In response to animal death TW: **UPSETTING

DOG

DEATH**

I picked this up, resonating with the feeling to losing my parents to right-wing media, always feeling solidarity with others who have experienced this. I think this story did a good job highlighting all of the seemingly harmless ways that people can be indoctrinated, sometimes without even knowing.

This book is very graphic and gory. It also won't leave you feeling good.

3.5 stars. I wanted to love this, I really really really wanted to. And I almost did! I loved the premise, the concept, (some of) the characters, the commentary, and the horror. Unfortunately, even though that sounds like it covers most of the book, it wasn’t enough to overcome some of the story’s aspects that weren’t specifically geared to my particular taste. 

The writing was strange. Very stylistic, and very unique to this author, but it’s just not my favorite. There’s nothing WRONG with choosing to tell a story in three parts with three different perspectives, but it felt a little fractured and just a *bit* too meta for me. I also wasn’t a fan of the ending, not because I didn’t like the direction (I did) but because it felt rushed when compared to the rest of the (sometimes—nay, often—repetitive) narrative. We spent so much time in the same scenario with the same inner monologue and same sense of dread and disgust, only to have it trail off at the end with relatively little satisfaction. 

This also just felt really, really heavy right now. And I get that’s the point. I understand. I RECOGNIZE THAT THIS BOOK’S PUBLICATION WAS SPECIFICALLY TIMED SO AS TO HOLD UP A MIRROR TO THE LEFT IN THE DAWN OF ANOTHER TRUMP PRESIDENCY. I understand the nuance and the commentary and the criticism. I know it was on purpose, and it was done well, and it can also have been not the right book for me at this particular moment in the downfall of humanity.

I like my political horror more human-based, and I think there’s more than enough real-world material to have informed this story without resorting to speculative elements.

 

Note: I listened to the audiobook so what do I  know about spelling anything? 

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a story about the dread that a lot of of walk around with every day, the sense that family and friends who've become increasingly beholden to "conservative" media for their news. 

But it's also about influencer culture and the envy we see at perfectly curating images of health and happiness, the notion that it's no longer clear who is a bot and who is a human, and out inability to know if the person or "person" on the other end has an agenda. 

In truth, no matter where you get your news, or which social media outlets you frequent, you're quite likely to see at least a little of yourself reflected. 

The character we spend the most time with is Noah, who grows concerned over the increasing strangeness of his parents, primarily his mother. Noah is a well-meaning liberal guy in an interracial marriage and a daughter. 

I find Noah to often be an idiot, but I also think Noah knows he's an idiot and not built for the whole survivalist thing. Can I really judge when I believe that if a zombie or someone zombie adjacent charged me my go to would be to close my eyes and hope if I can't see it that it can't see me. 

Still, this book would be really different if Noah were a bit brighter.  I appreciate he goes through wild amounts of trauma, but there is a decision he makes ... never mind. 

We also spend considerable time with Noah's brother and his family, allowing the reader to see other portals of entry to what we'd have to call mass possession. There's also a family dog named Rufus. 

Look, you're a horror reader. You know if the dog lives it's either YA horror or a miracle. I kinda hate the trope, or at least like to be forewarned it's there, but I do think it made sense in this and serves a purpose. And as a darkly inevitable punchline. You were a real one, Rufus. 

A lot of the tone is satirical, and on occasion this undercuts the horror, but some of the events are too horrific to have any joke detract from the moment. 

I enjoyed myself with the story quite a lot,  but the ending felt a bit rushed and generic. I feel there was a point to it, even a good point, but I felt a bit underwhelmed. I also felt Noah's journey home was very late era Game of Thrones, where we toss out the logistical realities and gloss over most of it, except for the epic orgy that happened at a place you might have on your camera roll.

An interesting concept that I personally think would be done better in a visual medium. Definitely worth a read!

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.

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.