Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes (initially Five Nights at Freddy's: The Untold Story) is a book based on the Five Nights at Freddy's series. While series creator Scott Cawthon is the author, Kira Breed-Wrisley is also involved in the book's creation. Although Scott has confirmed the book to be an Alternate Continuity from the games, it explores aspects not shown by them.
Ten years have passed since the infamous child murders happened at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza and ripped the town of Hurricane, Utah apart, and a young woman named Charlotte (or "Charlie"), having spent those years trying to forget it, meets up with her old childhood friends on the tragedy's anniversary. Curiosity leads them back to the old pizzeria (which, incidentally, was owned by Charlotte's father, who also built its famous life-size animatronics), hidden but still standing. Unfortunately, those animatronics aren't quite what they were back then...
It was supposed to be released 12/22, but both the Kindle and paperback versions wound up getting released several days earlier, although this time it actually wasn't a result of Scott's habit to release things early, but instead of Amazon publishing the book faster than expected. A paperback edition was released in October 2016.
Two sequels were later released, Five Nights at Freddy's: The Twisted Ones in 2017, and Five Nights at Freddy's: The Fourth Closet in 2018. A graphic novel adaptation was released in 2019.
This novel contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Afton cracks a smile when Carlton snarks that he's trapped in "Your girlfriend".
- Adaptational Badass: Freddy and his friends weren't exactly harmless in the games, but in the first chapter alone, they're able to smash and toss arcade machines like nothing. The descriptions even make them out to be borderline Terminators!
- Adaptational Heroism: Golden Freddy is noticeably more benevolent here than he is in the games.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Bonnie's fur is changed from indigo/purple to bright blue, matching his appearance in FNaF World, and Foxy's from red to a reddish orange. His eye colour is also changed from yellow to silver, respectively. All of the animatronics also had their Glowing Eyes of Doom changed from white to red (Freddy), blue (Bonnie), orange (Chica) and silver (Foxy).
- Alternate Continuity: Scott has basically confirmed
that the book follows its own sort of storyline apart from the games. This goes a long way in explaining why none of the animatronics from FNAF 2 are mentioned a single time, the cameras work completely differently from the games, the animatronics remain at the second location rather than being moved back to the first after the Bite of '87, and why Dave's death isn't completely like it was shown in FNAF 3.- The sequel, The Twisted Ones appears to be a Silver Eyes continuity adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy's 4 with Charlie taking the role of the Crying Child.
- And Call Him "George": Foxy's attack on Jason is actually an attempt to protect him. The spirit possessing Foxy was trying to cart Jason off by his jeans and hide him in Pirate's Cove, but being a big, clumsy animatronic, his claw bit a little deeper than intended.
- Badass Crew: Despite being ordinary teenagers, our seven protagonists can be pretty badass when together, as seen in the last third of the book when fighting off the animatronics. Charlie takes out Chica with an electrical cable, and this is after John attempts to charge Chica.
- Batman Gambit: Purple Guy Dave trusts that the animatronics will kill the protagonists, because they look like adults, and the spirits possessing the animatronics are too angry, hurt, and mentally unwell to be able to tell they're not him. Unfortunately, the same goes for Dave as well.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted with Charlie. She ends up with a permanent face scar after tussling with Foxy.
- Big Bad: Dave/William Afton, perhaps better known to fans as the "Purple Guy" or (later on) Springtrap.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The characters actually suffer wounds, which are described in great detail. And if you thought the idea of spring lock failures in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 was awful, reading exactly what happens to your body in such an event is even worse.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes Jason when he claims that Bonnie abducted Carlton, least of all Carlton's dad the police chief. Of course, it wasn't the Bonnie they knew.
- Chekhov's Lecture: Charlie's father constantly warned her and Sammy to never touch the springlocks because of how dangerous the suits were. Charlie weaponizes this in the climax when Afton takes her hostage.
- Companion Cube: When they were children, Jessica would regularly have one-sided conversations with Bonnie.
- Crazy-Prepared: Charlie's aunt Jen has loaded her car with emergency supplies should something happen.
- Crying Wolf: The reason Police Are Useless following the abduction of Carlton is because of a reputation for elaborate and unintentionally cruel pranking the abductee had developed made them think this trope was in effect. A particular case mentioned was starting school in another town and convincing everyone he was a pair of twins so successfully that, when the act was dropped out of boredom, the school called the "twins'" father to report one of his children missing.
- Damsel out of Distress: Charlie when Afton takes her hostage. She murders him in self-defense using her knowledge of the springlocks.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Charlie, our protagonist, lost her little brother to the Purple Guy, her mother left, her friend was murdered, her dad was falsely accused of the crimes and killed himself, his restaurants became places of death and murder, and she was separated from her remaining friends for ten years. And all this happened at the age of seven. Break the Cutie indeed.
- Deadpan Snarker: Carlton. Even when he's crammed into Dave's springlock suit and an inch from being brutally killed, he still manages to keep up the wit.Carlton: What kind of a name for a serial killer is Dave?
- Death by Irony: After previously abducting Carlton, trapping him in a springlock suit, and giving him a To the Pain description of what would happen if he triggered it, Dave/William is himself ultimately killed in that very fashion.
- Death Trap: Dave/William puts Carlton into a springlock torso as a means of keeping him imprisoned — any sudden movements would iron-maiden him. Fortunately, Charlie knows how to safely undo the spring locks, but even then he barely manages to escape.
- Devil in Plain Sight: When Dave the security guard's appearance is described, he looks rather shifty, especially when scars are mentioned. Lo and behold, said scars were from using the Spring Bonnie animatronic to kidnap and murder children, and he's not above doing it to teenagers or adults.
- The Dreaded: Charlie has an immense childhood fear of Foxy, having seen his twitchy endoskeleton and fiery eyes as a child, and she is shown to have a phobia of animatronics in general.
- Driven to Suicide: It's revealed via flashback that Charlie's father, having been accused by many to be responsible for the murders at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, as well as suffering the loss of his business and younger son, ended up killing himself with a self-made machine.
- Dude, Not Funny!: In-universe, Carlton has a reputation for pulling tasteless pranks. This is why his dad doesn't search for him at first. His wife points out that Carlton had the compassion to not joke about Freddy's because his best friend died here.
- For the Evulz: There was no pragmatic reason for Dave to kidnap Carlton, put him in a springlock suit, and tell him just how it will kill him if he moves wrong. He just did it for fun.
- Freudian Excuse: Though he himself never admits it, it's implied that Dave/William's life was full of feeling empty and bitter with his life and the world, thus causing him to believe it "owes" him his sadistic pleasures.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Charlie's father Henry created the animatronics in this continuity as well as robotic toys for Charlie.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: As per the games, the Fazbear Four have these. Interestingly, their standard white night-vision eyes have been replaced with a variety of colors (see Adaptation Dye-Job above). These lights are much, much brighter than they are in the games, though. Freddy's and Bonnie's are stated to light up entire rooms solely By the Lights of Their Eyes.
- Good Parents: Aunt Jen immediately stepped in to take care of Charlie when her father died, and made sure she was independent and able to cope with her grief.
- The Heavy: The animatronics, of course.
- Human-Focused Adaptation: Granted, the animatronics weren't very complex characters in the source material, but much of the book focuses on Charlie, her childhood, and her friends over the animatronics, with them largely absent as threats until the last quarter or so.
- I Am the Trope: Not as a boast, but:"Who are you calling?"
"The police."
"I am the police!"
"Then why are you here instead of finding my son?" - In Medias Res: The book starts off with Charlie being hounded by Foxy, then jumps to the beginning and how this occurred.
- Mugging the Monster: As a final desperate move, Afton in a springlock suit takes Charlie hostage when the sheriff comes to save the teenagers. That was the worst decision he could have made because Charlie knows about the danger of the springlocks, he murdered her brother and he also set the bots on all of them. Without hesitation, she immediately sets them off and kills Afton.
- Mythology Gag: Not really a gag, but Bonnie is the first animatronic to move in front of the group. Much like in the games...
- Out of Focus: Fans who wanted to see a lot of focus on Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy will be disappointed, as they only have the main focus in the first chapter and somewhat in the final quarter of the book. The rest of the story is focused on Charlotte, her friends, and Dave/William.
- Parental Substitute: Aunt Jen took in Charlie after Charlie's father died.
- Police Are Useless:
- When Carlton is abducted, the cops aren't willing to help, especially his own father, who assumes it to be a prank. Betty, Carlton's mom, calls out her husband for this and spurs him to action. By the end, they avert this, and Carlton's dad makes up for his mistake by BUSTING THROUGH THE BRICKED UP WALL TO SAVE EVERYONE.
- This trope gets explored as the story continues. Early on, the police suspected Charlie's dad was the killer (especially with the earlier events at FazBear's Diner, but they soon determine he's innocent. Soon after, they (correctly) figure out who the real killer is, but can't find the evidence to convict him. Given the choice between letting a guilty man go free, or violating the principles that the justice system rely on to convict him without evidence, they let him go.
- Posthumous Sibling: Charlie's little brother Sammy, revealed to be the Purple Guy's first victim.
- Poor Communication Kills: An almost literal example. William Afton/Dave Miller uses the Spring Bonnie suit to kidnap Carlton, right in front of Jason. After the group minus Carlton escapes, Jason constantly tells the others and the police Bonnie kidnapped Carlton. The police don't believe him, because they think it's a prank. Had Jason told them how it was a yellow Bonnie, that possibly would have gotten them to take the kids more seriously and try to rescue Carlton.
- Precision F-Strike: The original eBook version had Carlton say the word "jackass", which is notable considering it's probably the first time in the entire series that anything higher than "damn" or "hell" had been uttered at that point. To be fair, This was after the time Dave attempted to kill Carlton by stuffing him in an animatronic suit. Conversely, "jackass" wasn't all that vulgar a word considering its repeated use in Disney's Pinocchio to describe ill-behaved children.
- Schlubby, Scummy Security Guard: Mall security guard Dave Millar is a shifty, gaunt, badly scared man, who despite seemingly laid back always gives the impression of being not quite right. Because he is secretly William Afton, who abducted and murdered six children whilst manager of Fazbear Entertainment, and is responsible for kidnapping Carton and setting the animatronics on the teenagers.
- Stepford Snarker: Carlton is a Class Clown and Deadpan Snarker even in the face of death. It's implied to be how he copes with the trauma of losing Michael.
- Take That, Audience!: William Afton isn’t even close to the handsome figure fan art makes him out to be. Rather, he was a fat man who became thin as a wire, he’s covered in scars, and is unfailingly unhealthy-looking.
- Tap on the Head: Averted with Carlton's head injury. It knocks him out for several hours and he wakes up feeling ill. After Charlie gets him out of the springlock suit, he throws up several times and has a hard time walking or helping at all.
- Trauma Button: Charlie has countless including animatronics, the stain in her house where her dad committed suicide, her house itself, the Fazbear diner, the original diner, etc.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Charlie has forgotten the existence of her brother Sammy, who was only a toddler when he was kidnapped by Springtrap, which Charlie witnessed.
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The book is set a decade after the child murders occur, placing it somewhere in the mid-to-late 1990s.
- Unreliable Narrator: Much of the backstory comes from Charlie's half-remembered recollections of her early childhood. Given that she didn't understand what was happening back then to begin with, it is left to the readers (and the characters) to try and fill in the gaps.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It's revealed (in this 'verse at least) that Freddy Fazbear's Pizza is in Hurricane, Utah. Fredbear's Family Diner was set up there, too.
- Vigilante Execution: The real Fazbear's killer's death comes across as part-self-defense and part-this. He already got Off on a Technicality earlier, and while Charlie does have to protect herself and her friends, she also vengefully thinks about everything he's taken from her just before she deliberately causes him to be iron-maidened in his own suit after he attempts to take her hostage.
- Villain Ball: William Afton had gotten away with the murders. He started paying the bills by posing as a security guard at the abandoned mall. Then he notices some teenagers, including the grown-up daughter of his former coworker, and decides to set the animatronics on them when they're trying to find closure with the murders. This leads to them realizing that "Dave" is the murderer, especially when he kidnaps Carlton and locks him in a suit.
- Villain Decay: Getting caught by the animatronics in any of the games results in an instant and implicitly awful death. Here, the heroes have a chance to knock them over, evade them, or just run like hell. Justified in a Watsonian sense (there are multiple fit teenagers rather than a single security guard, and can maneuver or flank around the animatronics) and a Doylist sense (it's more tense and exciting than slavishly replicating a very particular form of horror experience).
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Charlie's terrified of Foxy. So of course he goes after her when he comes to life in the beginning of the story.
- You Meddling Kids: After years of having gotten away with murder, Dave/William is finally undone by a group of teenagers.
- Your Mom: When trapped in a springlock suit and Afton asks Carlton where he is, Carlton snarks that he's inside "your girlfriend". Afton cracks a smile at that.
