Scott Cawthon is an American independent video game developer, animator, and writer, best known for his creation of the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise.
This book blew the last 2 in the series out of the water, but parents buying it for their FNAF-loving kids beware- the second story is fucked up.
Spoilers ahead.
Story 1 was Blackbird, a tale about 2 college classmates who have to create a horror film for class. Their idea is to create a homemade Blackbird animatronic costume reminiscent of Poe's The Raven. In their script, the Blackbird will haunt a guilty man, driving him mad. But then the plot comes to life as one of the boys is revealed to have his own guilt...
Story 2 was an emotional doozy. We read horror as a way to safely experience fear, and what's the ultimate fear of all people? Death. Obviously all horror has death but this story was all too realistic and did not spare any details. Maggie is a live-in nanny in her mid-20's to a 9 y/o boy who has the worst possible freaking luck. His mother dies, his dad's enlisted and has to travel long periods for his job, leaving Maggie to deal with the poor boy's medical issues- he has a rare type of brain cancer and is quickly deteriorating for the duration of the story. Whike this tale was the furthest stretch from the fnaf fandom due to its lack of connected lore (there was a cpl mentions of a local arcade and the robots he loved so much but that's literally it) it was likely my fave bc it's horrifying. No one wants their kid to escape into a fnaf book just to actually get The Fear we adults deal with, contemplating their own imminent demise. This story needs a child's nsfl warning. Anywhoo, it's revealed the child's imaginary friend who lives in the cabinet in the boys room is a doll with a baby monitor. Maggie n the father use it to help get Jake's mind off the fact that he's dying, making up stories of the day's adventures that "Real Jake" does. IRL Jake is so weak from the last rounds of chemo and his meds he cannot walk or even get an appetite so the doll goes undiscovered. Then as a triple whammy the kid's dad is killed in duty and Maggie is devastated. Jake's actively dying so, now having custody of the poor boy, decides to put him in hospice for the dying. I won't spoil the twist, but this story does NOT let up, and does not have any fnaf reheated redeeming qualities aside from being very well written lol. I wouldn't want my own 9 y/o to read it and start worrying about losing her own parents and life so we will just skip thus one for bedtime yall.
Story 3 features- FINALLY- Bonnie. This kid works at a Fazbear's pizzeria. His bro used to work there and got all the high scores on every arcade game- his bro beats him at everything else in their lives too. So naturally our narrator is obsessed with beating his bro in the most unhealthy way. A new game called Hide and Seek featuring our long eared friend opens up and he sees his chance to finally get #1 on the leaderboard but finds it's too hard to beat fairly. So of course he cheats and chaos ensues.
The short epilogue here ties up some split ends about the Stitchwraith, which is possessed by both Andrew and Jake's souls. They've used the Stitchwraith to gather various animatronics and haunted parts to destroy them, and their own vessel, in a trash compactor. Larson the detecrive finds then but bit before they successfully smash themselves. Though they glubbed up- the evil energy (which was described more in one of the past epilogue featuring the scientist and the Stitchwraith's origins) is released, allowing it to form a new monstrosity of an animatronic, pieced together Mangle-style. Larsen divulges to his quarter that he witnessed the Stitch race destroying items that came from Fazbear entertainment distributions Center as well as from the site where the late serial killer William Afton died. He also Muses that maybe the ghosts or Specter that he witnessed coming out of the destruction belongs to children that Afton killed or maybe it was after himself. But I am assuming after that previous epilogue discussing at length evil energy from Haunted items that it is something of that nature. The new mangle like creature was described to be about 15 ft tall with two rabbit ears that unfolded from the back of its head in canted forward and the detective seems to be in a hell of a lot of trouble now because he doesn't realize it's going on so we will see what happens in the next set of books to see if there's any sort of resolution with this odd background story in all of the epilogues!
Blackbird: The story was nice, especially the horror parts were well written. Also I loved how the Blackbird was created, it was something diffrent and it made sense given the setting. What I didn't like - and here a little spoiler - was how the victim thanks his bully for the bullying. I can understand forgiving them but thanking them? Nah, this is not how you deal with this topic.
The Real Jake: Wow, this one hit close to home. Very real and very sad story dealing with the topic of death in a totally different way than the previous stories. The story is very well written with great pacing and plot twists you do not expect. I think it's one of the sadest stories till now but it also presents a great message.
Hide and Seek: This story was also interesting, I liked Toby, I can see why he suffers but I would say that his family is also to blame for the whole situation. I really liked that we got to see shadow Bonnie in this story and it was interesting how Toby was trying to deal with him. The ending has similiar vibes to 1:35am, it's freeing in a sense but it's a shame that it had to end like that for the boy.
The epilogue was so good, oh my god! I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next. The visuals were SO good in this one but also it's so sad, Jake deserves to be happy.
Nole used to be a bully in junior high. When he begins being stalked and harassed by a giant blackbird, he scrambles to track down the girl he bullied to apologize. I really liked the idea and general message of this one. It also turned out to be pretty creepy.
The Real Jake 4/5 stars
Jake is sick but luckily he has a nanny to take care of him while his dad is away in the army. As time goes on things take a turn for the worst. This story hits a bit different than any of the other FNAF's shorts stories so far. It's more of an emotional slow burn with a different kind of horror at the end. While it doesn't really have anything to do with the FNAF-verse, Jake was previously mentioned in another book's bonus short story collection.
Hide And Seek 5/5 stars
Toby has been struggling to beat his brother at anything for years. So when a new game comes to Fazbear's arcade, he sees his chance to finally get the top score before his brother plays. But he's about to find out that cheating isn't the way to win. This was my favorite in this book. I actually felt bad for Toby and what he went through with Bonnie. It was also hard to predict how this one would end.
Loved this story, it was predictable of how he should 'fix' his mental state but I did like the idea of this animatronic (even though it wasn't there, or at least, that's what I think). I do really like how the character wss created, very original. My theory: he felt guilty about the day before and when Nole thought Sam was actually dead, his mind played tricks on him to make him feel guilty. But from the other hand, a "animatronic" that haunts you the way he haunted Nole, was very interesting.
*The Real Jake* 4
This was just a very sad story.. but either way a GREAT one. But because there weren't any animatronics involved (except maybe the ending) I had to take some points down. Overall, great story and actually let me cry at the end because you really begin to feel for this kid. And of course, Margie, she was great, but never got to tell Jake about his dad, maybe for the better.
*Hide-And-Seek* 4,3
Overall, again, a great story. If they dove a little bit deeper in the relationship about Toby and Connor, or maybe just building up a little longer, it could've been perfect. I didn't really felt enough care about Toby, that's why I think a longer build up would've been great. Or a longer struggle with Bonnie on his back. But the concept was nice, one with Bonnie, which really surprised me. The ending tho, the way my jaw DROPPED.
This book was super hard to grade, part of me thought all the stories were excellent and deserve 5 stars. But other part of me still missed some things, like the actual animatronics, that would've been great. I mean, Bonnie kind of made an appearance, but not fully. The ending story had Afton, Foxy and the man of Room 1280 mentioned, and the growing ears from the skull like 'In The Flesh' so I appreciated that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
W rankingu ta część raczej nie będzie gdzieś w moim top 3, ale ma dwa naprawdę mocne punkty: opowiadanie The Real Jake i epilog/dodatkowe opowiadanie. Chociaż w kwestii epilogu zrobi on raczej wrażenie na osobach, które bardziej się orientują w historii kanonicznej i zrozumieją wagę tego, co tu się wydarzyło.
The Real Jake to opowiadanie o chłopcu chorującym na nowotwór złośliwy (z tego co zrozumiałam: szyszyniak zarodkowy). Nie ma więc tu jakichś brutalnych zwrotów akcji czy nieustającego napięcia – to teoretycznie po prostu historia o umierającym chłopcu. Ale naprawdę smutna historia. Ma jednak pewne mrugnięcie okiem w stronę fanów siedzących w kanonie, plus są jeszcze co najmniej dwa inne powody, dla których należy mieć to opowiadanie szczególnie na uwadze w kontekście samej tej serii książek.
W kwestii opowiadań Blackbird i Hide-and-Seek jestem zadowolona, ale może nie w pełni usatysfakcjonowana, chociaż uważam, że Hide-and-Seek było zdecydowanie lepsze niż Blackbird. Nie do końca jednak zgadzam się z pewną postawą, która jest nam tam przedstawiona, bo nie mogłam się oprzeć wrażeniu, że narracja próbuje narzucić nam myślenie, że cała sytuacja i cały konflikt były stricte winą Toby’ego z czym zupełnie się nie zgadzam. Wprawdzie coś takiego nie pojawiło się pierwszy raz w tych książkach, ale tu bardzo rzuciło mi się to w oczy.
Mam też mieszane uczucia co do innej postawy pokazanej w Blackbird, a właściwie trochę sposobu jego przedstawienia. Zgadzam się, że czasem złe rzeczy wychodzą nam na korzyść w przyszłości, jednak tu trochę to wybrzmiewa jak pochwała tego, że spotkało nas coś złego ze strony innego człowieka. Ale jednak doceniam przy tym inną postawę, której wielu agresorów w rzeczywistości nie praktykuje. Sam pomysł na historię i pewne przesłanie bardzo dobry, ale wykonanie tak 50:50 . Gwiazdka więcej za The Real Jake, bo miałam łzy w oczach na koniec.
ok so I've finished the first short story (blackbird), I really liked the concept of it and I feel like it was executed well enough but the ending was a bit weak. If this was taken down a different route I feel like i would have enjoyed it more because the ending seemed kind of sudden and forced but the rest of the story was good. 3.5/5
ok so the second story has been read (the real Jake). now, this story was one I wasn't expecting in the slightest, there weren't any real elements of horror which is a bit surprising for a FF book. While it didn't have any of the traditional elements of horror, it was the most realistic one and one that could happen to anyone and I think that adds to the story as well because it's kind of like real life horror. This one was the most emotional story there was, it was different from the normal FF style of stories but I really liked it. The ending is good but I want more, I feel like it's left one or two unanswered questions. 4.5/5
the third story (hide and seek) was the story with the most horror in it, the ending felt a bit sudden but other than that it was quite a good story. I liked how it played on the strengths of the authors which can be seen in the other stories in the series, the more psychological horror side of it rather than something like the supernatural. Again, the only thing that really holds this back is the ending. I also like that shadow bonnie made an appearance in this one
Overall, it is the best FF book so far, I've really liked all 3 stories in this one and I really like the element of reality put into the second story but the main thing holding back each one was the ending, all the endings feel a bit sudden or rushed rather than having a slower build up to the ending but it makes sense since each story is about 70 pages so the pacing is probably a bit more difficult to get right
blackbird: 3.5/5 the real Jake: 4.5/5 hide and seek: 4/5
This was another mixed experience. The first story was interesting and I really liked the Blackbird itself and what it represented (I loooove its design we see on the cover!), but overall it was an average Fazbear Frights story. The second one is a complete opposite of that. This was the only story in the series that had no clear link with FNAF as a whole but this is not why I wish it wasn't in the collection. I am fully aware this is a franchise about murdered children but it's also all fictional and creepy and comfortably unhinged from reality. I don't seek out cancer stories, I actively avoid them, so I am kind of upset that Scott Cawthon tricked me into reading one. Because "Real Jake" was a heartbreaking story of a slow death of a brilliant child that was TOO real. I appreciate the writing and the execution but I don't like that I've read it. The third story in the collection was my favorite. I liked how the main character was constructed and reading his point of view. Shadow Bonnie was a great addition to animatronic/supernatural characters we know from the games that appear in Fazbear Frights stories and its existence was skillfully woven into the story. Until the very end I wasn't sure if we'll get a good or a bad ending but what we got hit just right. The epilogue chunk, though? Wow. A lot of pieces are falling into place but I honestly can't believe we got a Megazord Afton.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Oficjalnie mam dosyć tej serii. Nie mam już siły wmawiania sobię, że przyjemnie mi się to czyta. Po przeczytaniu następnej pozycji chyba oficjalnie ja rzucę, bo jedyne co odczuwam to frustrację. Rozważam też przeczytanie jej jednak do końca by zobaczyć czy będzie później jakiś progres i czysto z nostalgii.
Coś co nie wiem właściwie jak opisać, ale bardzo rzuca mi się w oczy to różne formy "nieprawdziwości" świata i fikcji w grach, a w książkach. W grach oczywiście duszę opętują roboty - jest to fikcja. W książce (np. 3 opowiadanie tej części) Toby zaczyna mieć cień królika bo ten wyszedł z gry, którego nie widzą wszyscy - jest to fikcja. Mimo to obie te rzeczy są skrajne różne i fikcja typowa dla książek - rzeczy widziane tylko przez niektórych, znikające lub przemieszczające się tajemniczo przedmioty, ZUPELNIE mi się nie podoba.
Zacznę od problemu, który ma miejsce właściwie od początku - bezsensowne opisy nie istotnych rzeczy. Rozumiem budowanie świata czy postaci, ale przysięgam, że przynajmniej połowę opisów z każdej historii można zupełnie pominąć, a historia sprawiałaby identyczne wrażenie. Te opisy nie wnoszą właściwie nic.
Drugi problem - oczywistość fabuły. Już właściwie po kilku pierwszych stronach wiadomo co będzie się działo. Jescze gorzej jeśli czyta się któraś książkę z kolei zna się wtedy ten schemat do perfekcji. Z wszystkich opowiadań co do tej części zaskoczyły mnie może dwa. Cała treść jest oczywista, błaha i do przewidzenia od razu. Właściwie to męczysz się po pierwszych 20 stronach bo wiesz co się stanie, ale tak naprawdę to masz następne 80 do przeczytania.
Trzeci problem - wkurwiające postacie. Nigdy nie widziałam takich debilnych, okropnych, nie do polubienia postaci jak w każdej z tych książek. Rozumiem, że niektóre to dzieci, ale duża część z nich to dorośli ludzie, którzy podejmują tak bezsensowne i losowe wybory, że to szok. No po prostu za każdym razem wgniata mnie w fotel, muszę odłożył książkę i zastanowić się jak można było zrobić coś tak kurwa głupiego.
Czwarty problem - słowo "kuksaniec". Nie mam w tym temacie nic więcej do powiedzenia niż jego nadmierne nadużywanie.
Piąty problem - język, a treść. Nie wiem na ile jest to problem oryginału, a tłumaczenia. Czytając książkę wiadomo, że będzie poruszać tematy krwii, morderstwa itp., jednak wszystko to jest opisane językiem jak dla 12 latka. No po prostu się nie da tego czytać.
Historia 1 - Od początku wiadomo na czym będzie polegać cała historia. Wkurwialo mnie jednak najbardziej to, że bohater sam stwierdził, że śledzi go czarna ptakokształtna postać. Od razu uznał, że to jego przyjaciel przebrany za kosa i ma zamiar ukarać go za jego grzechy. MIMO TO kiedy zaczynają się wokół niego dziać następne dziwne rzeczy w pokoju to uznał, że mu się to tylko wydaje i to jego paranoja. JAK TAK SZYBKO można przejsc z uznania czegoś za prawdę do konkretnego wyparcia? Co do zakończenia. Czy spodziewałam się, że chłopak przeżyje? Nie. Byłam pewna, że prawie jak każda inna postać umrze. Czy jednak zdziwiło mnie to, że przeżył? Nie. Właściwie to były dwa wyjścia od początku - umrze, albo wybaczą mu grzechy. Nic innego.
Historia 2 - Świetna historia. Fabuła nie była przekombinowana, nie za szybka. Raczej nie wpasowuje się w resztę historii, ale DZIĘKI BOGU, ŻE TAK JEST, bo w końcu coś rzeczywiście dobrze się czytało. Rzeczywiście chwytała za serduszko i pomysł z kolegą z szafki i to, że ta na koniec była otwarta, rzeczywiście mi się podobało 🩷
Historia 3 - Kierunek historii naprawdę mi się podobał. Jezus, ale zakończenie? Nigdy nie byłam tak zniesmaczona. Myślałam, że postać Toby'iego w końcu doszła do jakiś wniosków. Wyciągnęła lekcję, bo takie sprawiał wrażenie, ale nie. Brat musiał wygrać i jednocześnie umrzeć. Tak - pokazuje to jak był zdesperowany, ale sprawiał wrażenie, że coś zrozumiał, że da wygrać królikowi. No i dupa bo nie.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
As with the previous volumes, this one is a mixed bag with the 3 included stories. The first one was probably the one I felt most "meh" about, the titular Blackbird story. An intriguing concept that is watered down by it's weak ending. The middle story is just so freaking sad, and while it's not really connected to FNAF, it is connected to the Stitchwraith story. And the final story was more body horror-esque and again, that weak ending just dampens my overall thoughts of it.
In the end though this was still an enjoyable volume in the series.
I tried to do 4 stars but it just didn't feel right for this one. The black pages at the end for once had a big tie in to one of the main 3 stories that I had initially thought a bit boring compared to normal, so that was a nice change of pace for this book. Gotta say though, the least interesting and definitely the least spooky so far. I got 0 heebee jeebees this time around and mostly just read through 3 sub par spoopy/sad stories. Best Stitchwraith bit so far though, and Jake is an angel.
Very good book, love the writing style, the concepts, and of course the connection between the books and the actual lore. This book was very interesting because you could take the stories and connect them with different parts of the lore, each story had more than one connection which was very exciting! It wasn't as scary as the other ones.
Simplemente increíble, las historias presentes me hicieron sentir envuelto en una atmósfera de continuo suspenso y terror, la primera de estas teniendo la introducción de un nuevo personaje que en el simple concepto y diseño de este da mas que un escalofrío, la segunda historia fue simplemente cruel, triste; sentí una sensación de claustrofobia al leerla sin mencionar el final de esta... Y la última, retomando a un personaje conocido y explorandolo de una forma mas siniestra y macabra, fue un buen viaje hasta el epilogo, las historias en este punto han mejorado mucho, absolutamente recomiendo la edición #6 de estos libros.
I didn’t know that the last 10 pages were their own stories and that means you have to read the books in order for I thought it was an intro for the next book womp womp, last story was INSANE best book so far
|| 3.5 stars || uhhhhhh I mean it was okay just felt kinda boring, the lack of gore and disturbing things made this book feel out of place, although the stories were okay, I would rate them as such: The real Jake, Hide and seek then Blackbird.
I see this book is highly rated which says it probably wasn't made for my age group. I was looking for something for my 13-year old grandson. I'm not sure he will like it either.
Of the six books I've read so far in this series, I think this one has been my least favorite. (Which is a shame to say, because I've really loved the entire series up until this point.)
The first story, "Blackbird," is my least favorite of the three. It carries along at a good pace, but kind of fizzled out toward the end, and the ending itself doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the story. (Also, I kinda hated the ending, so there's that factor, too.)
The second story, "The Real Jake," is very good and very sad. I don't want to give away too much, but it centers around a little boy with cancer, and the story doesn't pull any punches about how much of a toll the treatments take on his body. It's a well written story though, and made me feel genuinely apprehensive and made me actually cry, so this story is absolutely worth 5 stars by itself.
The third story, "Hide and Seek," was also very enjoyable, and it returns back to the usual style of spooky stories found in these books. And it features Shadow Bonnie, who is one of the least used characters from the franchise, so that was exciting!
This book is a very strong entry in the Fazbear Frights series, with each story being well written and haunting. Technically, I find the first story to be the only truly scary story in the bunch, with the second being a melancholy look at hope in the face of death and suffering, and the third being only mildly frightening for me. Still, it's definitely a good read, even though I have gripes about the last story.
The most spoiler free explanation I can give is that the third story follows the familiar trope of the main character needing to realize that his suffering was his own fault. He had blamed his family for making him feel so bad, when really, he should've done more to connect with them and be positive.
But the book blatantly shows that it's certainly also his family's fault. His older brother is verbally abusive towards him, explicitly belittling him, insulting him, intentionally starting fights with him, and encouraging fist fights that he knows the protagonist will lose. His little redemptive moment near the end feels sudden and disingenuous. It's way too little, way too late, and it's baffling how the older brother didn't expect his little brother's reaction when it's literally the personality the older brother has been grooming in the protagonist for years.
To a lesser degree, the father is also at fault here. The protagonist's father is distant and refuses to talk about a sensitive family issue that divided them years ago. Nowhere in the story is it stated how the protagonist could've reached out to him over this divide. It's implied that the protag needed to join in on this common interest between the father and the older brother, but this wouldn't have fixed everything, or at least not the areas of their relationship that need it. The protag even has a moment where he tries to talk to his father about this thorny issue, but his father literally offers nothing to say.
The protagonist is still a flawed character, and is still undone by his own arrogance and pride. However, I cannot accept placing most of the blame on him, which the narrative does near the end of the story. I cannot blame him for not connecting with people who either ignored him, or who physically, emotionally, and psychologically hurt him.
this book has to be my fav out of fazbear frights! here are my reviews:
1. Blackbird (★★★☆☆) This story starts out with Nole, and his friend Sam, coming up with an idea for a film project. They end up creating the animatronic, Blackbird, it forces its victims to confess their darkest secrets and punishes you, making guilt haunt you. Basically, the Blackbird ends up haunting Nole since he used to bully someone and found it funny. Nole, wracked with guilt, apologizes to the girl he bullied. This makes the Blackbird leave him. This story isn't the best in the book but I still enjoyed it, I have to say, Sam was my favourite in this story. Since I liked his character so much, I ended up finishing the story to see what happened to him. I'm glad I finished it because I did enjoy it.
2. The Real Jake (★★★★☆) This story made me CRY. I was so heartbroken and it pained me how unfortunate Jake's life was. He was such a sweet kid in the story and it's super sad how this happens to tons of kids around the world. Jake is a 9-year-old boy with cancer, his mom was murdered when Jake was only six, his dad, Evan, is in the military and rarely gets to see his son. He has a nanny named Margie. This story goes over Jake's final days and it hurts so much. We see POVs of Margie and how broken she is at the thought that Jake barely has a chance of surviving. Jake has a friend in his closet named Simon, who talks to him at night, they talk about what "The Real Jake" does everyday. Simon says that when Jake gets better, he can open the closet to finally see his friend. Simon is revealed to be Evan talking to Jake, he's there to give Jake hope. In the closet is a doll Margie made, with marks of the experiences The Real Jake has. They plan to show Jake the doll when he gets better. Which, spoiler alert, he doesn't. His dad ends up dying in the military and Margie is informed by Evan's british brother, Micheal (I think everyone can assume this is Micheal Afton). Margie is now Jake's legal guardian and owns the estate, she plans on telling Jake soon but sadly, Jake passes. Let me just say, when he died I had to close the book. I knew it was going to happen, just like Margie did, but it hurt so much because he was just a child. What made it hurt more was that I have a family member who passed from cancer. I could feel Margie's pain and I laid crying, I never thought FNAF would make me cry but, here I am. Jake goes on to posses The Real Jake doll who is added to the Stichwraith. Anyway, this story is so sad and breaks me. I'd give it a 5 but the sadness I felt can't bring me to. Darn you, Scott Cawthon!! The author really brought the story to life too and added so much emotion. I love it.
(I might review the 3rd story later, my hands hurting)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Blackbird: This story reminded me a lot of Dance With Me but with more action, which I really liked. It’s a story all about guilt and not trying to just push it down, but instead fixing whatever is making you guilty. There is a part where the main character seeks out a girl he bullied in junior high and apologizes and it’s just a really nice story.
The Real Jake: This was a really well written story, but it was really sad. Also, you pretty much know how it will end if you’ve been keeping up with the Stitchwraith stories at the end of each book. This is the only story with literally nothing to do with FNAF. No animatronics, no paranormal stuff, and not even a Freddy Fazbear’s restaurant mentioned. It’s all about Jake, one of the two spirits haunting the Stitchwraith, and his battle with cancer. It’s very different than all the other stories and while it’s definitely worth reading, it’s very hard to read especially if you know someone who had cancer.
Hide and Seek: After six books, we finally get a story about Bonnie! I liked this story and I liked the characters, especially Tabitha, a girl the main character befriends. I really enjoyed it until the end, only because it felt like it was out of nowhere. Other than that, I was really invested in the whole thing and couldn’t put it down. Great story.
Also, I want to talk about the Stitchwraith story. I don’t even know how to make sense of it, but I know it was incredible. I was shocked at the end. I was a bit confused at parts of it but the end is so good.
The first story of this set, Blackbird, was really strong with an important message about redemption, forgiveness and recognizing that you may need to practice empathy for the people around you. Combined with the masterful, visual writing of Andrea Waegner and Kelly Parra, that story alone was a 5 star.
The Real Jake was extremely sad and difficult to get through. Unless the slow death of a child who is trying to reach his father who is oversees was a tragedy based on a true experience, I agree with my sister that it was unnecessarily sad for the sake of being sad. It is connected to the ongoing Stitchwraith investigation story, but I could have been much happier without reading it.
Hide and Seek shared the concepts of previous stories like 1:35am (protagonist is tormented by a haunting demon that no one else believes in and that demon being a symbol of the protag's past trauma shaping them as they need a change) and Step Closer (two sibling grow a little closer through the terror of the situation). Although I really did enjoy Hide and Seek and and the importance of its theme, it ends just as depressing and unsatisfactorily frustrating as the 2 previously mentioned stories.
I'm also very skeptical about where the Stitchwraith investigation is going. Did not like how this book ended. But I'm only halfway through the series so far. We shall see.
This was one of the best collections in the Fazbear Frights series and I'm surprised it took til book 6 to reach the bar it set with Into the Pit. Blackbird was the giant avian animatronic that was the embodiment of guilt. This short story was so well done. The tension and pacing was so delicious. I had a great reading experience listening to this and was glued to my steering wheel. I skimmed The Real Jake because it was mad depressing. Sick children bum me out and I just looked to the wiki for all the answers. This was a lore heavy novella but I couldn't be bothered to listen. Hide and Seek was a great final story for this collection. It was very immersive and spooky. I love when the books actually take place in the pizzerias or arcades, instead of just vague connections to the series. Show me the pizza! I was very impressed with this trio of stories. I'm halfway through the Fazbear Frights and I'm extremely excited for Tales from the Pizzaplex. Let's get this (Italian) bread!