I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman Published by Quirk Books on January 7 2025
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 384
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A bold, violent and sometimes shocking possession story, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is light on plot but impossible to forget.
Clay McLeod Chapman isn’t afraid to take risks with his writing, and he’s embraced that completely in Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, a unique take on the possession story. Chapman’s frenetic writing style works well here, as this is a tense, visceral tale about the collapse of society, and that collapse happens very quickly once things get going. Readers who can’t handle graphic violence and body horror are probably going to want to stay away from this. Also, if you’re at all offended by political commentary, this might not be the right book for you. As you can see by my rating I ended up having mixed feelings about Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, but I can’t deny that Chapman’s imagery will stick with me for a very long time.
The story is roughly divided into three different sections. In the first section, we meet Noah Fairchild, a husband and father who lives in Brooklyn. Noah has been worried about his parents lately, especially his clear headed mom, who has been sending him weird texts. Noah decides to make the long drive to Richmond, Virginia to check on them, and that is when his problems start. What he finds at their house is disturbing, to say the least. The house is a mess, with rotten food and broken glass scattered everywhere. His father is glued to his big screen TV, watching his favorite news channel, Fax News, and won’t respond to Noah at all. Neither of them have showered in days. As Noah tries his best to help them, things quickly go from bad to worse.
The second section revolves around Noah’s brother Asher and his wife Devon and two children, Caleb and Marcus, who also live in Richmond. The story alternates among all four family members as they start to have some very weird experiences with a TV news broadcast and social media. All of them except Marcus start to change in horrifying ways. As Marcus is cowering in his bedroom, trying to avoid his suddenly-turned-monstrous parents, Noah stops by to check on the family, only to find that Asher and Devon have also changed in horrifying ways, and he needs to get out of there fast.
The final section is a surreal road trip, as Noah and Marcus head to Brooklyn on foot, trying to get back to Noah’s family and stay ahead of the growing crowd of infected, murderous people.
Let’s start with the positives first. Chapman has taken the idea of “conservatives versus liberals” and turned it into a literal horror story, using current media such as the much maligned Fox News (reinventing it for this story as “Fax News—Just the fax!” lol) and pitting half the population against the other half. Those folks susceptible to the influence of news or social media are the first to be infected, through their various screens, of course. The author goes after the older, less hip generation with a vengeance. Noah’s parents, who not only believe everything on the news but buy into conspiracy theories as well, were very familiar to me. I’ve certainly wanted to shout “wake up and open your eyes!” to several of my family members!
This was a tough book for me to rate. On one hand, Chapman’s writing skills and unique approach to the current political state of the U.S. are on point, so I can appreciate this as a timely piece of horror. On the other hand, I have to say that as stories go, I didn’t enjoy it that much, which is painful to admit. It’s full of in-your-face social/political commentary and extreme graphic violence, which I can deal with, provided there are other elements to balance those out. Unfortunately, I didn’t like any of the characters—even Noah started to annoy me after a while—and couldn’t have cared less what happened to them, so that balance I look for just wasn’t there.
And speaking of graphic violence, why do authors feel the need to kill off dogs (or any animal for that matter) in horror stories? Spoiler alert: there’s a horrible dog death in Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (which I saw coming a mile away, but that doesn’t make it any better). I’m over it! It doesn’t make the story better, it just pisses off everyone who loves dogs.
I also found the middle section to be very slow and repetitive. I didn’t actually count the number of times “WAKE UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES” was repeated, but my guess is in the hundreds. Chapman is both literally and figuratively beating us over the head with that phase, although it’s my opinion that the people who actually need to wake up and open their eyes will not be reading this book.
Despite these issues, though, I have to applaud Chapman for his unique take on demonic possession and his willingness to “go there” when other authors might hesitate. It’s not my favorite of his books, but I can appreciate his vision.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
“Chapman is both literally and figuratively beating us over the head with that phase, although it’s my opinion that the people who actually need to wake up and open their eyes will not be reading this book.”
Good point…anyhow, it’s not only the elder citizens who’d need to do that, just saying. Some of us are very much sane, thank you Mr. Chapman .
Too bad for the graphic horror and the not particularly engaging main character…I might have tried this one.
Roberta R. recently posted…Offbeat Offline: December 2024
Totally agree with your point about animal deaths in books, I really don’t like reading about that sort of thing at all and sometimes it’s definitely enough to deter me from reading something. Add to that all the unlikable characters and I think I would have had a hard time with this.
Noooo not the dog! :'( Certain animal deaths always trigger me, especially if it’s a dog so that alone tells me I will not pick this book up, even with all the positives. The way of it being a timely piece of horror, like you said, does sound like it would be a good read but I understand how hard it can be when you don’t like any characters so I get the rating.
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Monthly Wrap-Up: December 2024
Interesting! I’ve enjoyed this author’s books in the past, and the premise sounds intriguing, but I’m not sure I’d want to subject myself to this one! Great review, super helpful and informative.
I often have mixed feelings about books like this one. Personally, I think when it gets to the point when we’re beating people over the head with our message we most often end up doing more harm than good, alienating some of the folks who might have actually been receptive but who instead get washed away by the tidal wave. That aside, glad you found some good elements to the book, and I applaud authors trying to take a chance and try different things.
I can’t read horror but I certainly can’t stand animal death in books. It’s good some authors try new things but I wouldn’t read that one
Disappointed that you didn’t rate this one higher, but even though I have many books by this author on my tbr, I don’t think I’ve read anything by him yet, so because of that I really want to try.
Oh no, you had me sold on this one until I reached “Horrible dog death.” I’m gonna have to be in the right frame of mind to get into this one it seems and honestly, I may hold off completely. Glad you found some things to enjoy about it though.
So my first though before I started reading your review was that the cover was creepy! And it sounds like it is a good idea for a story. I don’t mind the graphic horror, and I can take a little political commentary, but it sounds like this would be too much for my tastes. And then you said a dog died and I was out. lol. Great review! Really told me what I needed to know about this one.
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…The DNF Report #36 – December 2024