What I'm Reading: Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

October is just on the horizon, and the spooky posts, books, ideas, articles, and displays are coming. That is both a threat and a promise.

Speaking of a threat and a promise, that is a great way to describe the title of the book I am presenting today. The October 1, 2024 issue of Booklist has my STAR review of Clay McLeod Chapman's Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, and let me tell you now....this book is a threat and a promise precisely because waking up and opening your eyes in the plot of this book has TERRIFYING consequences AND you cannot help but have your own eyes opened up after reading it.

I cannot wait for more people to read this book so that I can talk about it. I especially want to share my colleague Konrad Stump's awesome comment about the ending and why it is perfect. BUT I CANNOT UNTIL YOU READ IT!

STAR
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
By Clay McLeod Chapman
Jan. 2025. 320p. Quirk, $21.99 (9781683693956). 
REVIEW. First published October 1, 2024 (Booklist).

With his most ambitious novel yet, Chapman (What Kind of Mother), leans on established possession and zombie tropes and spins them into an original tale that hijacks readers’ nervous systems. It’s a few days before Christmas and Noah cannot reach his conservative parents in Virginia. Worried, he reluctantly leaves his family behind in Brooklyn to race south arriving at a disaster scene. His parents are clearly not well, and Fax* News is blaring in every room. But this opening is a brilliant red-herring, lulling readers into thinking they know what is coming. They do not. Told in three “phases” each with a distinct writing style, from Noah’s perspective to flashbacks of from his brother's family to a race through an apocalyptic landscape as Noah desperately heads home, incorporating social media, video transcripts, and news reports throughout, Chapman, chronicles The Great Reawakening– a virus that has patiently threaded its way through screens to infect half of America. A compelling, cinematic, visceral, and disturbing tale, driven by fully realized, sympathetic characters, this is a memorable novel that implicates all, regardless of where they stand on “the issues. A terrifying update to King’s classic Cell, for fans of discomforting, social commentary Horror like Wendig’s Wanderers duology, Felker-Martin’s Manhunt and Leede’s American Rapture.

*Fax is not a typo

Three Words That Describe This Book: visceral, nuanced, discomfitingly realistic

Further Appeal: I normally just give my editor, Susan, a sentence or two about my overall feelings about the book, to help as she edits, but for this one....oh boy, I gave her a paragraph. Here it is without spoilers (because as an editor, she often needs spoilers to make sure the tone of the overall books comes through in the review):

This book is bleak and cuts hard on liberals and conservatives. It is really a wake up call but I was not going there in my review. I mean, I will when I promote the review. Also it is GROSS. It is an all 5 senses horror book, but feels real– I tried to capture all of that with “A compelling, cinematic, visceral, and disturbing tale.”  [I gave her actual examples but I have reacted them here]. Also it uses great storytelling devices common to horror like the flashback [more reacted examples] and it uses found footage really well– a lot in section 3. As Noah is walking home from VA to Brooklyn to fill in the gaps but keep the pacing up. 

This novel is a straight up warning to everyone– no one escapes Clay’s wrath here. Not just conservatives. You can’t look away, even if you want to– hence the title. Eye opening– pun intended– especially for those who think they are most immune to the vitriol. Liberal doesn’t help you. Are you online at al?. Are you in any communities? Have you ever clicked on a link? Does your kid watch youtube?  The hook seems easy here, but the book is anything but easy. You will be implicated. If you are not, you aren’t paying attention.

It is presented in "Three Phases"– 3 different narrative choices– makes sense because three different situations. Use of social media posts and videos. 

Cinematic. It is a movie that writes itself– the book utilizes all 5 senses perfectly so that you can see and feel and hear and smell and touch everything. 

As I take notes, I keep a running list of candidates for my "three words." Here is the list for this book: 

barely fiction, squirm inducing (in every way, with your brain and your gut), visceral, triggers a full body anxiety response, possession/zombie/social commentary, nuanced, bleak.

This novel will  elicit a full body response. 

The characters here are relatable, and as they make bad choices or are put into horrible situations, readers are unable to look away, compulsively turning the pages while resisting a full body squirm. 

Final thoughts here: Chapman is a must read horror author at this point....every book. But this book specifically, it is a novel that every American needs to read. This should become a classic novel about wanting us– dystopian like The Handmaid’s Tale.

Readalikes: I came up with so many and yet, this book stands alone. First, Chapman treads the same ground Stephen King’s Cell– but updated for 21st Century. The other 3 books in the review above all have the same feel as this novel; all of them do the thought-provoking, social commentary, without sacrificing it being a good horror novel thing well.

One of the other things I love about Chapman's novels, he always shouts out all of the books he read or consulted while writing each book That is in the acknowledgements, and you can use it as a way to find readalikes as well. He does it for EVERY BOOK.

In this case it really helped me because while I was reading Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, I kept thinking

it had a similar feel to Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman but I could not explain why. And then I got to the acknowledgements he mentions it as well. Ion the same paragraph he also shouts out We Need to Do Something by Max Booth III.

I also think this is a great next generation read for fans of Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy. Get those copies out and promote that series as a "while you wait" option for this book.

This book comes out in January. Order it now!