'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?'
There are occasions when a piece of media comes out and you can tell with absolute certainty that it was inspired by the world we're living in, where it's clear that the creator has something to say about the shape of the world and politics. Much great fiction has these elements in them, and Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is definitely one of these, but I also think that thanks to how the recent US presidential election ended this book is going to hit just a little harder, and potentially fuck people up just a bit more.
The basic plot of the book, without giving too much away, is that people who have been spending their time watching Fax News, and scrolling through right-wing social media sites, one day make a sudden turn. These conspiracy nuts angry bigots go from being the kind of people we're currently having to deal with into a crazed mass of killers. A switch is thrown and a politically aligned apocalypse hits the world and boy does this book feel even more relevant that it should have. It's clear that Clay McLeod Chapman was heavily inspired by events in America over the last decade, especially the Trump administration, but I suspect that this book was written as partly a 'imagine how bad things could have gotten' kind of narrative post-Trump. And then he got in again. As such, we're not getting to read this book post-Trump, we're reading it going into Trump 2.0, and a world that feels incredibly devoid of hope.
You can't say that McLeod Chapman knew this was coming, because most sane, rational people would have never imagined that we'd be going through this shit a second time, but it does feel a little bit like he created this book at just the right time for the narrative to really get under people's skin even more. I'm not even living in America, but I found reding this book so incredibly uncomfortable thanks to what's happening there that I can't help but wonder just how much harder this novel will hit American readers.
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes tells the story of the Fairchild family, focusing on Noah. Noah's parents are right wingers, and his recent Thanksgiving visit ended badly thanks to his and his parents political views not aligning. This is a situation that a lot of people will be familiar with, of strained family gatherings as some relative or friend of the family comes out with something truly bigoted and disgusting and you're forced to bite your tongue for fear of causing some kind of fracture; especially as you know it'll get heated. Unfortunately for Noah, just holding your opinions in and thinking 'it's okay, the old bigots will be dead soon' no longer becomes an option as those on the right turn into raging maniacs.
I think that there's a lot of people out there who quite genuinely and correctly fear for their safety and the safety of those they love in the current political climate. We're living in a time where fascism is on the rise, where a convicted criminal and rapist has been given control of a world super power (for a second fucking time!), where 'free speech' has become so sacred that open hate speech and disinformation cannot be spoken out against, and where rights of minority groups are being eroded. It's right to be afraid of that, and if you are Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is going to prey on those fears. Suddenly it's not the nebulous 'they're coming for you' of political violence, but actual physical violence. It's the rage virus mixed with right wing media, and that's disturbing as hell.
The book doesn't just rely on these internal fears from the real world, as McLeod Chapman goes hard on the horror elements too. The Fax zombies are nasty, brutal people, and the book doesn't shy away from showing what they do to the non-infected. The book has physical violence, harm to animals, sexual assault, school violence, and other terrible things that are described in vivid, brutal fashion. Even without the political elements Wake Up and Open Your Eyes would be a hard read.
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is not an easy book to get through. It's disturbing as hell, in part because of the world in which it's been released. I would recommend it as a frightening horror story, but I'd also do so with a warning; this is not going to be a fun read, it might get too much, it might be a little too close to comfort at times, so take a break if need be, don't try reading it all at once. There's one thing that makes this book not totally devoid of cheer or hope though, the fact that we're pretty confident that whilst these people may try and kill us in real life they at least won't do it as murderous rage zombies. We hope.
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