You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

73 reviews

mark5327's review

Go to review page

dark funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it through Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, simply due to the exhaustingly contemporary subject matter. It was wildly fast-paced and engaging though, so it is what it is.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

symbolic_acts's review

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was a bit tiring. The last sequence read like a bad zombie movie, except for the few last pages which I found interesting.
Could have been shorter for sure, felt like a lot of it was just for shock value, maybe the draft wasn't revised properly because it was a bit chaotic as well.
I did have a nightmare after this, been a while since I read horror.
I liked the reflections on social media, the satire, the rawness and honesty behind it. 
However child abuse and dog killing is too much for my nerves. While I do understand the point of having a child character in this book, eating the dog was entirely unnecessary and just made me upset. Similar for the orgies and the mother humping her son...

On the lighter side, it felt weird to use a pizza cutter while grabbing a snack during my reading session šŸ˜†
The story was scary in that it creates a kind of dread in you. A paranoia that those you love can become infected and turn on you. Of course the infection itself is different in the real world, it's not eating and humping people but it ranges from a simple social media addiction to becoming a keyboard warrior, a monster committed to stirring up shit on the Internet... As a person addicted to her phone and noticing the effect it has on my mind and my relationships, I can't help but feel terrified and I will try to put some measures in place after this book.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

issymaae's review

Go to review page

challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kmaller's review

Go to review page

1.5

A really good premise that gets betrayed by its author's lack of a political vision or, it seems, a belief in anything at all. Underneath the gross-out violence and weird sex stuff is the real horror: bleak nihilism. The protagonist isn't even really motivated by an animalistic sense of self preservation, let alone a conviction in his values. I get that he's a target of the satire himself, but there's no counterpoint in this relentless horror show, which means there's no catharsis. At the end of the day, there's something supremely Gen X about the book's tone and thesis--in the face of fascism-turned-demonic apocalypse, it offers a shrug. 

(Aside from this, I find most of the book poorly plotted. Its underlying logic is inconsistent, from who gets brianwashed to what is lethal and what isn't.
The ~ambiguous~ ending--does Noah get baby ghost brainwashed and kill his family?--doesn't make sense when you consider the behavior of other affected people. How would he have made it all the way to New York instead of getting caught up in the blood orgy like everyone else seemed to?
It's a book in sore need of an editor to harness what works and shape it into something coherent.)
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

eyrasparrow's review

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Complicated

4.75

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

abookishwitch's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Complicated

1.75

*yawn* another white cishet man trying to examine political topics through horror who is either unable or unwilling to critically and effectively examine his place in the problem. Iā€™m so over the ā€œconservatives are just stupidā€ takes when there are deeper and more conductive ways to examine the underpinnings of converativism in America. I just donā€™t think most white cishet men are capable of writing about these topics in a meaningful way. 

Also, can we leave incest and SA out of horror stories written by this demographic? It feels so unnecessary to the storyline. Bc of the lack of depth and direction in this story, thereā€™s no real reason to include it other than for shock value. It was so gross and weird (not in a good way). 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jesikakaley's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Complicated

2.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

heather_harrison's review

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don't know how to feel about any of what I just read. 

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes takes the extremism of right wing politics and religion, and uses it demonic possession in the style of a zombie apocalypse. 

Part 1 - Sleeper Cells 
Introduces us Noah - our protagonist who leave his New York and his family to go check in on his parents who have gone in-incommunicado. We see Noah's parents relationship with Fax News. There's very little build up from here, it just turns the unhinged from one up to eleven instantly. 

Part 2 - Recruits 
Here we're jolted back to the weeks prior to the 'event'. We slip away from Noah, to his brother's family unit. It's a slow and unsettling look how each family member is essentially groomed through the 24 hour news cycle (fear mongering and claims of fake news), wellness influencers (juice cleanses, and the alt right pipeline through 'purification'), pornography and social media. At time it was painfully cringey and click-baity, and there were so many moments of feeling physically unsettled. A lot more body horror than expected.  
I did also find it really interesting that Fax News made a remark about 'they're trying to teach our children to be afraid of their own bodies' and then go onto specify about their sons being ashamed of their bodies. Which seems like a pretty good reflection on how young girls are already taught this, but it's perceived as the status quo
 

Part 3 - Holy War 
Well now the body horror and unhinged is just off the charts. There's handfuls of exposure to the bigger picture through found footage and social media. Noah's journey to attempt to go home
on foot with his nephew, seemingly narrated by " Anderson Cooper" which I didn't understand. That being said - the scene in the tunnel where Noah finally discovers the iPad had me holding my breath.


Overall - the idea was terrifying and fantastic. The writing and execution was a bit hit and miss. Chapman can be verbose at times, and also has the habit of drawing out individual words which didn't translate overly well in the audiobook. 

I now fear that somebody telling me to "Wake Up and Open my Eyes" will activate some sort of sleeper cell response, so I suppose the book hit it's mark. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

thicoulddecay's review

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Complicated

1.5

this book truly had so much potential and the premise sounds so interesting but the writing style is a mess and very childish
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

goodchivesonly's review against another edition

Go to review page

  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings