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Book: “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” by Clay McLeod Chapman
Publishing Info: Quirk Books, January 2025
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: From Vulture’s “master of horror” Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless and emotionally charged social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media, for fans of The Last of Us and When Evil Lurks
Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.
Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.
But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart-–literally-–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn–-but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?
This ambitious, searing novel from “one of horror’s modern masters” holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.
Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!
I’m going to preface this review with the following statement: I’ve had a few interactions with Clay McLeod Chapman and he has always been INCREDIBLY kind. He’s always been very genial in the times we’ve chatted, be it at conferences or on social media or in messages exchanged in regards to his books and my reviews. I’ve always found him to be a super kind human being and I’ve enjoyed all the times we’ve spoken/written each other. That being said, he is also one of the authors that I feel PERSONALLY VICTIMIZED BY WHENEVER I READ ONE OF HIS HORROR NOVELS.
This is in jest, obviously. But Chapman’s books always hit a nerve with me, and always get under my skin, and his newest book “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” is his scariest one yet. And this is because of a couple reasons. The first being that Chapman is a master of suspense and horror imagery, being more than willing to push the envelope when it comes to the lengths he will take his reader within his stories. He’s usually pretty unflinching and brutal, and unapologetic about it, and that is definitely the case in this book. But the other, and more effective, reason is pretty straightforward this time around: “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” is a satirical and incredibly gory spin on the way that far right propaganda has seeped into the collective consciousness of a huge percentage of the American public, and in this book it turns them into literal rage possessed zombies that want to destroy everyone and everything with their hate and need for violence. Jesus. Fucking. Christ. This is basically a book that is a manifestation of my mental health crises I had last summer and then again after the Election. So that’s great.
First, though, I want to talk about the straight up horror elements of this book. The basic premise is that a man named Noah, a liberal man living in Brooklyn, as noticed that his parents in Virginia have been becoming more and more obsessed with the right wing cable network Fax News (it’s blatant, and I’ll talk about why I’m fine with that later in the review), parroting talking points and becoming more and more paranoid and hateful. When he goes down to check on them after not being able to get in contact with them, or his brother and his family, he finds his folks basically wasting away watching Fax…. until something switches and the catatonic turn into violent, rage filled zombies. The zombies start attacking all non zombies while shouting ‘WAKE UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES!’ and ‘JUST THE FAX!’. He eventually finds his seven year old nephew and hopes they can make it back to Brooklyn. As far as the zombie-esque horrors go, it’s nasty, it’s violent, and it’s unrelenting. Once we are in an action moment, the pedal is to the metal and it’s VERY violent and gross. He also knows how to build up the tension as we see various characters start to succumb to the indoctrination/possession, with SO MANY nasty body horror moments and gory bits, things that even made me feel a little nauseated as I read (trigger warnings abound here too: animal death, sexual assault, school violence, it’s all here). It’s effective and disturbing, which is the exact right tone for this book.
Chapman doesn’t just limit himself to the low hanging fruit of Fox News and far right cable news (correct as this indictment may be), though, which makes this even more sinister and astute. He also takes on the all too real pipelines of wellness influencers and the Pastel QAnon movement with it’s anti-science/anti-medicine/anti-vax bent (with Noah’s sister in law), as well as the incel and red/black pill movements (with his older nephew). Both of these are mostly centralized online and on social media, and show up in algorithms like snakes in the grass. I think that the Fox News angle is pretty obvious (not that it’s incorrect!), but I know that I’ve had to explain to people about trad wives and the wellness to alt-right pipeline as well as incel bullshit, and how it is radicalizing completely different demographics into far right wing ideology, so to see him have THESE THINGS in this book made the satire that much more powerful. And scary. GOD this book is scary. Because while no, people like my grandfather was when he was alive aren’t mindless violence craving ghouls with no impulse control and a need to murder everyone in their vicinity, there are people who feel like they have lost their loved ones to a sickness of hate, fear, and bigotry, which can be violent and traumatizing in their own ways. Chapman really, really gets that, even if he has it under guise of blood soaked automatons that are killing machines and splattergore moments. And he doesn’t just have grievances for the brainwashed and hate filled, but he also indicts Noah himself (and other go along to get along liberals) as someone who just sat back and let it happen, like so many have done in the face of not wanting to rock the boat or to just be pleasant, until it’s too goddamn late.
Are the horror elements in this book over the top? Maybe. Is it absolutely NOT subtle? Completely. But I think that the time for subtlety has passed us. Chapman has his finger on the pulse of America right now. And I’m writing this as the new president elect is gearing up to take back his power, partly in thanks to these kinds of manipulations, propaganda, and indoctrination that this book has amped up to levels that may be fictional, but are rooted in a very bleak reality. And I’m honestly terrified.
“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” is another top notch horror tale from one of the kindest authors I’ve met who still manages to personally victimize me Regina George style with his books (I mean that in the best way). It’s a must read.
Rating 9: Easily one of the scariest books I’ve read in a long time, if only because when you peel back the supernatural and satirical bits you find something that feels very, very real.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward To In 2025”.
The Library Ladies 