last breath to stop a monster. A technician finds himself trapped with only a well meaning yet deadly ballerina as a companion.
This third installation in the pizzaplex series was a bit of a miss compared to the first two books. This relied a little too heavily on shock factor and missed out on good storytelling. The saving grace was the first story, which was deeply creepy and also intensely heartbreaking at the same time. The other two relied too heavily on body horror and missed the story they so desperately wanted to tell.
Still a great weird dark twisted little companion series to one of my favorite games-I can’t wait for the next one!
This third installation in the pizzaplex series was a bit of a miss compared to the first two books. This relied a little too heavily on shock factor and missed out on good storytelling. The saving grace was the first story, which was deeply creepy and also intensely heartbreaking at the same time. The other two relied too heavily on body horror and missed the story they so desperately wanted to tell.
Still a great weird dark twisted little companion series to one of my favorite games-I can’t wait for the next one!
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