_Wake Up and Open Your Eyes_ by Clay McLeod Chapman is a disturbing and intensifying apocalyptic horror read with unsettling familiar characters. Noah Fairchild heads back to his childhood home in Virginia, worried about his conservative parents that he has been unable to contact. When he arrives he finds the house in horrible condition and his parents violently possessed from watching far-right news. Noah fleas, in search of his brother and his family on his way back home to New York, only to find more violence and demons along the way home. This read is unputdownable in its familiar horror.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is an interesting and thought provoking look at radicalism and fear through a horror lens that sometimes feels surface level but at other times is important and terrifying.

What a perfect read for the year of a presidential election! This book was filled with horror and emotion and an all too real nightmare of social media and politics. Shocking and bloody scenes are not for the faint of heart. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes!

This book is very…timely. Very fitting for the season and WAY too close for comfort. This was a frenzied, fevered fugue state kind of acid trip look at the far-right political party and social media as it *nearly* is today; but goddamn, Chapman went for it and I have to imagine it was some kind of cathartic, yet genius way of coping? (not sure if that’s really the word I’m looking for) with the absolute asinine nonsense going on in America at the moment. The horror aspect obviously pushed the story over the edge in terms of reality, but it was like, “Finally, somebody is able to convey the lunacy, the pile of mush that somehow passes for brains.”

Oops, I realize I semi went into a rant there–I just had a pretty visceral reaction to this book. The horror is brilliant; to reinvent the absurd political stance as akin to a demonic possession is just clever as hell. The gore was as I expected it to be; Clay, you haven’t let me down yet!

I briefly want to touch on what I didn’t loooove about the book, which was the spaced out text or formatting…not exactly sure how to describe it. It felt disjointed, fragmented, just kinda took me out of the story or didn’t allow me to connect as much as I would have liked?? It very possibly could’ve been a “me” thing.

Chapman didn’t hold back on this one–it’s nasty, it’s brutal and I don’t think you’ll want to miss it!

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advanced copy; I appreciate it more than ya’ll could imagine :) <3

I feel like this will find it's audience, but this wasn't entirely for me. I love how passionate the author is about the theme of the book and the real life horrors. The things the author is talking about are things that are currently happening in the US (minus the ear chomping mother). However, this book is not subtle about it at all and that is not my favorite. Just my personal preference. All in all, this book was truly terrifying, especially in some of its imagery. If the premise interests you, I would recommend you checking it out.

An interesting concept but lagged in the middle for me--started feeling very repetitive through some sections where I felt like the point had been made. My read paused for weeks in the middle and when I picked back up it felt like deja-vu and I continued by skimming to try to get through to new-feeling content. Felt like the middle section was trying to go in a Max Brooks' direction with all the first-person found footage, but the difference for me was that again, those felt repetitive and didn't seem to move the narrative forward in a significant way. The writing was strong, but I would have wanted to see this edited a bit tighter.

A wonderfully disgusting "screw you" to all the media; social and otherwise, that constantly preys upon our fears of inadequacy, while also assuring us that it's all going to be ok as long as we vote for the right people, hate the right people, buy the right products, follow the right influencers.

It's not just old coots watching "Fax" News 24 hours a day, it's the tech-obsessed millennials and side-hustle, MLMers, hoping to make it big on the "sosh."

But once you're infected, there's no cure, except to wake up and open your eyes.

A possession story like no other. First, I’m so glad that Clay was the one to write this. His weirdness bleeds through every single page. The prose is so creepy. Love it. Can’t get enough of it. The idea is that the news/social media brainwashes us in a possession-esque way. To some, this book will come off as too woke or virtue signaling. I’d prefer if people didn’t treat it like that and instead read it as a fascinating, and sometimes satirical, look at how susceptible we are to the messages that bring out the worst in us. A surprisingly important book from one of horror’s best. Highly recommend.

It's seldom that I read a book that truly stays with me, but this is one of those; mainly because it scared the pants off of me. Chapman is a true master of horror, and this one was all the more visceral because one could actually imagine it happening. In many ways, it already is. If Grady Hendrix and Stephen King had a baby, it would be Clay McLeod Chapman, and he would have grown up to write this book. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys thrillers and horror, but be prepared that certain portions are quite "illustrative."

It's been a couple days since I've finished this book and I'm still at a loss over my thoughts. I thought it was a cool concept filled with great imagery and a unique take on zombies.

However, I felt that in the quest to show the decrepit erosion of society, Chapman sometimes lost the thread of the story. The middle part especially felt long and then suddenly I was thrust into the perspective of the first protagonist in the third part of the book. It made it difficult to connect to the characters and feel connected to the stakes.

I'm genuinely at a loss as to whether I'd recommend this book. A lot of the imageries were grotesque and fantastic but is it enough to carry a wayward storyline? I'm not sure.

I enjoy horror novels, but the body horror element of this book was too gross for me. It was a DNF. I did like the concept.

Frenetic. If I could describe "Wake Up and Open Your Eyes" in one word it'd be frenetic.

This one starts with a bang. It's viscous and vile and pulls no punches. It's harsher, more gore-filled, than some of Chapman's previous work. That opener is a banger.

The book is certainly political and filled to the brim with social commentary. I think it'll be polarizing, but I enjoyed it. I appreciate that it takes a common trope, in this case demonic possession, and turns it on its head. Chapman is so talented in this regard.

I’m not sure it quite stuck the landing, but the middle section depicting the Fairchild family’s descent into madness was very well done. I thought the narrative voices and the clips of video / social media testimony were spot-on. Gross enough in some parts to make me gag, there are some visceral thrills here.

While the book doesn't drop until the beginning of 2025, I found Clay McLeod Chapman's Wake Up and Open Your Eyes a fitting read for this political season that surrounds us currently. Chapman gives a terrifying look at what happens when that influence goes awry in this intense, visceral, gripping, and thought-provoking social horror.

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?

Clay McLeod Chapman's storytelling is relentless and utterly merciless as he tackles real current issues with unflinching honesty. Chapman transforms ordinary people into mindless zombies through media manipulation in such a chilling and captivating way. The characters' struggles against this epidemic feel raw and authentic giving me an uneasy feeling in a weirdly good way.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes serves as a disturbing mirror reflecting our present reality. The novel deals with loss, grief, and the breakdown of social order, leaving us on edge as we navigate through the chaos unfolding from page to page. Chapman has a keen writing style that is thrilling, innovative and all-to-realistic in our current political and social climate. The author had me glued from the start, making it hard to put down. 

The horrors that lie inside the pages of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes can be truly gut-wrenching at times, invoking a sense of dread that lingers. Chapman doesn't shy away from darker moments, making for an intense and visceral reading experience that can make some uncomfortable as they read. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is truly not for the faint of heart and will surely leave a lasting impression on those who dare to read this nightmarish tale.

Clay McLeod Chapman's Wake Up and Open Your Eyes will kick-off next year as a must-read for fans for horror. This novel is a thought-provoking and emotional charge tale that will have you on edge long after you close the last page. It has a gripping, horrific and thrilling narrative with some pretty complex characters that deal with a chilling societal collapse. So, listen...wake up...open your eyes...and take in the terrifying novel by one of horror's best authors.

This was not what I was expecting from the description and cover. I was expecting more of a psychological thriller, and it is more body horror. It will appeal to the readers who like that style, but the marketing seems a little off.

The biggest of thank yous to NetGalley and Quirk Books for my E-arc of this novel!

Clay McLeod’s latest and most ambitious novel to date walks the tightrope. Reading this exceptionally unique and memorable story feels like a merging between the madness and absurdity of a fever dream and the horrors of a world all too real, all too startlingly familiar. This book is a living nightmare, and it is time to wake up and open your eyes.

‘Wake Up and Open Your Eyes’ splits nicely into three distinct parts, or as Clay puts it, ‘phases’. Phase One follows Noah Fairchild, who is forced home to check up on his parents, after becoming increasingly concerned with their obsession with conspiracy theories that they have seen online, culminating in days upon days of unmissed calls. Phase One sets the tone for the chaos that is to come, thrusting you into the insanity and holding you under. It feels like the cold open to a slasher that is never going to end, capturing the anticipation and adrenaline that these bloody scenes encompass and strapping them to your chest. The novel settles in at a break-neck pace that neither Noah nor the reader is ready for. We are starting from behind, trying to collect the pieces of a wreckage that we had no hope of preventing. We are slowly waking up and opening our eyes, but it is way too late.

On surface level, ‘Wake Up and Open Your Eyes’ seems singularly like a commentary on radicalisation, on the helplessness so many of us feel as our elders slip down dangerous, fascism-laced rabbit-holes that we cannot pull them out of. This is a starring aspect of the novel, and Phase Two of the novel is an in-depth examination into the process of radicalisation. The story observes how your typical happy family can fall apart in record time, and in a multitude of different ways, whether that be politically motivated conspiracy theories, incel culture, or wellness-orientated pyramid schemes. We begin Phase Two thinking we know what to expect, but the body blow upon body blow that is inflicted on our senses cannot be prepared for. I, quite frankly, was a mess. The story unapologetically pushes the boundaries of how extreme you think it will go. I will warn you now that anything goes in this story, there truly are no rules. The consequences are visceral, they are shocking, and they are oh so bloody. Chapman places you in the safe and secure surroundings of the nuclear family and then relishes in the gore as he tears it limb from limb.

The dangers of the internet, technology, and how it can worm into your brain chemistry makes up the beating heartbeat of the novel. You can call it radicalisation, you can even call it possession, but ultimately the word behind the action matters little when the world is in disarray. The story is frightening and unnerving with how it taps into very real and very prescient aspects of the world around us. Reading it while living in the UK in August 2024, it was impossible not to think of the mindless racism-fuelled riots that occurred over here just weeks ago, all because of lies on the internet. However, Clay’s novel does much more than simply point the finger, it is a story that forces uncomfortable thought and self-reflection. We are left wondering what responsibility we have in all of this, where did it all go wrong? ‘Wake Up and Open Your Eyes’ may make a catchy mantra for a radicalised nut trying to convince you that slaughtered children are paid actors, but any phrase can have multiple interpretations, multiple meanings, and this mantra, this book, explores all of them.

‘Wake Up and Open Your Eyes’ is unlike anything else I have read this year. It is experimental and it is ballsy, but it absolutely works. Clay Chapman’s vibrant personality gleams through the pages, and you can’t help but laugh maniacally alongside him. ‘Wake Up and Open Your Eyes will indoctrinate you, cling to your mind, and make you view the world around you through a different lens - through new, open eyes.

Noah finds himself traveling to check on his parents after strange phone calls and then silence altogether. What he discovers when he gets there is unimaginable horror caused by…what? As Noah moves through the next week, he learns half the country has been affected by the same thing. Media.

Clay McLeod Chapman does it again. He takes real current issues and shows us the horrors that can come of the way those issues are portrayed to us by the media. Whether you’re in the right or left or somewhere in the middle, you’re susceptible to falling for the spewing of newscasters, YouTubers, wellness gurus, and scammers. I couldn’t put it down and I will not stop thinking about it a time soon.

Well, let me first say that if you like horror, but you disliked Stephen King’s HOLLY for its political content…then boy, are you going to HATE this one! I, personally, thought it was really enjoyable and it’s the best thing I’ve read by Chapman.

Noah Fairchild is a progressive living with his wife a daughter in Brooklyn. From afar he sees his parents, who are from Virginia, slipping into far-right conspiracy theories; his mother is constantly calling him with the newest “information as they head on down that slippery slope of lies. When things seem to get really bad, then his parents stop answering the phone, Noah makes an emergency trip to Virginia to check things out. Big, big mistake. Humongous. Because their twenty-four hour news station has taken them over. Literally. And it’s not pretty. And they aren’t the only ones, either.

Part 2 of the book focuses on Noah’s brother Ash, his wife Devon and their sons Caleb and Marcus and their own struggles with far-right new programming, the wellness community and social media, especially Twitter (I will NEVER call it “X,” just because you want me to, Elon.). Oh, and a healthy dose of “this is…and I’m just going to say it here - this is some white people shit.” Well, I guess that’s not wrong. And we also get the crisis actors/Sandy Hook was not real/Alex Jones insanity. And speaking of insanity, it has breached this branch of the Fairchild family as well. I always thought being a right-winger might be a sickness! :)

But there are insights on why these nutjobs (sorry, am I being offensive? I will have to try to go on somehow, I guess.) believe what they do, have Fox News (here “Fax News”) on 24/7 and are willing to buy into QAnon theories (here what is going on is called “the Great ReAwakening,” Q theory has its own “Great Awakening.). “Anderson Cooper made him feel stupid. Fax didn’t make him feel stupid. Fax just made him FEEL.”

And there’s some fun, with that same Anderson Cooper as a ride-along narrator for a bit, a “Baby Shark” take off which finally made me go watch the You Tube version of the song (parents…how did you possibly stand it? I would have left my child on a street corner with absolutely no remorse, and I listened to the song ONCE.). Oh, and adrenochrome which is what the Q followers say the pedophiles steal from young bodies and Hillary Clinton and a pizza place in D.C. are both involved, I don’t know.

Like I said, I’ve read Chapman before and in my opinion this is the best thing he’s written. This is not HOLLY, don’t read it if you are a die-hard Trumper; I can guarantee you won’t like it. However, if you aren’t, and you like horror I really think you will enjoy this.

Open your eyes!

Some readers will undoubtedly be upset by this, and I'm somewhat delighted by that. Am I evil? Oh, absolutely.

The world is changing rapidly, and that isn't always a positive thing. The media inundates us with so much information that it's hard to know who to trust. Consider this – what happens when the media turns people into mindless zombies? How would you react?

If you're interested in gaining insight into the near future, hell, or even just tomorrow, then I highly recommend reading this book. It offers a disturbingly accurate portrayal of our times. It's a wild ride into the darkness that is both thrilling and unsettling. I finished this days ago and I'm still thinking about it and yes, I'm still creeped out.

Chapman brings the fun to dysfunction in this gripping body and psychological horror novel. It's a fast-paced and compelling read, quickly becoming my favorite book by this horror genius.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was too on the nose for me. Certain parts were well done and clever, but it needed some more nuance and trimming. I think the idea has potential, but it was very heavy handed in terms of the messaging. All in all, a bit clumsy