January 2025

Author Clay McLeod Chapman will discuss his new social horror novel, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, in conversation with author V. Castro, in this installment of "Author Hour in Massachusetts." About Clay: Clay McLeod Chapman writes novels, comic books, and children's books, as well as for film and TV. He is the author of the horror novels The Remaking, Whisper Down the Lane, Ghost Eaters, and What Kind of Mother. He also cowrote Quiet Part Loud, a horror podcast produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw. About Wake Up and Open Your Eyes: From Vulture's “master of horror” Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media. 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 Reawakening” 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 his home in 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 trancelike state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get them 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 glued to cable news or falling down internet rabbit holes. 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? This ambitious novel from one of horror's modern masters holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core. Webinar Registration