Bendy And The Ink Machine Dreams Come To Life is the first YA novel from the Bendy franchise. In this story, 17 year old Buddy Lewek is hired as a gofer for Joey Drew Studios art department, and gets the opportunity to be an apprentice to the artists there. It seems like a dream come true, but things aren't quite as they seem...
''Bendy and the Ink Machine 'Dreams Come To Life ' provides examples of:
- Alternative Character Interpretation: In-universe, Buddy asks himself whether Sammy Lawerence is racist and sexist or just Hates Everyone Equally.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's mentioned multiple times that Buddy's memories are slipping as his mind is slowly overtaken by Boris's, leaving it ambiguous how much of the story actually happened, and possibly how much of it was actually written by Buddy and how much was written by Boris.
- And I Must Scream: At the end, Buddy was forcibly turned into a Boris clone, but his original mind is still there, slowly being overtaken by Boris's as he can do nothing but watch it happen
- Arc Words: "Dreams Come To Life", later in the story "He Will Set Us Free".
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Joey Drew presents himself as a seemingly perfect boss, giving a Buddy a high salary, forgiving him for what he openly admits "should" be a fireable offense, and acting more like his best friend than his employer. Then he reveals the real reason he hired him was to use his soul to create a perfect toon.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Buddy actually manages to damage the Ink Demon's leg, and seemingly manages to successfully drown him, but ultimately, does not survive the fight.
- Call-Forward: Sammy claims to be the only one who knows what "he" wants, foreshadowing his role as Bendy's prophet in the game.
- Dramatic Irony: Buddy and Dot heavily suspect Sammy of being behind all of the strange events going on at the studio. The average reader, who is presumably already a Bendy fan, knows that while Sammy is involved, he's not the villain.
- Fantastic Drug: The Ink's relationship with Sammy has clear parallels with the idea of him being a drug addict.
- Immortality Seeker: Implied. After Buddy's death and reincarnation as Boris, Joey rants about having "saved" him.
- Instant Expert: Averted. When Buddy first tries drawing Bendy, he finds it much harder than expected and needs his grandpa's help to complete the sketch for him. He convinces Joey that he made the drawing himself, and is given his first art assignment, causing him to panic over the idea of having to become a professional artist overnight.
- Out of Job, into the Plot: Buddy quits his previous job as a delivery boy for a tailor shortly after accepting Joey's job offer.
- Politically Correct Villain: Joey is stated to hire talented people, without care for their gender, age, or race. As this is in the mid 40s, he'd have very little external motivation for this, so it's likely for all his many, many, many, many, many faults, his egalitarianism is legitimate.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: By the time the story's finished, Buddy is "not dead but also not alive" after being turned into a Boris clone, several employees have been killed by the Ink Demon, the Ink Machine and Joey Drew are a still a major threat, and he doesn’t know if Dot survived, but Buddy at least managed to finish writing his story before fully succumbing to his Toon Transformation and clings on to the hope that someone will read it and be able to protect the world from Bendy.
- Work Place Horror: Buddy is just trying to make a living for himself and his single mother working at the studio, only to end up encountering strange sentient ink that can turn people into cartoons, a nightmarish real world counterpart of Bendy, and his boss orchestrating events that ultimately lead him to a Fate Worse Than Deal.
