"Wake Up and Open Your Eyes" by Clay McLeod Chapman - Book Review

    I want to start by saying that this is the second book I've DNFed this year and stopped after reading the first 30 pages. A lot of what I have to say is probably going to be controversial, especially since this book is incredibly popular right now, but at least I can promise that this review won't contain spoilers!

    For those of you who don't know Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, it follows a young man, Noah, who visits his parents' house after his mom leaves him an alarming voicemail. Once there, we watch as his parents and the rest of the surrounding town fall into insanity, brainwashed by their televisions as Noah tries to find his way back to his wife's house, seven hours away.

    One of the things that I really hate is trash-talking other people's work because as an author myself, it's sometimes hard to look at. However, knowing that Clay McLeod Chapman is fairly well known, the chances of him actually reading this are slim to none and sometimes it's fun to spout stuff off into the void. 

    The first thing I want to talk about is Chapman's writing style. I have another one of Chapman's books on my TBR (Ghost Eaters if you're curious!) so I'm hoping that it was a stylistic choice on Chapman's part for this novel only. My main issue with it is the writing seems almost childish at times. It feels as though you're reading someone's diary, which I know can be executed well and lots of people enjoy that kind of casualty, but, I felt as though it didn't fit this book whatsoever. I get it, hearing someone who went to college for writing talk on and on about how an author's writing is amateurish is disheartening and definitely makes me sound pretentious. I would be thinking that too, but I'm not saying that the writing was trash because it sounds childish, I'm saying that it didn't fit with the overall vibe of the book. It felt more like the protagonist was telling us what was happening instead of experiencing what was happening inside the character's head. It just took me out of the experience and made it hard for me to continue reading. 

    On top of the writing style, the premise of the book was also executed poorly. The main thing that I've been worried about with writing this review is that I would come off as leaning to one side politically more than the other. I'm not saying this book is bad because it's "woke liberal propaganda" because it isn't. The main problem I have with Chapman's execution is his complete lack of subtlety. This entire book felt like Chapman didn't leave the time to come up with a more clever way to emulate some aspects of the modern world. It just felt rushed, almost as though he was trying to whip out this book just to make sure he had the opportunity to parody what one side fears in the current political climate. Nothing about the execution felt as though Chapman actually cared and was more so a cash grab because it's "hip" and "trendy" and would get a lot of people talking about the book. I get that my review is basically aiding in this process and makes me incredibly hypocritical, but honestly, if reading this makes you think twice about adding or keeping this book on your TBR, then I'll be happy. 

    That's the main thing I've been hating about the writing industry lately. A lot of the time, it feels like authors are catering to what would make them money above writing a book that they're passionate about. I know it's harder for indie authors and I don't judge them for trying to go for what'll put money in their pockets. What really gets my gears turning though, is when bigger authors use those ploys. Like, Chapman, per say. It makes no sense to stick to that because they're already getting a lot of money. It's disheartening to see less and less "new" and creative literature that isn't a copy-and-paste version of what's big right now. I can definitely go on and on about this, but I'll save that for another time. 
    Overall, I wasn't impressed by Wake Up and Open Your Eyes and wouldn't recommend it to many people. However, if you disagree or have any more thoughts, feel free to comment them!