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.

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.

First of all, I would just like to thank NetGalley, Clay McLeod Chapman and Titan Books for an ARC of “Wake Up and Open Your Eyes” in exchange for an honest review.

This was not a book for me at all. The political agenda mixed with gratuitous sexual commentary and commonly hated tropes etc, incest, animal cruelty, cannibalism was abhorrent. There’s horror and then there’s this. Reading this just made feel icky and physically sick, it was like an unblended concoction of everything I hate most in a book.

The writing style didn’t have the desired effect that I think the author thought it would. Most of the time I was just confused. Why did the main character start referring to himself in the third person? Is it because he was beginning to descend into madness? I don’t think it was explicitly clear.

I think all of the gore started for shock value to begin with, which I don’t take issue with, but then it just became incessant and horrific. Serving no purpose but to try and regain the reader’s interest after monotonous, borderline-misogynistic, segments filled with repetition.

The blurb/premise sounded so interesting but it was not what I was expecting at all. Proceed with caution if you’re thinking about going in to this one. If you have specific trigger warnings that you’re avoiding- chances are they’re probably exploited in this book.

I'm a fan of this authors previous books so I was excited to read this one. It starts off promising, quite unexpected and quickly lets the shock factor settle in. It's quite an unusual take on the possession trope. There are many explicit scenes that shock you with the horror and drop hints as to where it is headed. For the most part I enjoyed the first half of the book however sadly the remainder wasn't as I expected and wished I could have fully enjoyed reading this one.

I really liked the start of this book, and thought the premise good, though I was apprehensive about how ‘political’ it would be. Sadly the story soon lost its attraction. Whilst the writing is good in parts, it does lose its way at times.

The downturn for me came with the over sexualisation of the afflicted/possessed, it all seemed to be purely for the shock value rather than adding anything ‘horror’ to the story.

I was interested enough to finish the book, wanting to know the outcome and admired Noah’s determination, though it was not an entirely unexpected ending.

There will be many readers who love it, and I can imagine the book being adapted for the big screen. Unfortunately it missed the mark for me.

2.5*

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books.

I hate giving bad reviews for books but this just felt it was over sexualised and vulgar for shock value and not for anything that added to the plot. I felt more confused at the end anyway and although it is an interesting take on cults and brainwashing it just wasn't for me.

3/5 Stars: Ambitious Themes, Uneven Execution

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman delves into the unsettling intersections of reality and perception, crafting a story that challenges its readers to question what they know to be true. Chapman’s writing is evocative and often poetic, creating a sense of disorientation that mirrors the protagonist’s unraveling. This atmospheric quality is the book’s greatest strength, pulling readers into a dark, dreamlike world.

The novel tackles ambitious themes, exploring trauma, identity, and the thin line between sanity and madness. While these ideas are intriguing, their execution feels uneven. The narrative starts strong, with a gripping setup and well-drawn characters, but it begins to lose focus in the middle. The plot becomes increasingly convoluted, with twists that sometimes feel forced rather than organic.

The protagonist is a complex and flawed individual, which makes their journey compelling, but some of the supporting characters lack depth, serving more as plot devices than fully realized people. The ending, while thought-provoking, leaves many questions unanswered, which may frustrate readers seeking a more concrete resolution.

Overall, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is an interesting read with flashes of brilliance, but its uneven pacing and lack of clarity hold it back from reaching its full potential.

I was hooked for the first part but then it lost its way for me completely, I normally love apocalyptic books too! Sadly not for me

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
Lot to unpack here, which is not the usual way I start my reviews but I can assure you this is not the ‘usual’ horror novel either; And I did not like it.
Built upon a kind of interesting idea, that people seemingly start to lose their minds due to TV and social media, it went off rails for me in the very first scene and for a moment I was even ready to DNF it (about fifteen minutes into the reading!). Such a visceral reaction, you could say, but believe me when I tell you that what it is described caught me off guard completely: it was disgusting, so much longer than it needed to be and, simply put, hard to stomach.
However, I did not DNF it, I really enjoyed Whisper Down the Lane, somehow liked What Kind of Mother and I was looking forward to reading Ghost Eaters, but this… this is a no for me, because I don’t enjoy horror novels where there is no fear but lots of gore and morbid scenes.
Why did I continue reading? Because once the perspective changed from Noah and his parents to his brother Asher and his family, I thought maybe this was it, the first pages had been nothing but a bizarre choice, let the real story, the one that ‘holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core’ begin.
The influencers and their cult like behaviour was interesting, the way the father of the family was caught in all the TV madness was very well described but it just felt so on the nose. I mean, the evil TV channel is called Fax News, I really don’t know what I was expecting.
And so, every time I thought that the message and the social commentary was starting to set in, to find its place, there it was, another scene just for shock value: Oh, look, extreme sexualisation, violence towards animals and children…
In the end, I just had to accept that I was not getting the politic and social critique I thought I would find, try to find some positive in the middle of the chaos (because there are some good ideas, and some imaginative use of tropes) and move on.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman is a deeply icky read, but not in the way I had hoped. I wanted to like this; I should have loved this. As someone who shares the book's opinions and loves a good, unhinged visceral horror, I was prepared for a gross, satirical, and probably offensive horror story—what I wasn’t ready for was the extreme sexualisation that runs through it. The overt misogyny, particularly at the start is surprisingly overwhelming and frankly hard to stomach. It took me ten minutes to hate it. It clawed back a bit as little it carried on, but I still just didn’t like it.

While the political commentary on media and extremism could have been intriguing, it gets lost as the book tries way too hard to have shock value. Plus, some of the content is excessive, even for horror, particularly the scenes involving incest, which are included in a way that feels exploitative, and is just more poorly written ‘hagsploitation’. This kind of writing feels less like a critique of societal ills and more like an excuse to sensationalise and degrade women’s bodies for shock value.

I’ll give it credit for some interesting takes on common tropes, but what could have been a dark, biting commentary instead feels like a missed opportunity wrapped in over-the-top imagery. I really like the premise and the message, and think it would have made a solid novella, but if you’re hoping for something with more nuance or depth, I’d suggest skipping this one.

Disclaimer though: I didn’t like the prose and the execution - I would however defend it adamantly to anyone attacking it for its message or it’s politics, it makes a hell of a point that’s very valid for our current dystopia, I just don’t think it’s a particularly good writing. Ironically might make a pretty good TV series.

A huge thank you to the author, @Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Creepy and ethereal, this is one to watch. I wonder if it would have been better released during halloween but I can see this on a lot of TBRs in the future.

When I started reading Clay McLeod Chapman’s Wake Up and Open Your Eyes the opening was weirdly familiar and I was certain I had come across it previously. The penny finally dropped upon reading the acknowledgements, a similar version of the story had appeared in Andrew Cull and Gabino Iglesias’s superb FOUND: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories. Although the author takes the novel in a slightly different direction to the earlier piece, being so familiar with the original took some momentum was taken from the opening section of the novel. However, when it deviates it does so in style, which is both graphic and shocking.

This was my fourth Clay McLeod Chapman novel, this author has a terrific back catalogue, and I am happy to recommend The Remaking (2019), Whisper Down the Lane (2021) and Ghost Eaters (2022). The sheer range of his fiction is incredibly impressive and Whisper Down the Lane is surely one of the best novels on the market about the Satanic Panic phenomenon.

Never one to revisit an old idea, Chapman returns with another clever, if not entirely new concept. It features a powerful political message bubbling in the background, coming from the UK I was able to distance myself from the bizarreness of American politics, conspiracy theories, right wing news channels and the crazy idea that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was fake. Republicans might not enjoy this book, as it takes non-too-subtle swipes at their side of the fence via Fax News (changed from Fox News) forcing home the point we cannot trust what we see on television. There are also some similarities to the underrated Stephen King novel Cell (2006) novel, I much preferred the King tale, as it lacked the unnecessarily heavy political message which drives this.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is built around the fact that watching endless 24-hour cycles of Fax News leads to a type of demonic crazy brainwashing. When this happens there are incredibly violent and a few sexual outbursts, when in a split second the mundane flashes of everyday life turn into a fight for survival. I enjoyed these moments of collapse as America hurtles to the brink of collapse. However, beyond the warning that we cannot trust influencers, social media, politicians or television there was little else going on. Having said that, there were still plenty of blackly funny moments, the family being forced to eat gross vegetarian food at their family dinner, whilst their mother went off the rails, had me chuckling.

Even though I had read it before, the opening still packed a punch, with Noah Fairchild travelling to Virginia from Brooklyn to visit his parents as they haven’t answered the phone in ages apart from warning him about the “The Great Reckoning”. Only to find them in a vegetive zombie state, and ready to kill, after a steady diet of Fax News. This was a great concept for a short story, but I am unsure there is enough to carry a novel, with the narrative moving onto other member’s of Noah’s family before circling back to him in the final section. I enjoyed some of the diversions more than others, finding the teenager whose only interaction on Twitter was with bots (who always ‘liked’ his Tweets) was strangely moving. The mother who stupidly clicks on an email link, as she genuinely wanted to believe there was something out there to make her ‘well’ or ‘happy’ could be bought over the internet also has a believable downward spiral.

The book is more political than it needed be and is full to the brim with social commentary, perhaps too much for some readers who are seeking some horror escapism. It will undoubtedly become a polarizing book, but it held my attention to the end, even if it is not my favourite by this author. Possession is a common enough trope, as is using the mass media to influence and control, but Chapman still manages to deliver a fresh take on familiar ground.