Nexie (Tales from the Pizzaplex, #6)

Five Nights at Freddy's: Tales from the Pizzaplex #6

by Scott Cawthon, Kelly Parra, Andrea Waggener

Five Nights at Freddy's fans won't want to miss this collection of three chilling stories that will haunt even the bravest player... Can you keep a secret? . . . Astrid doesn’t tell anyone about the strange things her Buddytronic doll has been up to. Kara convinces a Pizzaplex employee no one will know if he lets her spend a little more time in the VR attraction. And a Fazbear Entertainment engineer’s custom project has surprises in store for anyone who encounters it. But in the world of Five Nights at Freddy’s, secrets never stay hidden for long . . . In this sixth volume, Five Nights at Freddy's creator Scott Cawthon spins three sinister novella-length tales from uncharted corners of his series' canon. In the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, everything comes with a price to pay. Readers This collection of terrifying tales is enough to rattle even the most hardened Five Nights at Freddy's fans.

Genres: Horror, Horror Thriller, Audiobook, Young Adult, Thriller, Video Games

256 pages, Paperback

Published May 2, 2023

About the author

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.

Reviews

[V. M. Brewster · Rating 2 out of 5]

• Out under the bright morning light, in the road near his son's broken body, Edwin had lost his ability to process reality. •

🧍🏼‍♀️🤿🐯

Die ersten beiden Kurzgeschichten waren große Enttäuschungen, die dritte dafür gefüllt mit Lore.
Fast hätte mich das wieder versöhnlich gestimmt.

Aber dann folgten noch die guten, alten schwarzen Seiten und ich habe mir noch nie so dringlich gewünscht, nie wieder einen Satz lesen zu müssen, der mir das plötzliche Versagen von Lichtern beschreibt. Ugh.

[Ari Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the mimic story. I have at least reread it a million times. never get bored of it. if I could rate this six stars I would! amazing book. one of my favorites.
LONG LIVE THE MIMIC!!!!!!!! I LOVE THAT STORY!!!!!! my favorite thing in the entire FNAF history!!!! if you haven't read any FNAF tales from the pizzaplex books yet this might be a good starter! I don't care that much for the other two stories... drowning and Nexie are ... SO good! but the mimic? where do I start...?
okay so in the mimic story... there's like this lonely dad and his wife died in childbirth. so now it's just him and his kid. he needs something to watch his kid cuz his kid keeps on wondering off and messing with his stuff. by the way the dad's name is Edwin. the kid's name is David. the dead wife's name is Fiona. and the family's last name is Murray. anyway, since Edwin's company failed cuz he was so caught up in Fiona's death, he had to sell it to a robot company called Fazbear entertainment. the request was pretty simple but hard. he had to make robots for them. sounds easy but it isn't when a crazy child is trying to get your attention every second. so he gets a brilliant idea! what if he makes his own robot to take care of David! as soon as he thinks of it he immediately gets to work. he starts on the
blueprints and then goes in full action on the coden and then starts the robot design. all is going well. he decides what the codeine should be. what if the robot he was building could mimic whatever David did? he started on some simple coding that he knew any casual coder would call the cheats. he was trying to go through it as fast as he could. he calls the program "mimic1" and then continues to build it and program it. it takes a while but then he's finally complete! time to test it. he decides to name the animatronic the mimic because of the programming. so far the mimic has no legs. it just has a torso, arms, hands, and a head. he shows it off to David. immediately David starts playing with it. (by the way notably the mimics eyes are the ICONic Orange)!! 😲😦
anyway after David starts playing with it... and when finally has the time to create the animatronics that Fazbear entertainment demands without having to deal with David! the days are going fine. until one day. after the mimic was created things seem to be getting easier... only when Edwin was working. the normal issues were the same. Edwin occasionally headed to remind David to put away his clothes in the closet and put things away in the refrigerator... and as Edwin commanded David to do those things the mimic watched them the entire time.
by the way remember this it comes up later... anyway one day they're sitting at the dinner table in the mimic tries to consume mac and cheese. another day, ( by the way you have to remember this part too,) Edwin realizes he lost track of time and goes to check on David. David is inside one of the Edwin's costumes along with the mimic!!!! Edwin is furious!! he yells at David until he cries, and then proceeds to get Edwin and David out of the costumes. and Life goes on... days and nights start to blend together. and all seems fine. David and Edwin do have a few occasional fights. nothing big. one day Edwin wakes up to a nice sunny day. And David jumping on a solar plexus as hard as David can possibly do. Edwin is furious once again but ignores his anger. David squeals at Edwin " can we go play ball outside?" and Edwin says yes. not processing what he just said, Edwin gets up wondering where David is.
he calls David name multiple times. he tells David that breakfast is ready and he expects David to come running cuz he loves food. but he doesn't see or hear David. he gets a eerie creepy feeling. and then he just realizes where David just might be! outside. he runs to the only doors that are the entrance and exit of the factory, and find them wide open swinging back and forth. "DAVID!!!!!!!!" Edwin screams. but it's too late. it all happened so fast but so slow. what happens right now seems to replay an Edwin's mind for millions of times. it feel like it happened so many times though it only happened once. you can see also clearly. David running out in onto the street. white van going at full speed. David's excited face to catch the ball he's after. the person in the white van coming to a screech and stop. the scream and crunch of an innocent boy. shirts and people screaming. Edwin can make out clearly someone screaming "someone call 911!" Edwin rushing to David's side. Edwin See's David's crumbled body... Edwin cannot process it. it blends into a mush of colors. he tries to pick up David but someone holds him back. the sky goes dark but he knows it isn't really dark. the darkness is coming somewhere from his soul.

he wakes up again onto a nice morning where the sun is shining. Edwin tries the process of what happened yesterday and instantly regrets. he goes downstairs to find the mimic. it does an ice cream gesture that David taught it to do when it's hungry. then he gets scenes of what happened yesterday. he goes into a full RAGE. he absolutely destroys the mimic. he hits it with a metal bar until the mimic is a complete copy of his tragic son's death. then he cries. cries for what feels like a million years. the tears might just flow forever...


WAIT! that's not the end of the story! it's the end of Edwin story but it's not the end of the mimic story. (not counting the storyteller (or tiger rock) ) anyway there's this dude named Dominic. he is part of Fazbear entertainment construction crew or something. he has his friends Harry and Glen. they're here to check on what happened to Edwin and retrieve Fazbear entertainments stuff. they were hired by Fazbear entertainment. ( by the way there's a video game called secret the mimic where you get a play as them the best FNAF game ever) anyway Dominic Harry and Glen enter the building spreading rumors to each other about what happened there. apparently Edwin ran off cuz it was too much for him to handle. they all turned on their flashlights and entered the building. Dominic Glen and Harry walk around for a bit talking. then they decide to split up. Dominic would explore the second floor, and Glenn and Harry would explore the third. Dominic goes on the second floor and finds nothing but tape recorders and some tool kits. he was creeped out by the tool kits because they were the same ones Dominic Glenn and Harry have, gifted by Fazbear entertainment. he listens to the tapes and realizes that there have been people here before them to check on to what happened. he wondered why Ron ( the guy who assigned them the mission) did not tell him about the last team. apparently the last team was stuck and couldn't get out. Dominic, Glen, and Harry retreat to the first floor. they talk about what they found. apparently Glenn and Harry found nothing but a generator that turned on the power. oh, Dominic had found about the last team! he told Glen and Harry all about it. then Harry suddenly realizes that there used to be three court jester costumes hanging on the rack on the first floor but then now there's two! they try to get out of the building but they're stuck apparently just like the last team! they start freaking out and looking for fire exits or anything else that would help them escape. then Dominic thinks about the smell he smelled earlier on the second floor that was so horrible and strong. he Glen and Harry decide to investigate.

remember when I told you to remember when David put away the stuff in the closet and the fridge? nows when it comes in again.
NOW know what happened to the last team. they can smell the scent of rotten flesh along with the scent of harry throwing up. he didn't budge for Harry throwing up. it was a disgusting sight. it was a man crumpled so hard in the fridge that his bones have been broken and blood was smeared across the fridge. man's face was wrinkled and old which showed that he must been here for a few months. the Man's Bones were popping out of his skin. he was twisted in such a horrible shape, just like a pretzel. and then Dominic thought about the closet. he
remembered about the closet he entered earlier. also remembered how many parts of that closet lay in shadows. and he also remembered what a horrible smell was in there. Dominic and Glen went up to Harry and set him on the stairs and told him to wait. whatever was in that closet they had a feeling Harry couldn't handle. they went into the closet. what could have easily passed his clothing was a corpse. a corpse that have been hanged on the closet like a side of beef. a corpse that had a rod beard through the chest to go in right to left. what Dominic thought was just wrinkles in his jeans were guts and blood slopping over the man's belt. just as they were admiring the blood and guts covered corpse, they heard Harry scream. they rushed over to find the jester costume that went missing earlier. Mimic is inside the costume, of course Dominic and Glen couldn't have known that. the mimic inside the jester costume scooped Harry's brain out of the top of Harry's open bloody Scull, as if the jester wasn't a jester at all, but rather a bear pulling honey from a beehive. Glen and Dominic screamed and ran down to the first floor. they hid in a pile of lace for a while. when they got out they looked around in the coast was clear... they thought. suddenly mimic jumped out of a pile of costumes now wearing a mushroom costume. it grabbed glen by the belt, then proceeded to RAM Glenn's head into the nearest brick wall smashing Glenn's skull like a melon.
that's when Dominick's feet finally got the message he turned and ran. he looked behind him and watched the mushroom Man drop Glen's bloody skeleton crushed corpse on to the concrete with a wet splat. he ran to the third floor desperate to seek a machine killing machine that could defend him against the mimic. there was nothing there. he checked the stairs to make sure the coast was clear, ran down as fast as he can. then and then in a costume pile not too far away a white tiger costume rose up, ...
and it ran toward him!! Dominic turned and ran but it was no use. the mimic had way faster reflexes. the tiger grabbed his legs and slammed him down the stairs. THUMP, thump, thump! then it lifted him up and slammed him down onto the hard concrete brick and almost every single bone in his body broke in that one second. and it turned him over and ripped him open. he looked down to scream but couldn't scream at all. it was because the loin had reached up through him grabbed his solar plexus and now it was tugging it down back through the opening inside of Dominic. Dominic could do nothing but peacefully give into the torture of the mimic ripping him from the inside out.

wasn't that such a good story? anyway I hope you liked it. at least how I told it... you should try the game!( the secret of the mimic) it's so good!!! 👍👍👍 anyway have a good day.

[Christian Schultheiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay now I’m not sure if this collection was decided to just be a catch all for three good but seemingly completely different stories because this book in particular really felt more surreal and out of the normal bounds than the some of the previous books seemed to touch on. All the stories were still very unique and well put together, they just failed to completely immerse me like some of his previous books in the series had

[Missy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jayyyccceee nooooo 😭😭😭 the one time I had hope someone would live in these books.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5 stars

Seriously. What age group is the target for this series because my god.

[openlycomplex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nexie straight up copies the concept of M3GAN. A young girl has a small animatronic girl that’s aggressively protective of her? The 2023 book just so happens to have the exact same set-up as the 2022 hit horror film? I see what happened here. The idea itself is alright (it’s not Scott’s original, after all), though the school not banning the toys is perhaps the most unrealistic thing here. Middle schools were banning fidget spinners, they’re not letting kids bring their animatronic buddy to class. This story does the classic TFTP move of focusing way too much on its female character’s appearance and her relation to boys. For some reason, the story alternates between Astrid’s perspective and to the perspective of one of Astrid’s male classmates, even though he is a passive bystander that never does anything throughout the entire story. He does, however, have a crush on Astrid. He exists to validate Astrid’s appearance to the reader and thereby give her value. He serves no function other than to tell the reader that Astrid is desired by a man. Even more frustrating is the “lesson” this story conveys. Astrid keeps Nexie around because the flawed robot reminds her of herself. She wants to repair Nexie so that the robot will stop hurting people. At no point does Astrid do anything wrong—yes, she hides Nexie’s wrongdoings, but this is not something the story ever focuses on and thus Astrid’s fate does not function as a punishment for hiding the truth. Instead, Astrid is mutilated for the supposed sin of trying to care for something that was malformed. There is no way in which this story tells a good message. This is one of the worst stories in the entire TFTP series.

Drowned is alright. It seems to be about survivor’s guilt—Kara is haunted by the death of Peggy and sees a similar-looking girl while in a simulation. The story never fully commits to this, though, so I might be projecting my need for a deeper meaning where there is none. There’s not much to say about this one, as it isn’t remarkably bad, but it isn’t remarkably good either. It’s passable but entirely forgettable.

The Mimic is easily the greatest thing to come out of this series. The story itself leaves something to be desired in its second half, but the character created here is by far the strongest one recent FNAF has seen. The Mimic is an artificial intelligence that learns by mimicking, created by Edwin to give his son David a companion. Thank you Jackie’s Box for teaching me this story beforehand. I was thinking about “My name is David Dad I want some ice cream” the entire time I read this. When David gets hit by a car (as also detailed in hit song Jackie’s Box), Edwin is left with just the Mimic, who is behaving like his son. In his grief, Edwin beats the Mimic, therefore making the Mimic learn violence. It’s an excellent allegory for the cycle of abuse, and it’s tragic in its own right. A robot that was meant to be a caretaker turns murderous after it is hurt. Thinking about the Mimic holding the plush tiger like David used to was a very strong and very sad image. The Mimic rocks because it is such an understandable villain. It is only evil because it learned violence. However, I think the story drops the ball once it transitions to the crew that comes to Edwin’s workshop. The Mimic’s learned violence should be evident in everything it does. That seems to be partially utilized with the body in the fridge and in the closet, but it isn’t committed to as much as it should be. It would make sense if the Mimic’s first exposure to violence (being beaten by Edwin) is supplemented by more violence (people trying to decommission the now aggressive robot) which results in the Mimic learning from their behavior. The Mimic works best when it sticks to its main defining trait, as that makes its allegorical meaning land. Still, the Mimic is such a cool character and I can totally understand why the franchise has made it into a major player in the main story.

The teenagers are down to just Kelly and Lucia (no one is surprised). They really spend way too much time discussing these kids’ crushes considering that they’re hiding from a murderous robot. Who likes who shouldn’t be a concern at all in this situation. Why are people kissing? It’s so stupid!

[Sebastian Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars overall gave some good lore to the game series including the lore to the mimic. One of the stories was partially confusing that being Nexie the first story. If I had to say which story was the best in my opinion I would say the third story The Mimic. The "worst" story out of all of them would probably be the first story once again Nexie.

My favorite quote from this book was: "Mimic, though not completely destroyed, was now a pathetic picture of total defeat. At some point during Edwin’s assault, Mimic had toppled over, and he now lay, arms bent, in one last tragic copy of Edwin’s little boy." this is my favorite quote because it captures how the mimic was destroyed and how it looked similar to Edwin's son after he killed it.

Here is a summary of each story:

Nexie: A girl named Astrid feels left out at school because everyone has a animatronic friend called a buddytronic on her birthday her farfar or grandpa gives her just enough money to be able to afford a buddytronic but when she gets her buddytronic which is meant to look like her mother it comes out twisted and deformed. Even though it looks like that Astrid takes the buddytronic home where Nexie persists to convince her to break into the Pizzaplex and steal parts for Nexie after she breaks in Astrid goes to school and we find out that the parts were not for Nexie but instead Astrid who looks all deformed. Overall a 8/10 story for me.
Drowning:A girl named Kara Walsh who is never afraid and is always daring to do dangerous things is with her friends at the Pizzaplex. Kara though is disappointed when her friends choose the VR attraction Coaster city instead of the VR attraction she wanted Water Park. After the attraction Kara convinces the worker to put her into hyperdrive (a mode that makes the attraction feel more real and feels like you are in there for r more time) for the Water Park VR attraction. Once she is in it it turns out that there is this black haired girl in the water who is trying to drown Kara. Kara thinks that the attraction will end eventually but actually the employee had accidentally set the hyperdrive to 0 which makes it so that the attraction will go on forever. As Kara goes on through the attraction the girl keeps trying and trying to grab her until eventually Kara is pulled under and is drowned right when her friends pull her out. Overall a 8.5/10 for me.
The Mimic: The Mimic focuses on the story of the villain of the new Ruin DLC for FNAF Security Breach and also the villain at the end of every book for this series. The main character changes throughout but our first main character is Edwin Murray a Dad who is an engineer for Fazbear entertainment. Edwin's son Dave keeps bothering him and he needs a way to keep his son occupied while he works. So Edwin comes up with the idea of making an animatronic that mimics whatever it seems so it can learn from his son and be able to play with him. After he finishes the Mimic everything is going well until one day Dave wanders out into the highway chasing a ball and is hit by a truck and dies. Edwin who is griefing goes berserk and destroys the Mimic when it mimics his son's sign for ice cream. That is when Edwins part ends then we get our new main character, Dominic. Dominic is with his coworkers, Harry and Glen. They were both sent by Fazbear entertainment to Edwin's house to deal with some problems.As they move through the place they find a rotten odor and eventually find one of the previous team's members stuffed dead into a fridge. Eventually Dominic and Glen go check out where they think another body was and leave Harry on the stairs since he is afraid of everything. Dominic and Glen hear a scream and find the Mimic removing Harry's brain and dropping his body. As Dominic and Glen are trying to escape the Mimic Glen is grabbed by the Mimic and then is rammed head first into a brick wall causing his body to shred into pieces. As Dominic escapes he makes a plan to kill the mimic but the mimic gets the jump on him and removes his trachea from the inside causing his death. Overall 10/10 but would not recommend for people who can't handle gore.

[Addison Gladden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before getting into the summary, there is one thing I have to address. There is no certain year of this story for one reason, this story is sort of based off the video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s - Security Breach (not exactly). This isn’t some kind of cliffhanger, there is just no actual time period this story takes place in. Because if there is a time period in this story, then the time period of the game would be revealed as well. And the creator of FNAF (Five nights at Freddy’s) doesn’t really give out important information that well. But there has been speculation that it may take place somewhere from 2030-2045. Again, this is no cliffhanger, I just have no information of this story’s, nor the game’s time period.

In the first story, our protagonist is a fourth grade girl named Astrid who has a skill for building things. Astrid lives with her dad and her grandpa, who she calls “farfar”. “Farfar” is the Swedish language of the name grandfather. Astrid’s mother left her at a very young age to go across the country to be an idol, which her father did not approve of. The school Astrid goes to has many rich classmates. Astrid was however not rich like the others. Her clothing is all hand-made, old fashioned you can say. Her Farfar isn’t too keen on how the world has changed, seeing how people are spending on expensive future technology like phones and tvs. And this is what makes her the most disliked girl in her school. More like the odd one out. Except for one student named Remy. Remy likes how different she is from the rest of the students. He likes how simple and calm she can be in school, always ignoring the mean comments from the other students. You could also say this boy has a crush on Astrid. But of course, Astrid is oblivious to this fact about Remy.

You can see that Astrid is very lonely. She has no friends to hangout with in, or out of school. But there is one thing that could fix this issue. A robot friend called the Buddytronic. The other students, including Remy, have a Buddytronic. A Buddytronic is like a robot doll that you can customize whatever you want it to be, of course, if it has the necessary attachments for it. Each day, the students would show the others how cool their Buddytronic is. Remy however, honestly doesn’t care about his Buddytronic and feels he doesn’t need it. But having a Buddytronic is apparently a way to fit in with the rest of the students. Since Astrid doesn’t have herself a Buddytronic like the rest of the students, they’d make fun of her for how lonely and ugly she is. But one day, that was going to change, but not in the way she imagined it to be.

Each day, Astrid would be paid a fair amount of money for doing her chores by her “farfar”. A Buddytronic is exactly $1000 dollars, and Astrid only has about $880 in her piggy bank. It will soon be her birthday, which means there’s a chance she will get some birthday money to reach her $1000 goal. And so she did, but alas, it was not enough. Only having a little more money than she had before. Then she had no other choice but this, asking Farfar if she could get a Buddytronic. She was a little nervous at this point, she didn’t want to seem so desperate to get such an expensive toy considering how much the toy cost. So once she asked Farfar about getting a Buddytronic, Farfar said yes. His reasoning for agreeing with getting such an expensive toy is because of how well behaved and responsible Astrid has become over the years. And how good her grades are in school. So he believed that it was time to finally get Astrid this robot toy that she has been wanting to have for a while. And so Farfar gave her the exact amount of money she needed before, which was $120, to be able to buy a Buddytronic.

Now they are on their way to the Mega Pizzaplex, which is where the Buddytronic is for sale. The Mega Pizzaplex is a very popular mall. So knowing that it is a mall, it was sure going to be packed with a bunch of people. The line to buy the Buddytronics was very long. As they were in line, many of the neon lights would constantly turn on and off. Astrid was obviously curious about what the issue might be. Once it was their turn, the machine miraculously had a malfunction. Astrid was very disappointed that she lost her chance to buy a Buddytronic, and is now worried that her Farar won’t want to come back another time. Farfar seeing Astrid close to tears, he decided to convince one of the workers to allow Astrid to make her Buddytronic. After some time, Roberta (the employee) decided to let them make the toy. Astrid has already had a distinct image of how she wanted her Buddytronic to look like. Astrid even already had a name for it, Lexie. She wanted to make her Buddytronic look like her mother from a picture she had in her bedroom. The design she has chosen was blonde hair, blue eyes, a green dress, and lips with red lipstick. Once Astrid was done customizing her Buddytronic, the machine seemed like it was going to work, until the machine started to malfunction again. Once the machine was done, the Buddytronic was released from the machine. The Buddytronic was very disfigured. One arm was longer than the other, one of the dolls eyes were higher than the other, the nose and mouth were too close to each other, and her mouth couldn’t even close properly. The machine even changed her name from Lexie to Nexie. As Nexie has activated, she starts greeting Astrid, and explaining that her name “Astrid” means beautiful. Seeing how horrifying the doll looked, Farar suggested that they throw away the doll, and just get another doll next time once the machine is all taken care of. But as Astrid looks at Nexie, she begins to remember how her mother left her for her own success. So Astrid did the same thing as her mother did, she would be no better than her. And so she decided to keep Nexie, no matter how disgusting she may look.

The next day, Astrid brings Nexie with her to school. Warren, a bully in her school, calls out how Nexie is uglier than her. This soon started a huge crowd forming around them. But like Astrid has done before, she ignores these words. And so, Warren takes the doll away from Astrid, taunting her with his height, waving Nexie around. Astrid then kicks Warren to get Nexie back, which then causes her to go to the principal's office. After school, Farfar takes Astrid home. Farfar suggests that she should return Nexie, but Astrid of course refuses. Later, as Astrid and Nexie were in their room, Nexie believed the words the bully Warren said to them earlier that day. Saying that it was true they were ugly, and if Astrid is ugly too, they can be ugly together. But Astrid wasn’t so happy with these words. She’d always be able to ignore people who didn’t know her, but her only friend saying that is when it has crossed the line. Then Nexie explains that if the name Astrid means beautiful, Astrid should be exactly that. Then, Astrid had an idea. Since she is good with making things, there may be a chance she can make Nexie beautiful like she was supposed to be.

For the past few days, Astrid has been looking for parts around garbage dumps. But there were some parts that wouldn’t be able to fit on Nexie. So one day, Astrid decides to head to the Mega Pizzaplex to ask Roberta if she can have a certain missing part for Nexie. But since these parts that she requires belong to Fazbear Entertainment, she doesn’t have the authority to take such valuable parts.
In this moment of the story, there was something going on with Nexie’s programming. Nexie has started to become more violent and aggressive with Astrid’s bullies. She has tried to push Camilla, one of the bullies, down the stairs. Astrid even gave her a new leg, but then immediately destroyed it. And at another point at school, Nexie bit Warren in the leg. Astrid was now afraid of Nexie, worried that Nexie may hurt more people if she doesn’t fix her. So in the middle of the night, Astrid brings Nexie and breaks into a repair facility to make Nexie an endoskeleton. As Astrid finished putting Nexie on the endoskeleton, Nexie had one thing left to finish her quest. So as Nexie finds a pair of scissors, Astrid is confused and scared of what Nexie was doing.

The next morning, Astrid once again goes to school with Nexie. But something was horribly wrong. There were eyes of horror drawn to the two. Even Remy was horrified with the scene. Astrid, walking with Nexie, had no face. Now being worn by Nexie.


I honestly feel bad for Astrid. All she wanted was a friend who will be there for her. But has only been a puppet on strings, following her new, "friend". She didn't deserve this at all. She's literally still in her childhood, and now following orders for a DOLL. The fact that she could've returned Nexie since the very beginning, none of this could've happened.

[Abby Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mediocre book that falls short of having at least one slightly better than average story.

Nexie: Don't get me started on this bullshittery. You're telling me an eight year old from a poor farm family saved up one thousand dollars in order to buy a robotic doll? I get it, this is fiction, but it doesn't even try to be believable. How Astrid manages to do all this breaking and entering, theft, etc is insane. I can't even feel bad for her as the protagonist/victim. The selling point of the Nexie doll is that she looks like a messed up version of Astrid's mother, but being a kid with generous morals of acceptance, Astrid loves it anyway. And all the high expectations that were set for Astrid at the start are just thrown away because the doll is 'sad'. Remy is literally the most useless side character as well. He provides zero support for the plot. Oh no, he witnesses these horrible things! What does he do about it? Fucking nothing! Had this story finished with a good ending, I would probably care more. I can already see it- Astrid realizes that the doll is a bitch and that Nexie's word isn't the gospel truth. So, Nexie is dumped. It's that easy.

Drowning: Thankfully, this was a step up from the previous. While Kara may not be the most likable character, her motivations and drive behind her behaviour is relatively interesting and understandable. However, the ending disappointed me along with the ambiguity of the girl in the pools. She's literally just there and serves no purpose in the story except to attempt to bring an ounce of tension and fear into the story. Nothing changes because of her. With her as a threat, Kara wanders the world with a pace in her step. Without her, Kara just... wanders the world. As for the ending, there's no way in hell that I'll believe she died from being in a VR headset for just twenty minutes. Had something paranormal been at play, it would be fair. But of course, who knows?

The Mimic: I was very excited to read this one, especially since the Mimic character plays such a big role in the stunning Ruin DLC for Security Breach. However, I was disappointed. The pacing felt off in this one. Was it a bad story? No. I personally think it could've been executed better. After the death of David (which, I will admit, shocked me a bit), his father, Edwin, decides to beat the Mimic into a pulp because... I honestly don't know. It made him angry? After that, the story completely shifts gears to focus on a team of Fazbear employees who were sent to the factory for absolutely no reason. This entire segment seemed so meaningless, and the only thing it did was foreshadow that the secret ending in Ruin was indeed still the Mimic, but in a lion costume.

As angry as the book made me, I can't bring it down to one star. It would probably serve as a good read for someone who wasn't as critical as me. That being said, I hope I don't ever have to read it again, for my own sake. I might as well die of boredom.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back to the FNaF: Tales from the Pizzaplex series, now with book six - Nexie. After the sore disappointment that was book five I’m glad to say that this time the stories were much better, more interesting and even linked to the recently released Secrets of the Mimic game. It feels like they had some great concepts to work with this time and I appreciated one story in particular that genuinely felt like a step more into the adult sphere of horror.

First up is the titular Nexie. A young girl has saved up her pocket money to get the latest Fazbear doll, a Buddytronic. With the funds from her birthday she purchases it but there’s odd electrical issues as Nexie is made. The doll comes out less than faultless but that’s okay as the pair can be perfectly imperfect together.
Secondly a girl convinces a pizzaplex employee to give her access to a VR machine after hours in Drowning. The machine scans your body and creates a full digital copy to put your mind into. At first she’s ecstatic to have an entire virtual waterpark to herself until she notices a girl at the bottom of the pool watching her.
Lastly is The Mimic. After the tragic death of his wife an engineer works tirelessly to help create animatronics for the Fazbear company while also looking after his four year old son. Desperate to keep him entertained the man builds a buddy for his son, one that can copy and learn.

I’ll start by saying that this is a strong crop of shorts for book six. Nexie is good with unsettling vibes but is probably the weakest of the three. It’s somewhat blown out of the water (pun intended) as we get to Drowning which is straight up horror in a great way. The never ending turmoil and chase is riveting alongside the building of character while maintaining the tension. That again is topped by The Mimic which is the best of the bunch. It feels more grownup than a lot of the other stories across the franchise. I can’t quite put my finger on why but it’s a well crafted little short. Its plot is fairly straight forward but that emphasizes the tense atmosphere - with the second half of the story becoming particularly unsettling.

My complaint here would be the different writing styles. While all three focused well on characters and concept the first story feels very surface level. Story two and three’s writing flowed beautifully, the first repeated names until they lost meaning and needlessly repeated information that the reader had already been told. It’s a very similar issue I had to the last book but that’s the problem with having multiple writers - at least one of their styles won’t be to your taste

Book six is a great addition to the series. Inventive and clever ideas executed to varying degrees of success. Overall it’s certainly one of the stronger entries for the series.

[Toby Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

By no means did these stories hit the ball out of the park. I enjoyed one story, however, significantly more than the others.

NEXIE- The main story. This story had all the fixings to be a semi wholesome yet still scary horror story. But they fumbled the ball where it mattered most. The conclusion. Astrid was raised in an old, fashioned yet incredibly well meaninged family. She may have had little friends, yet she made the most of what she had. She was a ray of sunshine. You couldn't help but love. Then, on her birthday, after saving so much money, she got her very own, distorted, Buddytronic who would be her friend. Although Nexie had a dark side about her. Nexie made Astrid feel self-conscious when she never previously did. So following Nexies guidance, Astrid sneaks into the robot creation center under the Pizzaplex and creates a new endoskeloton for self-conscious Nexie and her distorted endo... Nope, apparently, that was Astrid fixing all her flaws down there and turning into this freakish thing of nature. It's not the ending I expected, but definitely not how it should have ended. It makes little sense and leaves me feeling unsatisfied as it's a reused concept in the FNAF books, and it made no sense. Overall, Nexie gets a 5/10 as they fumbled a story that was in their hands.

Drowning- I really don't have a lot to say about this one. It's basically Nightmare on Elm Street except in VR. The tropes in those movies are directly translated into this story. Wow, she died in Vr, so she died in real life. Cool, who cares. It's a reused horror story from a classic horror movie series. 2/10 as I enjoyed the abandoned house scene as it reminded me of the final scene in The Blair Witch Project.

The Mimic - This story was good until they fumbled the end once again. I enjoyed hearing about how Edwin (the book Stand in for Henry Emily) started his Fazbear career and how he handled the loss of his child. His relationship with David was wonderfully cute, and the Mimic relation with David was also executed perfectly. However, after David was killed and Edwin murders the Mimic. Edwin's story just ends. We get nothing more other than he ran off. We know he ran off across the country, sure. But I wanted Edwin's story. It's not the origin of how the Mimic started killing in the second act of the story. This Fazbear team just went in repaired it, and it started mischievously killing. Okay, but it doesn't really make any sense. The authors need to build depth instead of surface level horror. 5/10 as the first half was great

Overall, the book scores 3/10 as the endings were either executed poorly or the story used too many horror movie tropes.

[Maxine · Rating 2 out of 5]

To me, this is one of the worse volumes of the series. I was bored through most of it, and, even when I wasn't bored, the stories were so badly written that I couldn't enjoy them -- they felt like pieces of stories that had been cobbled together, rather than any single cohesive narrative. So, yeah, this one gets a fairly low rating.

- "Nexie" gets a 1 star rating from me. The narrative doesn't make sense, and the ending feels like it's from an entirely different story. A lot of the story felt like an alternate telling of the Blumhouse movie "M3gan," but, where that movie has a great cast and a creative approach to the killer doll's character, this story doesn't have any of that. "Nexie" has such an interesting premise, but ultimately is a very lackluster and poorly executed attempt at recreating "To Be Beautiful."
It also includes both the "he bullies you because he likes you" and the "he's a bully at school because he's abused at home" tropes, which are two tropes that I'm personally sick of seeing in media for kids and teens.

- "Drowning" gets a 4 star rating from me. I actually really enjoyed this one, and it's easily my favorite of the volume. I found the POV character, the supporting cast, and the monster to all be fun to observe, and the story's narrative flowed in a way that made sense, and we're even given a proper, complete ending instead of a vague cliff hanger. The monster of this story is also a creative twist on a re-used character trope, which I appreciated.

- "The Mimic" gets a 2 star ending from me. I was frustrated with this one from the beginning, because it acts as a prequel for previous story, "the Storyteller," so the reader already knows what's going to happen in this story and nothing is a surprise. It also just feels like if the 'Fazbear Frights' stories "the Cliffs" and "Friendly Face" were thrown into a blender together, and then slathered with re-used plot points from the VR "Help Wanted" game -- which would have been fine, if it didn't feel so stale and repetitive.
But, we *do* get to see some of the Mimic's origins, as the title suggests, and we get to see it both act like an innocent child and kill a bunch of guys in really gruesome ways, so that's a plus.

The cover art is some of the most uncreative art I've seen in the series, and the epilogue was too long with very little happening. (I promise I'm not a hater! I'm just bored and frustrated! DX )

Overall, I found this volume to be a severe disappointment, and I wish the writing and production team of this series had just allowed themselves to take the time to make *good* stories more often.

[Erica Kendrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott doesn't usually make mistakes, but there are a couple in the Nexie story. A shop assistant changes from male to female,
"Another clerk, a curly haired man, strode around the Buddytronic's assembly machine. She and the male clerk exchanged a glance." She then stays female, so I would assume the first 2 letters of woman have been missed, I don't think she was originally going to be a man.
And there is a reference to a boy in the dome at the top of the Pizzaplex which hadn't previously been mentioned.
"Her farfar kept moving, and in seconds, they were in front of the Buddytronics Boutique. Astrid forgot all about the boy in the glass dome." - this is literally the first time the boy in the dome is actually mentioned. The dome is then mentioned again after they get Nexie.
"As they moved through the packed crowd in the Pizzaplex, Astrid noticed that cheers were erupting from near the glass dome."

I don't know if this was part of the plot that was just cut, but it really threw me out of the story as I had to go back to check I hadn't missed this boy in the dome being previously mentioned, but there is nothing aluding to Astrid having noticed him. For the errors, I give this book 4 stars as otherwise it's very solid, particularly the other 2 stories. I've watched a couple of theories but everyone is concentrating on The Mimic, yet I was wondering about the girl in Drowning.

[Rae Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little girl makes a doll to look like her absent mother...except what she is handed is warped, twisted, and more dangerous than anyone realizes. A cute girl gets a Pizzaplex employee to let her spend extra time in the VR area with catastrophic results. A flashback in time gives us more to the story of Edwin Murry, white tigers, and grief remnant that would eventually bring us back to a tragic ending we've already heard (book #5 should ring a bell).

This was another winner in the Pizzaplex series. I liked this one slightly less than book 5, which is why it went down a star, but seriously, these books are knocking it out of the park in regards to lore and game-related content. I know a lot of people dislike that these books are now being drawn in as canon with the game, but I couldn't be more excited. It's like getting extra sneak-peaks into what happened, what will happen, and what COULD happen when Ruin is released (and looking back to previously released games as well).

The lore of these games can be ridiculously complex and even a little chaotic and bizarre-but these books are filling in giant gaps, and as such, I adore them.

[Yohans Dark · Rating 3 out of 5]

En general diría que ha sido una basura, con perdón. Esperaba mucho más de la historia del villano que ha aterrizado tan abruptamente en el lore y que me parece de las mejores criaturas que pudieron crear para que dejaran en el infierno a Afton.

La primera historia es otro intento de copia de los fright, concretamente la historia de Sergio pero con una muñeca.

La segunda historia me ha hecho demorar la lectura hasta casi provocarme un bloqueo de lector, así que mejor lo dejo a un lado, como si nunca existiera.

The Mimic comenzó fuerte. Es un relato bien manejado y digno de estos libros, incluso me dolió en algunas partes, justo en el corazón. Pero no se porqué la trama cambió de vuelta, cuando todo parecía resuelto con una trama bien llevada, las autoras decidieron convertir la triste historia en una persecución muy parecida al Epilogo. Era innecesario, repetitivo y hace que tenga fatiga lectora solo con recordarlo. Aun así admito que es el relato que salva el libro. Me sigue pareciendo peor Somniphobia (por muy poco)

No se a donde llegará esto pero me están haciendo perder el interes, por suerte quedan solo 2 libros de la saga.

Nota: 5/10

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

nexie: oh my GODD this might be the best opening story so far. it was so amazing AND THE TWIST??? i wasn’t expecting her to use the endoskeleton for herself. i’m a loss for words it was SO GOOOD AJAIJWJWEJJEEJ

drowning: this story was really good too??? the idea of someone being trapped in a vr experience gives me major help wanted vibes and i wonder if this story is a reference to that. obviously vanessa doesn’t get trapped in a water park but yk what i mean??? it was really good and i have been enjoyed these bad endings

the mimic: okay now THIS was a story. wow. why do i feel bad for the mimic?? like the descriptions of it copying david made me heart melt it’s just a little baby 🥺🥺 edwin (potentially a stand in for henry??) is this reason for this whole mess. he broke the mimic and obviously the mimic is mimicking his destructive behaviour in this story now. that’s the only explanation i have for this. i really enjoyed this story. probably the best out of the tree.

extra story: okay lucia deserved to die instead of jaycee. she was being a straight up bitch because jayce couldn’t stop a homicidal robot??? poor jaycee. really enjoying this mimic story

[haley ⊹ · Rating 3 out of 5]

mimic nation!!!! obligatory thoughts as usual -

Nexie: this kind of gave me Poppy Playtime vibes in a few ways at the beginning which is funny 💀 but otherwise I thought the writing here was sloppy and the story was just whatever. I felt pretty bad for the main character though.

Drowning: this was fine. overall kind of unsatisfying. like the premise was good but the execution was meh (a common reoccurrence with these books so no surprise there)

The Mimic: let's GO... THE MIMIIIIICCCCC‼️(iykyk)... I was having a blast with this one constantly going "😨" over all the references. like I've said before, these books thrive when they enhance the characters and lore that we already have rather than trying to introduce things that end up being irrelevant. this story was good! the mimic coloring is actually real literature to ME. and listen........ he only turned out bad because he was wronged!!! we need to teach the mimic kindness again and heal the fazbear universe <3

[Mamit Mamit · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first story wasn’t necessarily bad but the ending was so out of no where and made the main character this weird slave. The second story was so forgettable I had to look back in the book to remember what it even was. The main character was mid the villain wasn’t even intimidating and the story itself has to real ending. Then the last story the only reason this didn’t get a 2 is the mimic. You really get to know the characters and you actually like them. The plot was amazing and David’s death was sad. And along with that we got an entire second story to wrap up the things that didn’t get answered unlike the other 2 stories. But the only flaw is that the characters are kinda stupid and it was bad pacing but besides that the second part was pretty good. So overall this book gets 3/5

[Daluo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tengo que decirles que las obras de las dos sagas antológicas de Fnaf no dan miedo más allá del shock de ciertas escenas, pero se me hacen bastante disfrutables.
Ahora, hablando de casa historia:

-Nexie: Regular; no es nada fuera de lo ordinario para los estándares de este universo.

-Drowning: Me gustó bastante. Toma un concepto sencillo y le da su propio giro. Incluso me recordó a Black Mirroe

-The Mimic: La mejor de las tres, con una tragedia bien ejecutada, así como las consecuencias de ésta.

Sobre el epílogo: Se me hizo interesante aún sin saber el resto del trasfondo, y —al menos yo— le agarré rápido el hilo.

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pizzaplex has an AR machine and a VR room.

Nexie - Maybe the most mid story in all of the fnaf collections. I really don't have much to say about this one.

Drowning - I liked the concept of forever being trapped in VR land. The story got repetitive, though. Some missed potential.

The Mimic - The story had a decent setup. But then it lost steam halfway through and became something else entirely. I liked the creative gore use at the end.

Nexie? More like, on to the nexie book, am I right guys

[Callie LaBelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall: 3.5/5
Characters: 3/5
Plotline: 4/5
World-Building: 3.5/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Tropes: Novella; YA Horror

Themes: 4/5
Romance: N/A
Spice Factor: 0
Enjoyment Factor: 3.5/5

Audiobook: 4/5
Review: This is a creepy, full-horror collection of novellas. All three stories were creepy, and the audiobooks are always great, creating an ambiance of horror and uneasiness. The issue I typically have is that the stories just end and never have a real resolution, which gets aggravating.

[Nao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totalnie nie spodziewałam się że wszystkie historie mi się spodobają tak bardzo bo zazwyczaj z tymi historiami fnafa jedna mi się podoba a druga nie ale tutaj totalny kosmos!

Dwie pierwsze historie były mega depresyjne :( 3 była fajnym dodatkiem do drugiej a ostatnia podchodziła pod taki typowy horror z grupą znajomych

Jedyne co mi się w tych historiach nie podoba to zawsze jakiś taki delikatny koniec który pozostaje otwarty i zostawia nas bez odpowiedzi 🌸

[Bryanna Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked Nexie and Drowning. But for Mimic, it kinda dragged on. I was engaged on the first half of the life of Edwin and David, but it felt like the second half was the part that felt dragged on.

[Aspen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was so much more disturbing than all the others and when I tell u I love it but it is REALLY freaky

[I live in your walls (real) (go check) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve already forgotten what happened in ‘Drowning’

[Gabriel]

Li The Mimic e o Epílogo
Não li Nexie nem Drowning

[guille (littlebitmoody) · Rating 3 out of 5]

nexie was my favorite story from all these 6 books🧍🏻‍♀️

[Auris Better · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never felt more indifferent about a book then after reading this book.
I was so bored at the end im not gonna waste my time ranking every story.
2.5 stars really boring.

[Elizabeth Sumoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh these stories hurt. like now that the mimic has an established backstory it's starting to hit as hard as the original victim's stories.

[Teah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nexie: ⭐⭐

Drowning: ⭐⭐

The Mimic: ⭐⭐⭐⭐