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Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

25 reviews

christine_d11's review

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I am so disappointed, but I had to DNF this book. I was so excited to read this new horror, which imagines that demonic possession is happening through right-wing news. But why did I have to read sexually explicit things between a mother and son multiple times in the first few chapters? This book is gory and gruesome and women are reduced to hyper-sexual beings. For those reasons, I had to put it down.

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horrobelle's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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mfrost's review

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

3.5


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ajslifelibrary's review

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challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5


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aquaphase's review

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dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 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. 

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talislibrary's review against another edition

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4.0


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aliciawithoutkeys's review against another edition

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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. 

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funbrarian's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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horrorbunny's review

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Mr Chapman has done it again. What the absolute F*CK?
Very few authors can make my eyes go wide as dinner plates, but this man can.

A chilling, fast-paced story packed full of scathing social commentary. Bloody, violent, surprising, and disturbing. 

Are you ready to WAKE UP and OPEN YOUR EYES? 

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domonique_ciara's review

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The writing was simple, repetitive, and boring. The tone was off-putting and "gave me the ick" as the kids say nowadays. I like the idea of the plot, but the execution seemed like it was taking a more silly, humorous, and over the top rather than having well-thought out insight and commentary, which i would have preferred. The "gory" parts came off as a shock value tactic rather than something that serves the plot in a meaningful way.

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