Five nights at freddys vol 1 by Scott Cawthon

​Vol 1: The Silver Eyes, adapted by Scott Cawthon and Kira Breed-Wrisley, illustrated by Claudia Schröder
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Ten years after a kid named Michael went missing at a local pizza parlor owned by her father, Charlie and her childhood friends are back in her hometown to honor the memory of their friend and help celebrate the scholarship Michael’s parents set up in his honor. Several of the (now) young adults decide to try and find what’s left of the restaurant, which was boarded up, and a shopping mall built up around it. On the first night, everything's fine. The second night, however, as a larger group decides to walk down memory lane, things start to get weird and some of the horrors of their childhood start to come back and revisit them.

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This story felt very incomplete, and might be more appealing to readers who are familiar with the original novel. This adaptation feels rushed and gives the basic information needed to get through the story, but doesn’t have much else. I kept thinking that there was another book before this that I was missing, especially because it felt like I was already supposed to know everything about the incident with Michael, Charlie's whole backstory, and what the significance of Freddy's was in the first place. There were moments between characters that were very shallow and felt unnecessary, leading me to believe there were probably chapters devoted to this in the book that weren't fully explored here.

Without the added tension and suspense, the graphic novel doesn't feel very scary, even when we get to the dangerous parts. this might be one of the rare occasions where the adaptation tames the source material and provides an opportunity for younger readers to be included in a franchise that is aimed at an older population.

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 5-10

Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: December 26, 2019
ISBN: 9781338298482 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: Elementary School, Suitability: Middle School, Graphic Fiction, Horror, Supernatural