I love quirky horrors as they usually navigate social commentary in a really clever, interesting way and that’s what I wanted from this book. I’m not sure I’ll ever read another book quite like it or perhaps I will read plenty of books along the same lines -who knows? As you can tell, my feelings are pretty mixed!

Noah Fairchild has been slowly losing his family to the poison that the right wing media have been feeding them. When his parents leave him a message warning him about the Great Reawakening and stop answering his calls, he makes the journey to their home. He finds the house in a state, food rotting in the fridge and his parents in a deep trance in front of the TV. Then his mother viciously attacks him. And Noah’s family is not the only one affected by this epidemic. Families all over America are becoming possessed via certain TV channels and websites and the world is descending into violence-fuelled chaos. Noah and his young nephew Marcus make their way through this zombie-like wasteland to Brooklyn, where Noah believes they’ll be safe.

The book is essentially about the dangers of listening to and taking in the utter nonsense and vitriol that certain media spews. Noah describes how his mother has changed since she started consuming a certain news channel and how he can tell that she is reciting what the news has told her -quite literally like a demonic possession.

It also talks about the various methods used by the media to stir paranoia and foster that obsessive mindset that forces ordinary people to transform. It was really frightening to be inside the heads of those who were gradually being sucked in and the irrational thoughts that came with it.

Noah’s sister-in-law Devon is dissatisfied with her life as a wife and mother and discovers a community of women who practice and promote ‘wellness’. As Devon descends further down the rabbit hole of these women’s social media profiles and learns more about their 'better way of life’, it becomes apparent that she too is about to 'wake up and open her eyes’. I have no idea whether the real life versions of these communities subscribe to questionable politics but I guess that kind of cult-like mentality lends itself to attracting gullible, easily led people.

Devon’s older son Caleb becomes indoctrinated to dangerous ideas via Twitter that leads to a catastrophic climax. It is the attention and admiration that he gets from nameless and faceless accounts that pulls him in and once again, it’s a reminder that harmful ideas prey on vulnerable souls. With Caleb, we watch it very slowly happen. At the beginning, we see him question it and for a instant, we think he’ll be strong enough to dismiss it all as nothing but then he starts to unravel and it’s truly chilling to follow.

Throughout the second half of the book, I was asking it what was happening. It just kept getting crazier and I was really unsure where it was going to land. However, I realised that these are also questions I regularly ask the real world as it seems to be hurtling towards a very scary, not dissimilar to this dystopia. Literally, what are they angry at exactly? No one seems to know anymore!

Wake Up And Open Your Eyes is an insane, chaotic read and yet it’s full of our reality. It’s horrific to read and recognise, so I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is highly sensitive to political news. I also feel that it was too long because it is highly repetitive -the phrase 'wake up and open your eyes’ is chanted many many times as part of the trance that the afflicted are in. The book would have probably had a much bigger impact if it had been about 150-200 pages shorter. However, I do think it tackled the dangers of the media’s influence in a unique and authentic way.

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me, but ultimately a very thought-provoking read.

We follow Noah, who finds himself traveling to check on his parents after receiving very strange phone calls from them. And now they‘re not answering their phones. What he discovers when he gets to his parents home is a very bizarre kind of horror. And it’s affecting half the country. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, the Great Reawakening is here.

This book was wild and will definitely not be for everyone.

The book is divided into three sections and the beginning was strong and full of promise - it grabbed my attention right away.
The overall plot is definitely relevant and timely and relatable to a lot of people. The social commentary really stood out to me - it’s insightful and thought-provoking, providing some deeply unsettling critiques of society.
The scariest part of the book for me was how plausible everything seemed. The horror in this book isn't from supernatural forces but from human actions and societal flaws, and that makes it feel more unsettling than any ghost or monster could.
That said, there was a lot more body horror that I expected. Certain parts were highly disturbing in a way that felt almost unnecessary. What bothered me were the overly sexual scenes that seemed included purely for shock value.

The middle section was way too long and repetitive. I get that the author wanted to show the characters` slow descent into madness but it was too drawn out and got boring. I couldn't help but feel it would have worked better as a novella.

I loved the use of mixed media in the third part of the story but wasn’t a fan of the internal dialogue.

Overall, the story was really bizarre but believable at the same time.
I can’t wait to read more from this author.

I went into this book not knowing much. The first half I was glad I didn't know because I felt as the reader I was thrown into complete chaos. Noah can't get hold of his parents or his brother and the stress builds within in him, to the point he leaves his little family to make the long drive to find out what's going on.
Noah arrives at his parents house and it's insane. His parents are starving, unwashed, house is a mess and all the TVs are on, on the same channel watching the same thing. It's bizarre. It almost felt like a zombie apocalypse atmosphere. The scenes are brilliant I thought excellent, I haven't read a book that has grabbed me like this in a while.
Then it changes to POV to Noah's brother Asher and I completely lost interest. I think the first part of this story packed such a punch and the rest of the book fell off for me. It needed to keep up this excitement and tension and it could have been great. Such a shame I was so invested.

Split into 3 parts, the first introduces us to Noah, our protagonist, his wife and child and their current situation of estrangement from his side of the family.

This is a situation many of us can relate to, especially over the last few years where certain people gaining power, have ushered in  a post-truth reality (an oxymoron if ever there was one...) and families, even communities, have been riven by attitudes and acts of violence based on war, class, immigration status and religion,

Many of us would recognise the necessary distance Noah has taken to keep his parents at arm's length as they become more radicalised by what they feel is 'the news', and the constant calls from his mother with the latest thing to be scared of, courtesy of Fax News Network ('just the fax!') have been both annoyance, and a source of entrenching his deeply liberal viewpoint. As long as his mother keeps espousing these so called facts, then he is safe in his world, paradoxically reinforcing his morality and further pushing them apart.

So when the phone calls stop coming, the entreaties to 'Wake Up And Open Your Eyes!' as well as forewarning Noah of the impending 'Great Reawakening' stop, it takes a minute for panic to set in.

A nightmarish journey begins when he leaves his fam behind to go and work out firstly, what the hell has happened to his parents and secondly, to hold his brother who lives mere miles away, to accountability for their wellbeing. He is, to quote my teen children 'cooked'.

What follows is a nightmare of epic proportions, involving household implements I may never regard in the same way again , and situations no child, no matter their age should be involved with their parents in.

In many respects it is way worse than finding them dead and home and living with unassailable guilt that anything, something, could have been done to save them.

For Noah arrives in time for the Reawakening to happen in front of his disbelieving eyes, the television which dominates his parents living room and all the smaller ones all over the house are broadcasting one channel and one only-Fax.

A weird symbiosis has occurred-I am treading carefully to avoid spoilers-between human and the smart tvs, resulting in body horror unlike any I have read, and wave after wave of assaults on the streets of America.

The second part takes the average, all American family, in the form of Noah's errant brother, Asher, his wife Devon sons Marcus and Caleb.

They are each trapped within their own world of want, for Asher it is the ginormous tv in his living room which he has accidentally purchased, where the filters are so good he can see the reality of every single person on it-they look just like real people which completely destroys the illusion of perfection  he was hoping for. Unable to resolve this himself, he becomes completely entranced by the news anchor on Fax, Paul Tammany, and the way in which he deconstructs the world they live in , in a manner that absolves Asher of any responsibility in fixing it. Before he knows it, an identical chair to the one which has haunted the corner of his childhood home has arrived and he is spending hour, after hour, after hour in it...

Wife Devon, is sucked into the world of Insta reality, and her mission to become a yummy mummy results in some really odd herbal supplements arriving at their house, a blender which is permanently on the go, and as for Family Night? Well let's just say meal times will never be the same again...In pursuit of a perfection which will never be realised, she infatuates over a woman named Larissa, leading an army of 'yummy mummies' to live their best life by basically centering themselves and not the families which gave them the title, wife and mother.

Oldest son Caleb both wants to be seen and also invisible, his teen acne and lack of social standing leading him to retreat literally and metaphorically into his shell. Validation via likes, retweets and followers on a certain social media site create a monster which begins to go down some very dark alleys on the internet...

Youngest son Marcus, the only one without access to a tablet, or other electronic device other than a strictly monitored session watching his favourite animation, is the one who shows us what is happening in his home as all forms of structure-including physical structure-begin to warp and go awry. He is the lone witness to te carnage around him and it is on him that our hope lies for escape and the future.

Which takes us to Part 3, where Noah and Marcus, battered survivors of the unthinkable have to go forth into a hellscape unlike anything I have read , anywhere, where society, and the reality of what is in fornt of our eyes are so disconnected so as to think you are going insane...and yet... it seems absolutely and entirely plausible.

The use of social media and platforms without accountability from platform providers on the content which is uploaded and disseminated through it, does not create togetherness and community, rather, it creates division, encourages hatred towards minorities and , as recent research illustrates., has done nothing to tackle the rise in loneliness experienced by both young and old alike. For the older generation, this reliance on gadgetry has left them behind so the tv which is often left on as a kind of 'white noise', becomes a part of their day when they have nothing else around.

I work as a nurse and you would not believe the way people just switch the tv's on at the start of each shift, without asking patients or staff alike, and a steady diet of 'news' , 'magazine style chat shows' and consumer programmes fill the whole 12 hour shift like some kind of Dante-esque punishment (and yes I do tend to turn them off and try to find music channels or radio instead as a respite ).

For the younger generation, as Clay points out through Caleb, if your parent is on a platform , then that is a clear invite to leave it (hello teen daughters, still waiting for you to accept my follow requests!) so tackling them is a different matter. Naming no names, but maybe a site rhyming with 'Shitter', is a current cesspool of some of the worst examples of racism, homophobia, and sheer nastiness and yet people vie for validation on it (yes I will be posting my review on there later,so maybe, yes I am a hypocrite as I wheedle out trigger words , and narrow the niche of people I follow to create an echo chamber of book love and support for artists). For Devon, the visual is all, the Insta reality encompasses a vision of yourself you want to portray and then that facade becomes a coccoon against the filter free real world we all live in.

What Clay has done here is ask both readers and the public at large to consider our own responsibility in the creation and maintenance of these electronic devices which are dividing generations and families apart in the way which we use them, without boundaries. Outsourcing our facts to news outlets without thinking of the consequences, portraying a reality which cannot be possibly maintained as well as being so isolated in the real world that you retreat online, not knowing how is behind the random string of numbers , are dangerous pursuits of validation in a world we feel does not recognise, our acknowledge, our unique contribution to it.

And so, in the gaps between, a consciousness has arisen that will take that place and in this novel, the Reawakening is a Renaissance, a warning to our future selves to maybe slow things down a little and not put so much faith and power in systems that only serve those who create them...

Is it a demonic possession by a force created by loneliness, insecurity and deeply held radical right opinions with humans as the receiving vessels for it?

No clear and specific answer is given, the same with the ending which is deliberately obtuse, but this is  not a novel to love you and leave you, it is one to chew on, to ponder and think about personal culpability , as indeed I am doing whilst typing up a blog post in the vain hopes someone will a)read what I have written and b)borrow a copy from their library or buy a copy if they are in a position to do so.

This is not a doom and gloom book, however, I don't think Clay is capable of such a thing as he adds in such layers of humour and warmth that give it a distinctive style and taste which is entirely his own and entirely wonderful

As I send these words off into the ether, if you have stayed this long then thank you and please, consider getting a copy!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing an ALC for me to read and review.
My rating: 4.5 stars
WARNING: DO NOT EAT SLIMY FOODS WHILE READING.... This is my first experience reading from this author and I am relatively new to reading horror. This is a highly politically and socially charged story and the audio is a full cast and well produced with sound effects and great voice actors. I found this a good solid read overall with a couple of slower parts of the story... which normally would be a downside, but in this case I felt like they were well placed slow parts allowing the reader to take in what is happening and letting the reader really get caught up in the why's and wherefore's of the story. I listened to this in one sitting and would recommend doing this on purpose... get set up for the evening all snuggly and cosy with a strong drink and be ready to be thoroughly creeped out with a few side orders of ick!
I appreciated that this politically and socially charged, apocalyptic story didn't rely on unnecessary use of slurs despite the conversations and experiences of the characters being so heavily entrenched in the prejudice of the social and political environment of the book. I also thought it showed how easy it is to miss the gradual change in people close to us and even the change in ourselves.
I would recommend this to readers that - have a strong stomach; enjoys horror that relies on social commentary that feels a little too reflective of current times; enjoys a satirical vibe; enjoys apocalyptic stories that feel like they could happen; and doesn't mind not having clear answers for everything.

As a horror novel, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes works on many levels. The first couple of chapters follows Noah as he returns to his family home the week before Christmas to find out why his parents haven’t answered his calls. His parents have fallen into the right-wing pipeline, watching ‘Just the Fax’ 24/7, they start to believe in conspiracy’s regarding vaccines and crisis actors, this came to a head at Thanksgiving with a heated immigration discussion - Noah, his Haitian wife, and their daughter leave with no intention of revisiting any time soon. Following this, his mum starts leaving him messages worried about an upcoming reckoning. When Noah returns he barely recognises his childhood home, soiled food litters the floor, his parents are unclean, not making sense, and then his mother physically attacks him. The horror elements of this book hit so well, and Clay McLeod Chapman pulls no punches with the detail and gore, with no age, or animal being off-limits. Following multiple characters as they are influenced into mental instability, screens and social media stand in as a pandemic runs through the country and causes violent chaos. One aspect I wasn’t a huge fan of was the reliance on older naked women as horror, which is something I wish we would move past in all horror media - justice for women having bodies at any age!
If this sounds like something you are interested in experiencing, I recommend Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. I would love to see it adapted into a found-footage film. If you want to check this out, it is available from January 7th in print, digital, and full-cast audio formats.

📱 Wake Up And Open Your Eyes • Clay MacLeod Chapman 📱
★★★.𝟳𝟱

Read if you enjoy:
📱 Dystopian horror
📱 F*cked up books 🤣
📱 Social commentary
📱 Political satire

Noah Fairchild is a progressive, and although he doesn’t agree with his parents on some of their views, he still loves them. So when they stop returning his calls, he makes the drive to go see if they are okay. The second half of the novel focuses on Asher, Noah’s brother, who is definitely not okay. The entire nation is falling victim to being demonically possessed by their screens, turning them into sex-crazed zombie conservatives.

Oh gosh, how to review this one 😂. Trigger warnings are fair here: don’t read if you are a conservative, expect casual racism, disturbing scenes of attempted incest, a school shooting, lots of orgies and murder. Honestly describing it makes it sound absolutely bonkers, but reading it makes me feel like it’s not so far off from real life 🤣. It’s uncomfortable, demented, and challenging. It begs the question, is our chronically online behaviour more hinder than help?

Thank you Titan Books & CLAY McLeod Chapman for this wild read!

From start to finish, Clay sure knows how to keep me glued to the pages. This book isn't without gore, heart break, action & thrills! The array of characters seem realistic and I could clearly picture them and their reactions.

In Clay form the ending left me shook and I thoroughly enjoyed the wild journey of the read.

Perfect for seasoned horror fans and those who love some apocalyptic thrills!

This is the kind of story that gets under your skin in the best way!! It’s very relevant to this day and age! Which I loved and honestly made me want to stay away from any TVs and computers.

Clay did a fantastic job, It’s short, sharp, and perfect if you like your horror a little offbeat and unforgettable. It’s sharp, and just unsettling enough to make you question everything… like a dream you’re not sure was a dream. The ending was perfect and clever, only Clay could write. This is a political satire and social horror novel!

It’s full of eerie charm where you’re laughing one minute and side-eyeing the shadows the next. 👁️🍕📺

Thank you to Titan for my physical ARC.

thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! <3

’Just. The. Fax.’

I am convinced Mr Chapman slithered his way inside my brain like a pearlescent gaslights slug and tailor made this book for me.

Because I LOVED it!

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a brutal, gory, and unabashedly left-wing take on the rise of conservatism and right-wing rhetoric in American media, and its slow but ever present rise towards a grand political riot. Or in the case of this book, a cannabalistic, zombie-like apocalypse. Think ‘Cell’ by Stephen King, but 10x more insane.

It took me by surprise just how good this was. Chapman has a fantastic prose, very reminiscent of Nick Cutter - which I’m not at all complaining about - that blends together visceral and disgusting gore with insanely clever dialogue, the internal machinations of people slowly going insane, and a bit of humour! It remains fast-paced and completely engaging for its entirety, and I was honestly struggling to pull myself away from the page. I felt a little like the TV / iPad obsessed people in this book, I just had to see how the situation could get even worse. The characters were gripping, particularly the Asher Fairchild household. Each members slow decline into madness through the various forms of media was so masterfully done. I felt sick to my stomach by the end of it, and the sense of dread as they get more and more ‘possessed’ had me completely hooked. This is just such a well-crafted horror book, and hits all the right notes.

Of course, being of the socialist political leaning, I also took great pleasure in the themes presented during the book. I’m aware this is a very extreme and ‘unrealistic’ version of events, but the way in which the media and social echo-chambers ‘brainwash’ people is a very real thing. I thought the commentaries on right-wing media taking advantage of the vulnerable, lonely and self-loathing and turning them into extremists, to be very poignant. I think it’s easy to treat this book as a gorefest, but there’s so much truth to what Chapman talks about within the politics he discusses. I believe books like this, that point out the danger of the news and social media in such a digital age, to be very important, and if it needs some explosions and a missing limb or two to get that across to some people, so be it! I understand that some people will probably get offended by the political leaning of this book, but I guess that’s just politics for you….

My only gripe with this is a small one, and it’s the consistent replacement of ‘fam’ instead of ‘family’ throughout the book. When it first happened I thought it might be a typing error or possibly a strange quirk of that particular character (which I found to be strange seeing as he’s in his 40s), but when it happened with every character I realised it was an actual creative choice. I found it to be pretty cringe, and I’m not sure why the author chose to do that? I just think it’s worth mentioning, as it made me roll my eyes whenever it happened.

Either way, I found Wake Up and Open Your Eyes to be an absolute treat, and I had a great time with it. It’s definitely something I’ll be purchasing upon release, and overall it gets 4/5 stars.

The promise of freedom the internet once seemed to offer us feels increasingly more like falling into a trap. The idea of myriad sites all appealing to niche tastes has vanished and instead we have a small group of corporations dominating the world. Into this replacing the web forums and message boards are now social media titans offering new enticing dopamine hits that seem to know all the key buttons of human nature to get us addicted. In Clay McLeod Chapman’s new horror novel Wake Up And Open Your Eyes we have this taken to extremes with a more supernatural explanation for how bad things are going to get which overall deliver an unsettling tale but one I have a few issues with.

Noah Fairchild has learned to be nervous of his parent’s phone calls. Increasingly the impact of right-wing cable news has taken their lives over and he has to deal with their views that his beloved New York is a Hellscape, their inherent racism even when their daughter-in-law is Haitian, and their grandchild is mixed race but now they constantly mention a Great Awakening. Their last message though reaches a new level of disturbing and while he initially attempts to get his corporate middle manger brother Asher to get involved eventually Noah decides he needs to travel eight hours to see for himself what has happened to his parents. What he finds is horrific and is heralding something truly terrible about to sweep America.

The start of this novel is a set of scenes you will not forget in a hurry. Chapman cleverly uses that common fear of us seeing our parents change into people we don’t recognise, be it through changing politics or just old age and creates a series of escalating gruesome and disturbing scenes. They’re top-class visceral horror and it’s the type of start you will soon commit to seeing where this novel goes. A brilliant nightmare start; however for me the book feels while that it is great at creating disturbing imagery does not quite grab all its ideas together cohesively to move it into a truly great horror tale.

After the shock of seeing Noah meet the parents, we move to Noah’s brother Asher and go back a few months to see what happened to his family. Asher is more middle-class classical republican with a stay-at-home wife named Devon and his two sons teenager Caleb and young Marcus. Each of these family members has an encounter that starts to change them. Devon finds a yoga partner who inspires her but seems to send her down a road of internet fraud and Instagram wellness. Ash finds a commonality with his father in how the evening Fax News Channel (not in any way representing similar sounding named channels at all) is finally releasing all his pent-up aggression and Caleb is finding finally on social media someone sees him at last and respects him too. There is a sequence of incidents and escalations where we see each family member plunged into darker and darker places. Body horror, mental pressures and how the world treats them combine to create something nasty in each person. Chapman explores how people’s desire to feel something can pull them into places in the web all ready to be corrupted and add in supernatural influences and those get increasingly more exaggerated and bloodier. It’s a simple american family all turned into radicalized dangerous people filled with conspiracy theories, right wing propaganda and incel tendencies. At a character level these all work and the aftermaths are shown and are indeed horror inducing but I did feel we lacked spending time with Asher’s family prior to this. I wanted to see the seeds of destruction and why these people changed so much. What are the circumstances that make people turn into these types of people. Instead, it feels to focus more on the more simplistic message that social media alone changes which while I’m sympathetic to feels like it’s missing both the cultural angles and the big business angles behind such media targeting it in ways perhaps even demons did not see. These sections of the book are horrible, but I feel lack the true power to provoke a debate which is where the novel has a strength over a short story or novella.

The final third of the book returns to Noah and his further adventures in an american hellscape but also littered with various disturbing social media interviews, videos and chats. Again, this is effective, but it feels very at a very full-on speed and perhaps a little too neatly pulled together into a box of horrible tricks. It is filled with alarming images and is a true walk through a living nightmare, but Noah is not a character we’ve sent too much time with to follow their experiences. In many ways I felt unusually this is more the kind of epic horror story that perhaps needed a little more time to build up the events and perhaps a bigger cast to show us the different ways media corrupt than simply one unlucky family being hit by them all at once. Instead, this feels more slimmed down illustrative horror than one really getting its teeth into the subject.

Despite these caveats this was a tale I couldn’t let go of once I started. Those opening scenes are incredibly powerful and set up where this book is taking readers, and it is indeed uncompromising how much horror awaits. Punches are not pulled, and dark places are visited. I think with a little more investigation of the subject this could have really cast a light on modern 21st century America (and possibly the wider world following its shadow) but instead a cautionary warning is what we get and that also can be enough. An interesting and disturbing read awaits.

I think this is my favourite thing that Clay McCleod-Chapman has written to date. The concept and the first two parts of this book were maybe some of the finest horror I’ve read in some time, which I think is why the third and final part of the book was such a disappointment. It did feel like it ran out of steam somewhat, which is a shame because otherwise this would have been rated higher!

This reminded me a lot of Grady Hendrix’s work and writing style, so if you’re a fan of his, I think you’ll enjoy it!

This is the second full length novel by McLead Chapman I have read and I have to say I am slowly becoming obsessed with their work. Told in three parts this is a wonderful if not haunting and certainly gory tale. I will say I think the first was likely the most gory but for someone like me who enjoys horror in all this visceral glory I have to say it was perfectly executed. Fair warning this one does have a bit of body horror so if that is not your thing it might be worth either entering with caution.

What I love about McLeod Chapman is their ability to tie everything or at least link it all together. Each part can, of course, be taken on it’s own but seeing how it all worked together really showcases their mastery of the genre. I also loved the not so subtle imagery of easily becoming addicted to online or screen time at least and the disconnect it can cause. In the information age and with current examples how quickly things can spiral on social media, particularly certain platforms. Needless to say I will eventually be getting this in physical and also reading all works by McLeod Chapman as quickly as possible.

As always thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for the copy to review, my reviews are always honest and freely given.

🗣️ PSA: Fans of Alison Rumfitt and Grady Hendrix will lap this up I think.

Told in three parts this was a truly wild read. Imagine a zombie apocalypse but this isn’t a viral outbreak. When Noah visits his parents after receiving some odd phone calls and then eventually radio silence he decides to visit them and is met with a house full of eeriness. But it’s not only his family this is happening to, Fax News (a far right broadcaster) is emitting into millions of households and chaos quickly ensues on the day of the Great Reawakening.

The first part of the book was extremely gory, disturbing and created images in my brain I will not be able to forget. The second part I found so interesting and loved how it tied the story together. It felt completely believable within the world we live in and how we can get sucked into advertisements, screen time and becoming disconnected from the world. Quite frankly, it freaked me the f*** out, especially Devon’s character being taken over and her son Marcus witnessing his Mum changing. The third part is where I struggled slightly, it felt a little dragged out and I felt underwhelmed by the ending.

But honestly, if you enjoy body horror, being grossed out and your head being completely scrambled you will enjoy this read

I really enjoyed this book even with the very heavy handed metaphor which drives the book. It was quite unique in the approach with 3 phases instead of multiple chapters. I particularly liked the “found footage” sections as I’ve not seen this previously in other books.
My main gripe with this book is the name of the new organisation used. It’s too on the nose and it really jarred me ever time I read it.
I’d be glad to seek out more of the authors content.

Really disliked this book. I found the plot to be quite childish and cringey. There was no subtlety to it and it felt like it was a book written for children as the ‘anti-woke’ criticism was completely shoved in your face. I didn’t like how it was written as it was very simple. I found it engaging at first but I realised the quality was not of what I usually read.

Clay McLeod Chapman’s latest book is a nightmarish vision of conservative America gone mad – literally.
Noah Fairchild is a liberal American living in upstate New York with his wife and child. He comes from Middle America and his parents and siblings are stout conservatives, who at times have views that are totally dichotomous to Noah’s political standing, spouting the diatribe of far right news broadcasts, such as having views against immigration and the state of the nation, despite that fact that their granddaughter is the descendent of a Haitian mother.
In the days leading up Christmas, Noah receives a larger than normal amount of phone calls from his mother warning him that the situation in the city that he lives in is increasing in danger, and recites right wing rhetoric as well as the curious message that The Great Awakening is coming. Naturally, Noah is a little bit worried about his mother’s mental wellbeing and ultimately takes a trip from his home to his parent’s house.
What he finds shocks him to his core, and starts a nightmarish journey through the United States to get back to his daughter.
Reading like The Sadness for conservative America, Wake Up and Open Your eyes is an intense and unrelenting nightmare of a book. There were scenes in this book that are pushed to the extreme, with one in particular that is seared indelibly onto my brain.
After witnessing the events in the UK earlier this year (with one of them happening at the end of my street), and also witnessing the use of social media to spread far right propaganda, this was a book that resonated with me immensely. Using possession as a vehicle to comment on the way that social media, right wing news and other forms of media insipidly worm its way into the brains of those that believe and spout these hateful views, Chapman uses horror as a vehicle to highlight the horrors these views can lead to.
Similar to Alison Rumfit’s Tell Me I’m Worthless, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes uses well-worn horror tropes and metamorphoses them into something prescient for the times that we live in.
The book will not be for everyone as it uses quite an experimental form of narrative and switches between different mediums and tenses like a jack rabbit. However, this bold structuring only strengthens the ideology behind the story. In fact, for me it reminded me of an anarcho punk aesthetic, again similar to Rumfitt’s Tell me I am Worthless.
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a brave, bold statement against the state of the nation and how far right conservatism is permeating through everyday society to radicalise and possess even the most liberal individual and highlights the grotesqueness of the world today.

Noah Fairchild has watched his once polite Southern parents fall under the grip of far-right media for years. When his mother leaves him a cryptic voicemail warning of the “Great Reawakening,” Noah assumes it’s just another conspiracy theory. But when he tries to reach his parents, and their calls go unanswered, he drives from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. Upon arriving, he’s horrified to find his childhood home in disarray, his parents in a disturbing trance-like state, and his mother attacking him when he tries to intervene.

What Noah doesn't realise is that this bizarre behaviour is part of a larger, terrifying phenomenon sweeping across the nation. Families everywhere are being torn apart as a form of possession overtakes them, intensifying the more they engage with certain media – whether that’s TV channels, apps, or websites. In Noah’s family, only he and his young nephew Marcus remain unaffected. Together, they must make the dangerous journey back to Brooklyn, but time is running out. The more they move, the more they are pursued by violent mobs who’ve fallen victim to the same horrifying possession.

This gripping book from one of horror's modern masters is a searing, satirical exploration of our divided society. With its intense psychological and body horror elements, it’s a chilling and thought-provoking commentary on the dangers of media manipulation. The fast-paced narrative draws readers in from the first page, with the first phase offering a particularly violent and gory opening that sets the tone for the chaos to come. The disturbing premise, eerily close to real life, will leave you both terrified and captivated. A must-read for anyone who enjoys horror with sharp political insight.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

2.5 stars

Honestly this wasn't what I was expecting at all, there were certain parts that I did enjoy but overall the rest just didn't hit for me personally

3.5/5

The premise here is excellent and the opening of this book had me hooked - an apocalypse and violent uprising caused by a right-wing news channel sending everyone crazy? Yes please!

In fact, I was hooked for the entire first two thirds. The social commentary is thoroughly on the nose, while some of the horror sequences here are disgusting and excellent. There are certain moments - Devon’s special smoothie, what happens to Rufus - that will stay with me for a long time. I also thought the way the characters here were possessed, through various screens and rituals, was very clever.

However, I do feel this ran out of steam somewhat. The final third was a slog and the ending was pretty unsatisfying. Still, the concept was strong enough to keep me reading and the writing style was definitely one I enjoyed.

Definitely worth a read, if nothing else because it will upset the right wingers out there.

This is out January 2025 - thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a review copy.