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Emily has a PhD in English from the College of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she or he has an MFA in Inventive Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, house of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time studying, watching horror motion pictures and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming photos of cats, and running a blog/podcasting about books with the women over at #BookSquadGoals (www.booksquadgoals.com). She could be reached at emily.ecm@gmail.com.
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It’s onerous to really feel optimistic about 2025. America as a rustic is extra divided than ever. With the upcoming presidential inauguration later this month, it doesn’t appear to be that will probably be altering any time quickly. In case you’re hoping to disregard the very actual, very horrifying realities of the present political local weather in the USA, then perhaps skip this e book. However in the event you’re feeling the heaviness of this upcoming 12 months and wish to know that you just’re not alone in feeling afraid, that is completely a must-read. It’s one you’ll wish to learn proper now, because it feels particularly well timed.
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
In case you’re an American, chances are high you might have opinions about this nation’s cable information channels. Perhaps you’re an avid viewer of CNN. Perhaps your TV is perpetually set to the Fox Information station. Perhaps you keep away from cable information channels utterly. However have you ever ever questioned to your self if our nation is being brainwashed by cable information? What if that was actually what was occurring and other people all throughout the USA of America had been being radicalized and mind-controlled by the media they consumed? It doesn’t appear that far off from actuality, does it? Clay McLeod Chapman’s lately launched e book explores that actuality and its horrifying penalties.
All of it begins when Noah Fairchild travels from Brooklyn to his dad and mom’ home in Richmond, Virginia, for a wellness test. He hasn’t heard from them and so they aren’t answering their cellphone. Noah is aware of that his dad and mom are hooked on watching a far-right cable information channel known as “Fax.” However certainly, regardless that the channel is perhaps infuriatingly conservative, it couldn’t really trigger them any hurt, proper? When he arrives in Richmond, he sees the extent of the harm. Their house is a wreck, and his dad and mom are full zombies, seemingly bodily unable to take their eyes off of the tv display. They don’t appear to be themselves in any respect. After which Noah’s mom assaults him.
However the thoughts management goes far past the partitions of Noah Fairchild’s household house. All around the nation, individuals are falling prey to a darkish, sinister mind-controlling demon. And it’s not simply on the right-wing channels. It’s in social media apps. It’s on influencer’s Instagram posts. It’s in emails. It’s on message boards. Almost each display in America is sending the message out to individuals in every single place that it’s time to “Wake Up” and “Open Your Eyes.” It looks as if Noah and his younger nephew Marcus is perhaps among the solely individuals not affected by these violent urges, however can they escape whereas all of America appears to be turning towards itself?
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is a deeply unsettling horror novel and, regardless that it’s nonetheless very early in 2025, I might guess that that is more likely to be one of the vital unforgettable reads of the entire 12 months. It’s onerous to learn this and never take into account its chilling connections to the state of the USA, the nice divide between its residents, and our unsure future. Clay McLeod Chapman was not afraid to go to disturbing locations with this horror novel, and I applaud him for shoving all of our faces so violently into actuality.