Reviews

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

parksidereads's review

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dark funny 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

3.75

If you too, lost your parents to Fox News - this will be deeply triggering and oddly cathartic. But in the current political climate I'd take these horny braindead demons over America's nazi wannabes any day.

elidelv's review against another edition

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

3.0

It was absolutely terrifying. It put me in a mini-slump, and it was probably not the best decision to read this on inauguration day.

alinalou's review

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I’m not really in the mood for this style of gross horror atm.

cortney_d's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

novellearts's review against another edition

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

3.0

I think this is more like a 3.5/5 star read which is such a bummer because when I first started this book, I really thought that it was going to end up being a 4 or 5 star book for me. I think I’m going to round down though to 3 stars to keep it consistent with my GR rating.

This starts off pretty action-packed and immediately the concept gripped me. If you didn’t pick up on the not-so-subtle hints, this book is a political satire on MAGA and Fox News. I thought this aspect was great, I loved the absurdity of the brainwashing and insanity that overtook these characters. I’m also sure that if the audience that this book is written about reads this, they are going to absolutely hate this book.

The main reason I knocked off points for this book was that it felt incredibly repetitive and almost became tedious in the middle chunk of this story. The first part was fantastic, I was completely zoned into the story, but once I got to the middle, I found my mind wandering because I just didn’t feel as though I was reading anything ground-breaking. The story felt like it stalled for me. The ending did pick back up a bit but it wasn’t as strong as the start.

I did enjoy the humor in this too and there were certainly a good amount of “WTF” moments and gore. I think this is probably a book that a lot of people would want to check the trigger warnings for. For example, there is a family dog in this book. The dog does
not live. And to take it even further, the family eats the dog. It’s not incredibly graphic, it’s more so mentioned instead of described. There is no detailed scene about the killing of the dog or anything like that.

There’s also some pretty graphic scenes about child deaths and school shootings.

I do think this book was worth reading even though it lost some of its appeal to me in the middle.
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quince81's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A

3.5

summerangel's review

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dark lighthearted 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

4.5

This book would be great for someone who doesn’t have a weak stomach. Even I had trouble eating dinner after reading some of these chapters. The first chapter will shock you, but once you get through that it slowly brings in the absolute chaos that is this book. It’s vivid and morbidly entertaining narration will keep you coming back for more.
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bouncers_bookshelf's review

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dark sad tense fast-paced

3.5

What a crazy ride this was! I really enjoyed the middle section of this book.

An apocalyptic nightmare driven by right wing, conservative media.

“Fax News. Just the Fax” 🤣 

Is this where our society is headed? Sure feels like it 🤦‍♂️

ghostsymposium's review

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

4.5

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!
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darkdahlia9's review

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I was made aware of the explicit dog death and I do not wish to finish at this time
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