Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
by Clay McLeod Chapman
Big thanks to Quirk Books and NetGalley for providing me
with an advanced copy of Clay McLeod Chapman’s terrifying new book Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. I have another Chapman book (Whisper Down the Lane)
that I’ve been meaning to read, so I was excited to receive a copy of this book
for preview. I also recently read an interview with Chapman that explains his
interest in trying to publish this book before the election, and how the violence
of January 6th motivated him to write this horror story. The book is
described as a possession story, but I felt like there were tropes from other
horror genres including apocalyptic stories of survival (think The Road
or Parable of the Sower), as well as a kind of zombie story where citizens
are rendered mindless due to some strange kind of phenomenon. In this case,
Chapman creatively uses mass and social media as the catalyst for transforming
people into mindless and murderous vessels, meant to do the bidding of anchors
from the not-so-subtly named Fax News. The indoctrination and transformation
happens largely due to technology, including new, HD televisions, tablets, and
social media apps on phones and laptops. Chapman’s description of the hypnotic
colors and a kind of ooze or oil that emanates from these devices also created
a kind of Lovecraftian mood, where these transformations led to a cosmic horror
that the main character Noah experiences. I loved these various influences, and
the mood of the story ranged from a kind of creepiness to despair, often a
feeling I experience when reading these kinds of apocalyptic novels.
Nevertheless, there was a lot I could relate to in Chapman’s book, and there
were some truly humorous parts, but this is a book that will also challenge
readers to think about how media affects us, and how a kind of unhealthy consumption
of media can really affect not only our own mental health, but also how we
interact with and treat others.
Noah, a husband and father living in Brooklyn, is receiving
strange calls from his mother. After recent visits where he experiences political
differences with his parents, Noah begins to worry about their well-being. He
reaches out to his older brother, Asher, who lives closer in Virginia, to possibly
check in on the parents, but Asher seems less concerned and sympathetic to Noah’s
concerns about their parents. Noah eventually decides to visit his parents, and
encounters a strange scene when he arrives. There are several televisions playing
and the stench of rotten food fills the house, but there seems to be no sign of
his parents. Eerie silences and signs of struggle fill the house until Noah
eventually encounters his parents, but something is off. I won’t give too much
else away about this scene, but Noah really struggles to take care of his
parents. In a scene probably relatable to a lot of adults in the sandwich generation
tasked with taking care of elderly parents and children, Noah finds the roles
reversed where he has to manage his parents’ needs. And many of them are strange
and disturbing, which adds both a sense of fear and comedy. I’m not sure if
Chapman wrote it this way, but there are some absurd events throughout the
book, and especially in this scene where Noah realizes how much his parents
have changed. The other relatable element of this book, and it is something
that Noah reflects on during his journey to Virgina to check in on his parents
is the ideological/political battle that many adults face in dealing with older
relatives indoctrinated by conservative media entertainment and/or gaslit by
social media. Although it’s relatable, Chapman’s use of horror serves as an
effective commentary about the dangers of not being a careful consumer of
information in our current content-rich environment.
The second part of the book tells the story from Asher’s family
perspective. Asher is Noah’s older brother, who also has a family, but remained
in Virginia and lives a more conservative, traditional lifestyle. I found this
section to be more disturbing and depressing, but equally powerful in conveying
the message of the dangers of unchecked media consumption. What was also
compelling about this section is that despite being somewhat unlikable
characters, I felt sympathy for Asher and his family as they regressed into the
degradation brought about by the demons behind Fax News. In particular Devon
and Caleb, Asher’s wife and high-school aged son, were both sad, lonely characters
who sought out social media connections to fill the voids in their lives.
Asher, in contrast, seeks out comfort and companionship through Fax News and a recliner,
which both end up taking on demonic qualities. Devon and Caleb both struggle
with their loneliness, yet find friends and followers on social media who gradually
influence them, yet also isolate them from any other kind of meaningful social
contact with real people. I appreciated Chapman’s critique in these sections,
and the extent that Devon and Caleb go to appease their followers is
entertaining and horrific. Marcus, the younger son in the Fairfield family, is
the only one who is not in contact with the demons from social media and Fax
News; however, he is still affected and struggles to avoid the evil that
inhabits his family. Yet, even Marcus is yearning for electronic connections,
seeking out a tablet (or Pi-Pi, as he refers to it) to listen to his favorite
song “Baby Ghost”, a not-so-subtle parody of another earworm about a family.
Again, Chapman’s satire of modern infotainment and how we often use it to
either avoid meaningful, substantive connections with others or to basically replace
the real responsibilities we have to friends and family hits home and serves as
an important reminder to readers.
The last section of the book returns to Noah’s perspective
but also took a stylistic change as well. As Noah leaves his childhood home and
goes to see his brother Asher, the story is mostly told in a second person
direct address to the reader. I had mixed feelings about this aspect, but I
also think that there was a kind of power to this narrative choice. In many
ways it implicates the reader into the kind of outrage and powerlessness that
Noah experiences (or at least, it made me feel somewhat angry and powerless
with all of the chaos that is currently swarming around in daily headlines). It’s
an interesting choice, and although I’m not exactly like Noah or his family, I
kind of felt more of a connection with him. I think it also made me realize how
despite a kind of liberal concern to create a safe and diverse world, there’s
always a threat, especially when we maybe underestimate the threats or problems
in society. The last section also chronicles Noah’s attempts to return to
Brooklyn from Virginia while the world has basically collapsed. This part of
the book really reminded me of more apocalyptic stories, and it kind of borders
between more serious stories like Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and
more satirical stories like Ling Ma’s Severance. Nevertheless, this last
section left me with a lot to consider and reflect on, not only with how I
consume media and information, but also how I consider ideological and
political differences. Overall, this was a really great book that was equally
entertaining and left me with a lot to think about. There were some humorous
and horrific moments, and the book is filled with a kind of cosmic dread that
was like a modern Lovecraftian story about unleashing the old gods who are
hungry, angry, and in search of new sacrifices. I also felt like there were
some great references, both veiled and explicit, to pop culture, and Chapman’s
horror descriptions were detailed and clever. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes makes
me look forward to reading some of Chapman’s other books.
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