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.
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes hits bookstores everywhere on January 7, 2025 from Quirk Books. The audiobook, narrated by Megan Tusing, Kelli Tager, Joe Hempel, Cary Hite, Neil Hellegers, Marni Penning, P.J. Ochlan, Noah Levine, Soneela Nankani & Charlotte Moore-Lambert, is available for pre-order at Libro.fm!
