Synopsis
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 Reckoning” 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
I’ve been racking my brain for a coherent, intelligent way to begin my review of Clay McLeod Chapman’s exceptional dissection of right-wing news & parasitic social media relationships, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. But all I can really say is this:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What I mean by this unfathomable noise is that, merely half way through the first month of 2025, I think I have found my book of the year. It’s certainly going to take something very special to knock this off the top stop. Not only this, but I believe this may be one of the best, most effective horror stories I’ve ever experienced.
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes follows Noah, a man who, after a number of disturbing incidents surrounding his parents, decides to pay them a visit and is greeted by something he’d never expect. This is very much the tip of the iceberg, as this book is so much more than that.
At it’s core, this is a book about the corrupting influences of news media outlets, in particular those of a right wing standing, and the vampiric nature of social media, and how this can skews our ideals of what we want and crave as people. Where other authors would use subtle methods, symbolism and moments of reflection, Chapman uses this novel as a sledgehammer to ram home his themes. It’s overt, unrelenting, completely batshit, balls to the wall crazy in every sense. From the various prose styles utilised throughout, to the actual events happening on the page, to its on-the-nose parody of news networks like Fox News and right wing tabloid media, this book thrives of the madness and insanity of modern America. And that’s entirely the point of this novel. It’s here to be in-your-face, and its running repetition of its own title – WAKE UP, OPEN YOUR EYES – is as much a driving mantra for our characters descent as it is to us the reader. It’s begging us to “LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT HOW THESE NORMAL PEOPLE HAVE SUCCUMB TO HATED, BIGOTRY AND VITRIOL. THIS COULD BE YOU, OR YOUR LOVED ONES. IT’S HAPPENING NOW, DO YOU NOT SEE THAT?”, slamming us in the face time after time. Whilst the events of this book are bombastic to a heart-poundingly entertaining degree, it does feel like the messaging that this book is shouting at us is very true. We see everyday the levels of baseless depravity that these media outlets throw out at their viewers, how social media has become this twisted paradise for the vulnerable, how idealism can twist those who don’t feel satisfied with their own lives, and how this begins to turn people into hate filled, grotesque monsters. It’s clear that this book is calling out a post-Trumpism (sigh, current-Trumpism) world, and in an America that is more divided between left & right politics than ever before – that’s being strangled by this suffocating need to be constantly aware, online and relevant 24/7 – this is easily the most relevant novel I’ve read in a very, very long time. The phrase “woke mind virus” is bandied around in conservative rhetoric as a way, so this books ironic table-turning of this concept into something that’s actually effecting the minds of those of a Red-persuasion is wholly fascinating to watch unfold. Clay doesn’t shy aware from critiquing liberal mindsets either, with the bold, final section of this book being unconventional in its approach so as to point its finger at the left (and again, us) for letting things get this bad. I can’t go into this in more detail because to have its full effect play out on you like the slam of a steam-powered train is best left for you to experience as it unfolds.
Come the end of this book, I was left feeling bleak. It asks the sombre question; are we already too late to turn back? I finished this book in the early hours of this morning (00:15, to be exact) and I felt empty. For a book that is so unstoppably 100-miles per hour throughout, this ending felt like a complete juxtaposition to the rest of the book. But in its dread-filled final few pages, this ultimately works to highlight what has come before it.
Not only this, but Chapman is successful in writing a properly entertaining, horrifying, gut-roiling piece of horror fiction. I’m a massive fan of the Descent Into Madness “trope” (as it turns out) and this is hands down one of the best books to showcase this. Clay’s masterful ability to weave in subtle hints, subconscious repetition, visceral violence and a fully cinematic vivid style of storytelling (despite the brilliantly bonkers choices he makes throughout in the telling of this story), is one that I myself think is genius level. There were moments in this that I was genuinely cringing (in a good way!), I didn’t want to turn the page because I knew what was going to happen even if the characters didn’t. There’s a scene – let’s just say a family meal – that honestly had my heart racing. I was reading that moment at work and I had to get up from my desk and walk around outside and shake my hands just to dispel some energy. The horror in this book is magnificent, and if Clay’s other works are as downright creepy as this, then I can’t wait to read them!
A quick aside – I myself am trying (and sometimes winning, sometimes failing) to write my own stuff, primarily horror as, after years of trying my hand at various fantasy projects, I found I was better at writing horror. Plus I enjoy the emotional reaction I have in its creation. This book is one that will stay with me in terms of influence. I feel like I should have the confidence to make those bold statements, those daring narrative decisions, and take that plunge, thanks to this book. It’s books like this that make me want to put the hard work in even if I’m tired, deflated, defeated. I experience books like this and it makes me want to be a writer and a creative. Art is important. So thank you Clay for giving me the conviction and validity and belief that my own stories matter.
I feel like I have to leave this review here. I could easily wax lyrical for another 1000, 2000, 5000 words, but by then it would just be rambling incoherent praise. Simply put, this is the best book I’ve read in the past few years, is one of the most relevant books of modern times – it should be a WAKE UP call to everyone that reads this. It’s a book that OPENED MY EYES to things that I knew was happening, but was simply too cowardly to face. This book is brilliant, masterful, genius, and simply put, one of my favourite books of all time.
Also – fuck you Clay. You know what you did. #JFR
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