Now THAT’s how you write an apocalypse story - no skimping on the details!!! You want colorful carnage and unarousing sexuality? At points it almost tops over to “too on the nose”, but I think it keeps its footing and doesn’t wimp out on the ending. Avoids the trap it seems to be headed into of typifying right vs. left and nails the landing. Thanks clay!

4⭐️

⚠️ They Ate The Dog!!!
Child mutilation, sexual horror, graphically gross, political horror

This book has no conventional chapters. There are some paragraph headings. Different dates, Povs, activities, and social media posts that are used as a placeholder. Some go on and on for pages. If you like short, easy chapters, this isn't the book for you.

This book highlights the differences between liberals and conservatives. It is a country divided by politics. It pokes fun at society and the news. Fox News is here Fax News. Providing false narrative to the nation. Indoctrination. All the horrors and travesties in this book seem to be perpetrated by the non-liberals/conservatives. Neither side is presented in a good light. Librals/democrats are weak, victims living inside little bubbles, hoping the world will protect them just because of their values. If you have firm political beliefs, this might not be the book for you.

Gross. Absolutely abhorrent. I couldn't tare myself away. Even in disgust, I read on. Transfixed by the narrative, I gagged my way through. The horror here is everything and the kitchen sink. Body horror, sexual parental horror, social horror, psychological horror, apocalyptic horror, splattering, and extreme. It's over the top and, at times, offensive. If you have a weak stomach, this might not be the book for you.

This is a possession story. Possession by media. How exposure to view points and ideas can possess who you are and how you function, much like a demon. This is a zombie story. Brainwashed to brain dead. The old adage of too much screen time zombifying.

This is fear and propaganda, conspiracy theories, and terrorism drawn out and twisted into a novel. Falsified school shooting to pass gun reform laws. Viruses started in labs in China.

I found the switching between third - and second person narratives a bit jarring. I understood the point the author was conveying. I just had a hard time with the second person, pov. I don't read a lot of YN stories.

This book really doesn't have that many bad reviews. This is mostly due to the fact that it is so incredibly well written that no matter your views, beliefs, or your gag reflex, you have to recognize that this is a phenomenally well written book. The other reason it doesn't have many bad reviews is that it seems to have an incredibly large number of DNFs. I can only surmise that this is due to the political nature of the book, along with its wildly disgusting content.

Many times, I wanted to DNF due to the revolting and nauseating themes presented in this novel. In the end, I'm glad I soldiered through it. The ending was phenomenal. I don't think I have the constitution to read another of his tales, but I'm satisfied with having read this. To those who DNFd before the halfway point - Try Again! It really truly does get better.

The onomatopoeia is hilarious in the book, though. 

DNF @36%

So I read a little over a third of this before giving up, so I believe I’ve given it a fair chance. I tried to finish it but I just couldn’t bear to continue reading.

This is not a smart political satire, it’s the exact opposite. It is just plain gross and mistakes shock value for plot. I feel that I’m getting absolutely nothing out of reading this and I can’t think of a single person I would recommend it for. 

I read a lot of horror, but honestly, this book made me feel gross just reading it, and that is not something that has happened to me often. It isn’t the subject matter that is the problem, it’s the fact that it’s poorly written and has no real thought behind it.

 One of the most enjoyable things about picking up the new offering from Mr. Chapman is that you never know what you are going to get. Ghost Eaters put a lot of folks off fungi, Whisper Down the Lane brought back a whole lot of PTSD surrounding the “Satanic Panic,” and I’m not even going to go into the crustacean trauma surrounding What Kind of Mother that I still have. 

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes did not disappoint in the slightest. 

The story opens innocently enough. Noah Fairchild is a liberal family man living in Brooklyn who has distanced himself a bit from his Richmond, Virginia family after their years-long slide into the far-right cable media. When Noah’s mother leaves a voicemail rambling about the “Great Reawakening,” and Noah can’t reach her for clarification; he gets a tad concerned and sets out for Virginia to get to the bottom of this. 

What Noah finds is an utter nightmare, that, it turns out, isn’t just confined to his family: people across the country appear to be infected with a media-fueled demonic possession; fueled by exposure to television, apps, and other content. 

One of the things I appreciated the most in the presentation of this story was the implied multimedia presentation of the situation. Switching between recounts of TikTok feeds, news reports, personal videos, and other sources, the reader gets a quick snapshot of the insanity that seems to be spreading though the nation. The fever dream inclusion of Anderson Cooper as an imaginary narrator at one point really just drives the insanity aspect of this story home. 

Plus, I have to add, I picked one hell of a week to binge this one: the transition of power in the US government. 

As always with Mr. Chapman, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is very worth picking up. It’ll very much make you question where the “sickness” comes from. Just a bit of FYI, it has absolutely every single content warning that one might be able to think of. Definitely not for the faint of heart. 

I don’t know what I expected from a middle aged white man writing about extreme conservatism as a demon possession, but I should’ve known it would’ve been this stupid.