This book is going to rock a lot of peoples worlds. I am going to say that for some people it will absolutely be the book of the year.
Hear me again, for some of you this will absolutely be your book of the year in 2025.

It was a hard read for me, and at times I didn't think I was going to like it but in the last third I ended up loving it and writing this a week after finishing it , I realized this is what books are meant for. We are living in a time where consumption of books , media et all is at a frantic pace. I think the best books are meant to be chewed over, thought about and sat with. Which is why i haven't picked up another book since finishing this one. I needed to sit with its brilliance.

It made me physically ill at parts (also am finishing it on the last day of the year coming off of a flu bug so you know compassionate as I am, likely it’s due to the flu vs the gruesomeness of this book BUT also this book is gruesome.) and it made me cry in a not cathartic way but more like deep rooted fear that is too real for me way. And I think that was the intent, and this book does what it’s meant to do and very well.

When I read what kind of mother I thought about how it was going to bring Clay new fans/readers because it was so different (and remains thusly my personal favorite) and I think the same for this. People who have read him before and didn’t like it, might want to give this one a go as it might be exactly what you like. And I adore that, the brilliance of Clay as an author is shifting his audiences.

I stand by this he’s one of our best storytellers right now.

I think for me personally the thing I struggled with was in the first parts I felt it was lacking his beautiful prose, the meat on the bones I personally love to chew on and what snobbier people might call the “literary” aspect was lacking for me here? ( I hate this term I need to figure out how to better describe it?) And that’s not to say the writing was bad, it’s NOT at all, it’s just much more umm… visceral yes, probably that’s the word. I like to follow the veins to the heart of it and this one just punctures the jugular . It’s all bleeding all over for you and I didn’t have to work to find it. Again, not a diss this is just my experience as a reader and it will not be yours necessarily. I also believe fully that was the intent , the story could not have been told as effectively if it had been written any other way. It works for the book. Tell me a more chilling bit than (Livestream continues for thirty-seven additional minutes in silence.) Fucked my head right up.

Also further solidifies my spending less time on social media in the coming year EEEEEEKKKK. This book will do your head in and I can’t wait to see readers reactions to it. I’m so looking forward to putting this in the hands of the readers who will love it, and who are ready to wake up and open their eyes.

Like many of us, Noah has been slowly losing his parents to far right-wing cable news for years. They’re full of conspiracy theories, so when Noah’s mom leaves him a voicemail talking about the “Great Reawakening,” he thinks it’s just another story that came out of her news channel. Worried when he can’t reach her, he travels from his home in Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. He finds his parents’ home in shambles and his parents in a trance in front of the TV. As he tries to snap them out of it, his mom literally attacks.

Unfortunately, Noah’s not alone. This is happening all over the country. His young nephew is traumatized but seems unaffected. They’ll have to make the journey back to Brooklyn and Noah’s wife and child while people are literally tearing each other apart all along the way.

This book pulled no punches. Good horror reflects the fears and reality of a generation, and there’s nothing more timely than the division between the far right wing and the rest of us in this country right now. Chapman took that and went feral. This book is unhinged. It’s horrifying and super tense. I couldn’t put it down. If you’re looking for escapist horror, I can’t say you’re likely to escape our current realities, but it’s definitely solid horror. And as usual, it excites me to see what Chapman will do next.

Thank you so much to Quirk Books for providing me with an e-ARC of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes! & Libro.fm for the ALC!

Wow, this was an /experience/ — absolutely wild & I’m still a bit ✨shook✨ from the ride.

I don’t think I have ever read anything like this — the plot, the journey, the execution — it was such a unique experience. & wow, am I glad I got the chance to bounce between book & audio formats, because the audio was SO GOOD. However, 10/10 experience regardless of which route you take with Wake Up and Open Your Eyes.

This book hits HARD in regard to its social & political commentary. Fox News viewers may not like this book, in fact they’ll probably hate it. However, it is a timely read, especially after the November election. & this timely-ness makes this book much more terrifying than if it was your regular possession novel.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is beyond disturbing & absolutely disgusting; so much so that there are moments that are difficult to read. It is worth noting that if you have any triggers, looking up warnings might be beneficial because Chapman does not hold back.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a new favorite from Clay McLeod Chapman & it will definitely stick with me.

Whew. Buckle in, folks. This one is a doozy.

Noah's family has been running down the far-right news rabbithole for years, so it comes as little surprise when his mother warns him about the upcoming "Great Reawakening." However, when the time comes and no one is answering their calls anymore, he makes the drive to Virginia to check in on everyone.

Not really a spoiler but safe to say... everyone is not alright.

This book is violent, disgusting, bleak and bizarre - so naturally I'd highly recommend it. 😅 The concept hits close to home, with the rise of "news" organizations peddling falsities and blatent scare-programming. How do we deal with people that don't see reason anymore, especially when they're in our own family? How do we know that anything we see or read is true? Where are we getting our information?

This is an ambitious concept, and Chapman's up-close-and-personal style made me wildly uncomfortable at times. I had to face some of my own assumptions head on (and try not to lose my lunch at some of the goings on). There are images that are burned into my brain, and once the story gripped me it held on until the final page.

I do think the middle section was a touch too long (which made the final section feel a bit rushed) but the overall pacing was frantic and excellent. I finished this a week ago and I'm still processing it. This one is going to make people gag, wince, cringe, gasp, and think critically - and I think it might make a lot of people angry.

Them's just the fax.

This book. 😳

@claymcleod always knows how to bring the intensity of the OHMYGAWD vibes. I’m soooo uncomfortable! But of course I’ll read whatever monster he writes about next.

I really don’t wanna say a whole lot about this book because I think that you should really go into it blind however I will say that if you are not a consistent reader of horror books, you might wanna try something a little bit more… gentle.

Actually, maybe just stick to Goosebumps books… you might not be ready for this one 😂

If you get offended easily, well… I can’t help you there. You’re on your own.

So the premise is that people become demonically possessed based off of where they get their news. Is it the left-wing? Or is it the right wing? Do you get your news from the TV or Facebook or TikTok? Who is getting the truthful news and who is getting the possessing demonic news?

⚠️ Reader caution advised⚠️

Thank you @quirkbooks and @netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy. All opinions are my own.

This book is crazy, gory, horrific, and action packed all the way through. You won't be able to put it down. Literally every content warning I can think of lies between the covers of this book. But that's the point. The point is to be inundated with horror until you are almost completely numb to it. It might come out the second week in January, but I know it's going to make all the "best of" lists at the end of the year. People will be talking about this book for a long time.

I loved this. This social commentary made me so on edge while capturing the current state of the world very well and viscerally. This was compelling and it was like a car crash I couldn't look away from. This is my second read from this author and I absolutely cannot wait for more. Horrifying, real, and compelling, I cannot recommend this enough!

A nerve-shredding social commentary that is propulsive and unputdownable. Not for the faint of heart.

Wake Up And Open Your Eyes 📺

Wake Up And Open Your Eyes is the newest novel from Clay McLeod Chapman and what a riveting non fiction read…*checks notes* I mean, FICTION, this book is definitely fictional.

Our main character Noah has been helpless as his family falls further and further down the rabbit hole of Fax News (hehe). Listening to voicemail after voicemail from his worried mother and mentions of The Great Reawakening aren’t too concerning until they suddenly stop. Noah makes the trek from his house in Brooklyn to his childhood home in Richmond, Virginia to check on his parents annnnd all hell breaks loose.

This book was way more gruesome than I expected. It does fit the subject matter but wooow it was a lot! By the end I felt so desensitized to it all that it barely registered. If that in itself isn’t a spot on commentary of our daily lives then I dont know what is.

The book is chunked into phases as the “possession” ramps up. As a reader, I’m often skeptical of any more than two different POVs in a book because oftentimes the voices all blend together. Not the case here. Each character’s voice is so well fleshed out that while bouncing between 4 of them I never had to backtrack to see who was talking. This is the mark of an author who has a deep understanding of the importance of crafting characters and dialogue that are believable.

As much as I liked our MC, Noah, I found I most enjoyed reading from Devon’s POV (Noah’s sister-in-law). I could relate to her obsession with Instagram wellness influencers and needing to do everything she can to be a healthy, happy and thriving woman, not just a mom. Her experience felt a bit repetitive by the end but is truly reflective of that social media world and the posts she would be exposed to.

If you’re not squeamish and you want a book that will grab you by the throat and rip it out by the end, this is for you. Wake Up And Open Your Eyes is out today! Are you ready for The Great Reawakening? 👀

Thank you to @netgalley and @quirkbooks for making this eARC available to me in exchange for an honest review.

4⭐️

How to describe the utterly bizarre, vile and at the same time believable experience that this book is?
I had such a great time reading this book as a buddy read and although I found the second part a bit long and draggy (but I think the author wanted to show us the slow descent into madness or whatever that was lol), I loved the whole concept and the imagery! I have read scenes that I can’t unread and they still float around my head!

For those that are convinced that books are not political, well, I dare you to read this one which is bound to thought provoke, offend and make everyone Wake Up and Open Their Eyes to all the rubbish we ingest daily, slowly transforming our brain into mush.
I loved the various explanations to what was going on popping up throughout the book, a reflection of how everyone thinks they’re right and are the truth bearer.

The only thing is I don’t know how I feel about the ending, but I think I can get over it as the whole experience was great and unforgettable and made me think about my behaviour and brainwashing. The author’s writing was also what made the book so easy to read and credible, with moments of stream-of-consciousness, giving the reader an accurate internal account of the various characters’ motives and transformations.

I recommend this book if you like to be challenged and can stomach a heavy political book with nasty scenes! It’s a wild trip!

Thanks to the author, Titan Books and NetGalley for a copy and this is my honest opinion.

This was definitely a wild trip.

What a way to look at our current situation in the world, to look at media in general! I'm still processing all the little tidbits and revelations from this book.

This is a good read for anyone who liked American Rapture by CJ Leede, or is really into apocalypse-gone-weird fiction.

Part 1 was compelling at first, with Noah arriving in VA to check in on his newly possessed parents, but it also contained graphic sexual assault descriptions which will definitely cause distress for some survivors. I felt like the sexualization in the novel was to pull in the primary characteristics of possession stories and to show how far removed the possessed are from their humanity, but it's not enough for me to witness SA scenes anymore. There's a similarly distressing scene of parents attacking their daughter in American Rapture by CJ Leede, but I felt like that author kept it brief rather than gratuitous and tied it into larger aspects of the story later, like by evaluating the rationale of a bystander who did nothing to help her.

Part 2 felt repetitive and drawn out - I didn't enjoy the length of time I had to spend in characters' heads who were spiraling into possession and I ended up skimming sections. I was very excited about the premise of the story (social horror story, conspiracy theories turning to possession, etc.) but it often tells you its messaging and I would have preferred more subtlety. As another head's up, there's a storyline of characters becoming school shooters, one from an adult perspective and one from an adolescent, and I just didn't stomach it well. I think I appreciated the beginnings of the characters' radicalization the most and there was a memorable quote from a character who noted that most news outlets made him feel dumb, but Fox News just made him feel. I hadn't specifically thought of that before and appreciated the idea.

Part 3 returns to Noah's perspective amidst constant danger post-Great Awakening, and Noah makes some bad decisions (I don't need my main characters to be likeable, but I want them to be more clever). I really liked Clay's novel Ghost Eaters and I'll definitely read more of his stuff (I have Whisper Down the Lane waiting on my bookshelf), but this one was mostly a miss for me.

I also didn't like that the novel implies more than once that half of the country is politically conservative and likely infected/possessed - I think it's unhelpful to perpetuate this myth of halves. There are a massive number of eligible voters who don't vote in the U.S. and even among voters, most consider themselves independents. If you force people to choose which way they lean then you can get closer to 'halves,' but I would rather not lead with the assumption that everyone falls into one of these two separate categories.

At one point Noah stumbles across some supposedly inept gun-wielding citizens who he describes as "Democrats," even though they save his life by hitting a running target from a rooftop multiple times (not a beginner skill). There's a decent amount of caricature. It also ignores the large Fox viewership and conservative voting trends of people who are Hispanic and Latino, which I assume was outside of the author's comfort zone, but it helps show that this novel is most definitely about the fears and emotions of a liberal White author grappling with the chasm that's opened among our families in the last 15ish years, rather than an accurate reflection on our current state of misinformation. It's an ambitious topic (we don't even fully understand who is most susceptible to conspiracies) and will likely leave people talking.

Where to even begin describing this? I can comfortably tell you that I lost a lot of sleep because I could not put this down.

When Noah is unable to reach his family, he drives from his liberal Brooklyn neighborhood down south to Virginia to see what's happening. What he doesn't expect is that a media "demon| has taken over his family through their own obsessions, especially through a vulpine inspired conservative news network.

The political commentary is spot on in Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. The book has three parts that all provide a narrative of what is happening during "The Great Reawakening" of America. The first part is Noah trying to figure out what exactly is happening with his parents, and he makes the horrifying discovery that their obsession with Fax News has consumed them in everyway possible. Chapman writes such an explicit description of what Noah finds that the reader can easily smell, taste, and even feel what is happening.

The second part of the story is where the meat of the story lies. It's following Noah's brother and his family and they each "wake up and open their eyes" to their own obsessive media demons, whether it's health influencers or conservative news, you see this family's descent into madness. You get multiple POVs of each family member and their experiences. It really makes the reader think about their own media usage, whether it's constantly checking their bookstagram accounts or doomscrolling Tiktok. The reflective nature of the commentary is top notch horror that radiates into the real world.

The third part of the book is a mix of found footage and a story told in second person, which was a totally new experience for me. It felt very immersive and was a really fun experience to read.

Chapman is exquisite writer, leaving the reader with the burning question as to what exactly are the media demons and how closely do they relate to us, the readers. This book is non-stop and there's not really a good place to put it down. You'll find that you become obsessed with the book itself, much like the characters and their own obsessions. Chapman's writing is engaging, clear, and easy to follow.

The book does have a few very explicit scenes of gore and sex, as well as a few trigger warnings for violent occurrences that are plaguing the US everyday. If you're a sensitive reader, please check those out before you dive deep into this book.

It's a perfect book to take you into 2024 and the new political season that is upon us. After all, it's time for you to WAKE UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES AND JUST ACCEPT THE FAX.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Honestly it was a dredge to read and halfway through i started skimming. bad vibes and bleak which isnt necessarily awful components to a horror book buy this time they did not work. I didnt care for the characters, the quasi “woke”/zombie situation, it was all kinda boring.

Many thanks to netgalley and the publishers for supplying me with the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Clay McLeod Chapman is making sure 2025 starts off with a bang for horror readers. The first release Tuesday of the year, January 7th, brings readers Wake Up And Open Your Eyes. His newest release from Quirk Books, this novel is a hard-hitting horror tale that feels all too real. Coming off the holiday season, it may be just the catharsis you need. Or, well, it may completely terrify you. Could be both.

Wake Up And Open Your Eyes is unflinchingly honest and complex. I know reading the description looks straightforward. Mass possession seemingly incited by certain media outlets, conspiracy theories, a divided nation… We know what’s going on, right? This novel is political. That statement is redundant—books and art have always been political—but in the current landscape sometimes it bears repeating. That being said, though, Clay did not take a shallow approach.

What he has done, quite successfully, is humanize both sides. The red and blue, conservative and liberal, possessed and sane; whatever words you want to use, Wake Up And Open Your Eyes crosses party lines. He made the antagonists into protagonists. That is not an easy task. It requires copious amounts of empathy. Clay has proven to be a master of grief horror, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that he could accomplish this.

What did come as a surprise to me was seeing myself reflected in one of these characters. I assumed, wrongly, that I would see my family on one side and me and my communities on the other. Oh, if only I had been let off so easily. The horror on these pages is more than violent mass possession—it is just how easy it would be for anyone to get hooked into an ideology like this. How easily we can all be isolated. How vulnerable we are.

Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the horror elements in this novel shine, too. This may be the most body horror I’ve read yet from Clay, and this was my eleventh read of his. And while this is a possession story, fans of zombie and plague narratives will find plenty to love. There’s even a tunnel scene that, I feel, tops the infamous scene from Stephen King’s The Stand. Wake Up And Open Your Eyes is gnarly. It is visceral. It’s bleak. It should be.

I can’t promise you’ll like this book. All I can offer is that I did. Writing this review has only made it grow in my esteem. As a literary work, it’s brilliant. As art, it is effective. As horror, it is terrifying. This book, as outlandish and at times absurd as it is, is real. And that’s what may make it divisive. It’s also what makes it important. I have done more thinking on this book and because of this book in the past week than I did writing papers in college. It’s powerful.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a start for 2025, but it’s also an end for me. I’m honored to have this be the last review I have on my books. Abby Wolf is the newest writer here at The Fandomentals and she is going to do an incredible job handling all things horror books for you. Her first review on Candy Cain Kills Again by Brian McAuley is a fantastic read. I highly recommend you keep your eyes open for all of her pieces to come.

Happy holidays and happy new year!

Images courtesy of Quirk Books.

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Hot damn what a journey! Clay McLeod Chapman will more than likely piss some people off with his latest (greatest?) masterpiece “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” and you can only love him for that! He masterfully intertwines fictional horror elements with real (current) fears, worries and concerns in a way that while reading, you often times find yourself wondering if you should keep reading or put the book down and begin prepping for doomsday.

Not only will this book be hard to put down (even while building your bunker), it will also get you not wanting to hear another children’s song or drink a healthy juice again. Thanks for that, good Sir.

Whether you like to read or not, be sure to pick up this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ novel next month and prepare to be woken up and have your eyes opened!

Thank you NetGalley and Quirk Books for gifting me with the opportunity to be scared shitless and entertained!

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes does not want you to be comfortable for even a second. It goes straight into the taboo right from the start. Taking the brainwashing by media farther than it's ever even been imagined. For some time the story drags on and on until you realize it's not going to end well. Just to keep you off balance there is the second person perspective. It's not comfortable to read but the basis of so many of the outrageous things that happen are easily found with a small internet search. The crazy conspiracies brought to life.

I'm so disappointed! I was really looking forward to this book. I have loved everything else I have read from this author so it's very sad that this didn't work for me. There are some really great moments, but I was so confused for a lot of it. I really enjoyed the beginning where Noah is going to check on his parents at their house. I didn't love that some of the story was in 3rd person and some was in 2nd person. Those book gave some similar vibes to another new release that I just read and loved, but I just had a very hard time getting into this one.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book.

Ooof this book in our climate was so intense. I am becoming a huge fan of this author and will read whatever comes next.