The horror series, Five Nights at Freddy’s, created by Scott Cawthon, tells the story of killer animatronics that try to attack you in the middle of the night where you need to survive in your office from 12 to 6 AM. Many know about the lore of the franchise, but if you don’t allow me to explain: A man in a costume abducts 5 children and stuffs them into the robot suits, causing them to posses the robots and become vengeful spirits. And that’s barely scratching the surface. How about we dive deeper into another story? While the story of the game may be extremely convoluted, the original trilogy of novels is somewhat easy to follow, and as an early 12th Anniversary gift, I’ll explain the story of the very first book as best as possible, since it can also get pretty confusing.
Warning: Massive spoilers for the original book if you haven’t already read it!
The very first book came out on December 17, 2015. It follows the story of Charlotte Emily, who is referred to as Charlie throughout these books. A young woman moves back to her home town, Hurricane, Utah years after her father, Henry’s, death. Many years after a local family restaurant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, was closed for good after a string of brutal child murders occurred. The child murders included the death of her twin brother, Sammy. The book starts with Charlie visiting her childhood home and seeing all the toys she had left behind, toys that were made by her father before his tragic passing. Charlie then goes to a small diner where she is reunited with her childhood friends: Carlton, Jessica, and John. The reason Charlie had returned after so long is because it was the anniversary of the children going missing at Freddy’s. This also meant the anniversary of their friend Micheal’s death. After reminiscing about simpler times, they all make a collective decision to return to the restaurant 10 years later.
The group arrives and sees that the building has been turned into a mall. After making their way inside, they find the restaurant hidden behind a secret wall and meet the abandoned animatronics: Bonnie the blue rabbit, Chica the chicken, and Freddy the brown bear. After exploring for a bit, they all leave and they spend the night at a motel and reunite with the rest of their friends: Lamar, Marla, and her little brother Jason. They all gather at Michael’s memorial service. Afterwards, Charlie and the rest of their friends go back to Freddy’s once again. While they are exploring the restaurant they accidentally find a hidden security office as well as Foxy the Pirate Fox’s stage.
Skipping ahead a bit, Charlie starts talking to John about the Freddy’s she remembers: One with only two robots, a yellow Bonnie and Freddy. They end up finding the place she’s talking about: Fredbear’s Family Diner. She then recalls when a man in a yellow Bonnie costume kidnapped Sammy in front of her. The next night, the group returns to the pizzeria where they eventually run into the night guard, Dave Miller. Charlie is able to negotiate with Dave to let them explore one more time. He even turns on the animatronics to perform again after so many years.
While playing in the arcade, Jason starts hallucinating blood coming from the drawings on the walls. After his hallucination, the animatronics start glitching in the next room. While the group is panicking, Dave runs backstage and takes out a yellow rabbit suit from a locker. Jason tells Carlson that Bonnie had moved, but before Carlson could finish his sentence, The Yellow Rabbit grabbed him and dragged him backstage. Before he could react, the rest of the group grabbed Jason and were able to escape the building. He tells them what happened and they all go to the local police chief who happens to be Carlton’s father, Officer Burke. Unfortunately, he thinks that the kids are playing a practical joke on him and goes off on the group, saying that they shouldn’t joke about what happened at Freddy’s. He also talks about how he was on the case when it first happened, where he arrested someone who he knew was 100% guilty. The man’s name was William Afton, but there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him since the bodies had just gone missing. After arguing with his wife, Burke sends his partner, Officer Dunn to the abandoned mall, where he is sneaked up on and killed by The Yellow Rabbit. Our story goes back to Charlie. She’s looking through a family photo album with John. until she discovers a photo of her father at Fredbear’s in a yellow bear suit, along with a mysterious yellow bunny. Suddenly, her memories come flooding back to her. She remembers that after the murders at Freddy’s, her father was blamed for everything, which completely ruined his life and reputation ultimately causing him to take his own life.
Meanwhile at Freddy’s, Carlton wakes up in a heavy blue suit. The Yellow Rabbit animatronic walks into the room. As he takes off his mascot head and reveals that Dave is the one who kidnapped him. He tells Carlton that he’s in something called a “Springlock suit” which can work as both a robot and a mascot suit, but he explains that, If the springlocks go off with a human inside, it’ll crush them. As Dave monologues, Carlton, out of the corner of his eye, sees an old yellow bear suit.
Skipping ahead a bit, Charlie and the rest of the group get together to save Carlton and Officer Dunn. They all split up to find them. Meanwhile, while the group is looking for the two hostages, Lamar, Marla, and Jason make their way inside of the security office and start observing all of them. He sees that Bonnie is no longer on stage. While Charlie is frantically looking around, she runs face first into the blue rabbit. She runs into the restrooms to hide while Bonnie follows her inside. The giant animatronic patrols around the bathrooms for a bit before leaving. Charlie immediately books it to another room where she finds an exhausted Carlton. She’s luckily able to take the suit off before the springlocks go off. He tells her that Dave is the killer and points to the yellow bear. Saying that he thinks Micheal is in there. In the security office, Lamar, Marla and Jason are watching the cameras and see Dave making his way to the saferoom. Before they can warn the two, Foxy breaks into the room and drags Jason away
Dave (or William Afton) walks into the room that Charlie and Carlton are in. But before he can say anything, Charlie knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat she bought with her. They run out of the room and hide in the kitchen, where Chica is waiting for them. Charlie and Carlton are luckily able to escape and get to the room that Jessica and John are in. When the four finally reunite, they walk to the safe room to check on William. They also find Officer Dunn’s body. When William comes too, he seems completely out of it. Charlie tells the group that Dave is the one who killed the missing children, including Micheal. Afton doesn’t seem like he wants to talk until Charlie puts the yellow rabbit head on him. Where he says that He’s the reason that the animatronic are alive. And they will kill anyone who doesn’t look like one of them, which is why he wears the yellow rabbit suit all the time and why they haven’t killed him yet.
Meanwhile, at the police station, Officer Burke is digging up William Afton’s old case file and sees that he’s employed at the abandoned mall built over Freddy’s. Meanwhile, Jason wakes up behind a purple curtain. He’s bruised but alive. Foxy then comes from behind him. Before the robot can strike, Lamar and Marla distract him so Jason can quickly escape. Foxy then starts chasing after the three and they quickly hide under a dining table before Foxy can spot them. As soon as the group thinks they’re safe, they hear a music box right across from them. It’s Freddy himself, and he knows exactly where they are.
The towering bear effortlessly lifts up the dining table. Before he can attack. John sneaks up on Freddy and tackles him to the ground. Charlie starts leading the group to the exit before Chica blocks their way. Thinking quickly, she uses a loose wire to electrocute the giant chicken. After escaping her, Foxy returns and starts chasing Charlie while ignoring everyone else. She hides behind the arcade machines. Right before Foxy can find her. John trips Foxy and buys Charlie enough time for the group to finally make it to the exit. Before they can leave, all four animatronics start surrounding them. In the middle of it all is the yellow bear. Micheal. Carlton asks if it’s really him. Before anything can happen. Officer Burke breaks the door down with a sledgehammer.Right before they call all leave. William grabs Charlie by the neck, threatening her life.
As the officer tries to negotiate with the Yellow Rabbit, Charlie finds the gear behind his mouth and turns it as quickly as possible. The springlocks go off and crush Afton to death. As his body lies there, bleeding out and twitching, The animatronics drag his body to the saferoom. Finally, the group leaves Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza for the very last time. A couple months later, Charlie and John visit Henry and Sammy’s graves. John asks if he’s ever gonna see her again. The book then cuts to a flashback of Charlie and her father bonding together. Perhaps representing the closure that she has received.
This book is a strange one for sure. Why did William kill those children? Who are the children that posses the main four animatronics? tons of unanswered questions that i’d love to go into, however the other two novels are even longer. And there’s tons of plot points I didn’t even go into here, like Charlie’s strange closets. Despite that, it was a fun read nonetheless. I’d give it at least a solid 7 or 8 out of 10 . I definitely recommend the novel or the graphic novel if you want a shorter read. I’d also love to look into The Twisted Ones and The Fourth Closet. Because the story of Charlotte Emily is far from over.
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