I Should Read That

Book review¹

Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reckoning” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help. Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him. But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart–literally–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn–but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?

What would happen if the American public was possessed by right wing television news channels? Clay McLeod Chapman has an idea. I’m a big fan of Chapman’s since reading What Kind of Mother last year (highly recommended if you like weird books), so I had a good idea of what I was getting into with his latest release. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a bizarre possession tale that is uncomfortable on many levels and will leave you with a lot to ponder.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been sitting on this review for months – I read Wake Up and Open Your Eyes in January, and I’ve needed some time to process it. It’s a fantastic book that explores radicalisation through media and the descent of one family, and a nation, into madness. In the age of 24 hour news cycles and constant social media bombardment, Chapman shows us how easy it is to fall into certain lines of thinking. He has a lot to say, and it might not be exactly what you expect – no spoilers here.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a brilliant, unhinged book. It’s absolutely not going to work for every reader, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, but it’s a unique, thought provoking tale that asks us what we are doing to stop the spread of radicalisation in the media and online. It’s a totally scathing commentary of American society it doesn’t pull any punches and a remarkably relevant reading in early 2025, regardless of where you live in the world.

1. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ↩︎