Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

Clay McLeod Chapman is the creator of "The Pumpkin Pie Show" and the author of Rest Area, Nothing Untoward, and The Tribe trilogy. He is the co-author, with Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick, of the middle grade novel Wendell and Wild. In the world of comics, Chapman's work includes Lazaretto, Iron Fist: Phantom Limb, and Edge of Spiderverse. You can find him at claymcleodchapman.com.

VULTURE BEST BOOKS OF 2025 (SO FAR) GOODREADS READERS' MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR NOVELS 2025 PASTE MAGAZINE MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR BOOKS 2025 VULTURE BEST HORROR BOOKS OF 2025 (SO FAR)Chapman is as adept at the slow burn as he is at the Grand Guignol.... chilling and oppressive as contemporary horror comes. Chapman pulls not a single punch in taboo, nor does he soften his blows in an attempt at moral relativism. The result is an apocalyptic allegory for our digitally siloed reality.--VultureThe Purge ain't got nothin' on this.-Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestseller and author of I Was a Teenage SlasherWake Up and Open Your Eyes is a damn roller coaster of a novel, the kind that leaves you shaken and shrieking and smiling. Clay McLeod Chapman has taken all that's troubling our nation in the current day and, somehow, makes it all more frightening. Rough, ruthless but you can still tell Chapman is having a blast.-Victor LaValle, author of Lone WomenClay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today.-Jordan PeeleWake Up and Open Your Eyes doesn't just hit close to home - it's a needle sliding under your skin until you bleed, a rabbit hole stocked with terror all the way down.-Christina Henry, author of Alice and The House That Horror BuiltA profoundly terrifying, riveting, intense, nerve-shredding modern horror epic. With brutal insights into very real American vulnerabilities and the dangers that exploit them, this novel is the truth and a warning and essential reading. It's also wild and scary and everything a great horror novel should be. This is Clay McLeod Chapman at the peak of his craft. Brilliant.-Rachel Harrison, USA Today bestselling author of So Thirsty and Black SheepBrace yourself. This novel is relentless and utterly merciless. Chapman takes unflinching aim at modern American culture and nobody is safe in this brutal, insightful apocalypse!-Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and The House of Last ResortThis is a bold badass book. Chapman has seemingly grown impatient with the vague stances and topical hints that must naturally be found in some books of an era such as ours: here he lays it out, naked, in full, what he thinks, what he sees, what he knows is happening in the spinning world. This lens is flat-out frightening, not only for its relevance, but for how easily us readers see the same modernity of horrors in our private lives... By the book's grand finale, the title has been twisted so that it's no longer only a mantra for characters trapped in its pages, but for those of us too immersed in the story to turn away.-Josh Malerman New York Times bestselling author of Incidents Around the HouseWith Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, Chapman isn't merely checking the pulse of America-he's tapping the vein. And trust me, there's blood everywhere. This book throbs with body horror and familial conflict and most notably, the sociopolitical nightmare we find ourselves in.-Chuck Wendig, bestselling author of The Book of Accidents and Black River OrchardWake Up and Open Your Eyes is an apocalypse of the mind that leaves no one behind, illuminating a world on fire that is too eerily similar to our own and revealing the cannibalistic nature of humanity along with the dangers of becoming like sheep-an eye-opening sociopolitical fever nightmare that you won't soon forget.-Ai Jiang, Hugo Award-nominee and author of LinghunFabulously unhinged, this book is a hilarious and terrifying jamboree of modern-day horrors. Gory, chilling, and exhilarating, the book knows to relish its delicious madness. I haven't had such a thrill in ages!-Gerardo S·mano CÛrdova, author of MonstrilioWake Up and Open Your Eyes is the scariest book I have read in years. It's a book for our times and I can't stop thinking about it. A must read this year.-V. Castro, Bram Stoker Award-nominee and author of The Haunting of AlejandraA modern American classic. Clay McLeod Chapman's panic-inducing, adrenaline-fuelled epic digs its fingers into the cracks in 21st-century life and pries them open to expose the rot beneath. Daring, cinematic, funny, horrifying and compulsive in equal measure, this novel is akin to the celluloid nightmares of Cronenberg and Peele-like Videodrome meets Us. A vital work of contemporary horror fiction.-Josh Winning, author of Heads Will RollDisturbing and dangerously prescient, there's the dark shadow of a world-spanning blight spreading deep inside the mottled heart of Clay McLeod Chapman's latest novel, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. A searing and deeply unnerving apocalyptic thriller executed with the true nerve of a master storyteller.-Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last SpokeGut-wrenching, grief-soaked, the book perfectly embodies the panic of seeing the people you love transform into monsters. An utterly disconcerting mirror held up to the terror of our present.-Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing but Blackened TeethWake Up and Open Your Eyes is a pedal-to-the-metal, body-horror mash-up of The Purge, Pontypool, and Malcolm Devlin's And Then I Woke Up. Chapman has an absolute gift for the unforgettably, mind-saturatingly horrific, and I shall be sending him my therapy bill.-Ally Wilkes, Bram Stoker AwardÆ-nominated author of All the White Spaces and Where the Dead WaitAny Clay McLeod Chapman work is a superb performance waiting to happen but with Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, he raises the stakes on his own writing. This book reads as real and raw as a dark mirror to today's headlines. Tragic, brutal, and devastating, Chapman mixes horror and heart, to spin a profoundly human apocalyptic tale of what truly divides us.-Maurice Broaddus, author of Breath of OblivionOnly Clay McLeod Chapman can poignantly illustrate the tragedy of families splitting in American political turmoil while simultaneously serving up maximum gross-out, page-turning, balls-to-the-wall chaos. This book felt so much truer than I wanted it to. It's devastating that I know every character, and so do you. Wake Up and Open Your Eyes is supercharged, gloriously maximalist, terrifying, and disgusting. But mostly it's tragic, and hits much closer to home than any of us want it to.-C. J. Leede, author of Maeve Fly and American RaptureIn Wake Up and Open Your Eyes Clay McLeod Chapman asks what truly manifests from paranoia. When one gives themselves away to an idea what is really left? This novel is kinetic as chaos unfolds in this reawakening. This is social horror at its most compelling.-Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Vanishing DaughtersA harrowing horror experience. Like watching through a window as the world explodes, realizing too late you should have sought shelter.-Johnny Compton, author of The Spite House and Devils Kill DevilsA horror novel so prescient, it's barely even allegorical... just a notch or two above non-fiction. Clay McLeod Chapman takes the radicalising power of far-right rhetoric to its bloody, gooey, bone-crunching conclusion - this is a gripping, apocalyptic vision of Trump-era America that rattles along at a terrifying pace. Videodrome meets George Romero's The Crazies meets InfoWars. It'd be a delicious piece of mischief if it wasn't so chillingly topical.-Adam Leslie, author of Lost in the GardenWake Up and Open Your Eyes is a fever-pitched maelstrom of modern-day anxieties and terrors. It's the end of the world as only Clay McLeod Chapman can depict it: twisted, witty, absurd, horrifying, devastating, and suffused with a grief that things could ever get this bad. Or, perhaps more accurately, are almost this bad already.-Nat Cassidy, author of Mary: An Awakening of Terror and NestlingsSurreal, hypnotic, unrelenting, profoundly claustrophobic, and an absolutely scathing sendup of the pitfalls of American divisiveness.-Keith Rosson, author of Fever HouseA sickening indictment of modern society crafted into a horror frenzy.-Polly Hall, author of MyrrhA scathing indictment of an all-too-close reality, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes doesn't just get under your skin, it slices all the way through-then twists.--Lindy Ryan, author of Bless Your Heart and Cold SnapThere is a deep-rooted nihilism that makes this a compelling and seemingly accurate depiction of our times, just wrapped up as a pandemic-come-horror story.--Bloody FlicksPossession is a common enough trope, as is using the mass media to influence and control, but Chapman still manages to deliver a fresh take on familiar ground.--Horror DNAAn excellent horror book. The type of story that stays with you days after reading it ... Dark comedy and satire, Wake Up is these, but never forgets to remain at its core a horror story - a nasty, compelling, exploitative, schlock horror knockout.--SF Book ReviewWake Up and Open Your Eyes is a primal scream of social angst told in a frenetically paced novel aimed at the core of where we are in the world today.--Ginger Nuts of HorrorBristling with uneasy energy, What Kind of Mother seizes you by the throat and never lets go. An ink-black story about grief, courage, and what we'll do for those we love.--Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street and Sundial There's a moment in What Kind of Mother when a character worries that he's telling the story all wrong. The opposite is true of Clay McLeod Chapman. His lyrical prose shimmers, moving us seamlessly from one wounded soul to another. A good old-fashioned salty summer scare about the beautiful, terrifying power of belief.--Caroline Kepnes, New York Times best-selling author of the You series What Kind of Mother mixes Southern Gothic, a missing child story, and body horror into an entertaining brew sure to inform your nightmares.--Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts A tremendous, heartbreaking work of dark fiction, where the horror seeps in quietly until you're left drowning. You won't forget about this tale anytime soon. A masterpiece.--Ronald Malfi, best-selling author of Come with Me I'm not sure how Clay McLeod Chapman manages to be both tremendously tender and brilliantly hideous in What Kind of Mother, but he does-in this strange, poetic, and gut-wrenching portrait of parenthood.--Erika T. Wurth, author of White Horse Another stunner . . . one of horror's modern masters. Beautifully written, deftly plotted, and completely engrossing, What Kind of Mother will get under your skin and take your breath away and break your heart and chill you to the bone. A profound exploration of parental love and loss, of regret and sacrifice.--Rachel Harrison, national best-selling author of Cackle and Such Sharp Teeth What Kind of Mother is a deeply unsettling, oddly sweet book about what love can become.--Sarah Gailey, best-selling author of Just Like Home What Kind of Mother is both a breakneck story about running from your past and also a meditation on loss and guilt. Which is typical Chapman, a writer who always finds ways to marry our real-life fears with crescendos of pure unadulterated horror. His writing is intense, beautiful, disturbing, heartbreaking, and this book is no different. First it takes you by the hand, then it takes you by the wrist.--Gus Moreno, author of This Thing Between Us What Kind of Mother is a masterpiece-a beautiful, intimate work. Clay Chapman is the storyteller supreme, and I will follow him anywhere.--Andy Davidson, author of The Hollow Kind Equal parts terrifying and beautiful. Chapman crafts a folk tale that slides under your skin and burrows its way into your heart. Visceral. Surprising. Stunning. Not to be missed.--Erin E. Adams, author of Jackal What Kind of Mother will make you pace the room, reconsider your own sanity, and question the stubborn instinct to nurture.--Rachel Eve Moulton, author of The Insatiable Volt SistersShades of Flatliners and addiction drama pepper this tale about a woman who learns her college sweetheart died of an overdose - from a drug that allows folks to see the dead.--USA TodayTrainspotting meets Requiem For A Dream, rewritten as an avant-garde horror movie soundtracked by Nine Inch Nails.--EsquireA legitimately terrifying ghost story and also a thoughtful and smart (if grim) exploration of how addiction destroys lives, Ghost Eaters should make Clay McLeod Chapman a star.--VultureFull of great character moments, unbelievably tense hauntings, and an emotional core that runs so deep you'll still be unpacking it long after the last page.--PasteA keenly observant narrative that, with a mix of body horror and just plain horror, plucks at the raw nerves of the grieving process.--SCI FI MagazineRife with body horror and hallucinations...the narrative sucks readers into its dark, disorienting world. It's equal parts moving and gruesome.--Publishers WeeklyChapman has created an experience so anxiety inducing, immersive, and intense that readers will feel like something is actually there, lurking over their shoulder as they turn the pages. A great choice for fans of A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Orphans of Bliss, edited by Mark Matthews.--Booklist, starred reviewA high anxiety, utterly original, and compelling contemplation of what it means to be haunted.--Library JournalIf Clay McLeod Chapman's previous novels hint at his burgeoning talent for horror storytelling, Ghost Eaters sees it fully realized...A compelling, relentless read...--Rue MorgueThe best book from Chapman yet...wicked, full of heart, and lasting, or more appropriately, haunting.--Cemetery DanceFans of body horror will rejoice as Chapman leads readers through a trippy world.--Book RiotA nuanced, heartfelt story about addiction, grief, loss, and regret...Ghost Eaters is as humane as it is horrific-which is another way of saying it's Chapman doing what Chapman does best.--The Big ThrillI truly loved it and all its creepiness.--Lauren Simonis-Hunter for AARPWhile this book warns you away from mainlining Ghost, because of, you know, ghosts, what you will get hooked on here is Clay McLeod Chapman's writing.--New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, Don't Fear the ReaperA Gothic-punk graveyard tale about what haunts history and what haunts the human soul. An addicting read that draws you into its descent from the first page.--Chuck Wendig, New York Times best-selling author of The Book of AccidentsClay McLeod Chapman's guided tour of a shroom-and-gloom ghost world, where everyone is addicted to death, reads like a scared straight program that horrifies you into choosing life.--Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of The Final Girl Support GroupA terrifying meditation of the horrors of modern life and our collective fixation with death. Clay McLeod Chapman's Ghost Eaters promises to fix what ails you, existentially speaking. But be warned: follow Chapman down this rabbit hole and you will see dead people.--Alma Katsu, author of The FervorGhost Eaters is one of those rare horror novels that have everything: a dash of humor, real life demons, complex characters, a heavy dose of the supernatural, and the kind of ending you never forget. This is high-grade horror, and Clay McLeod Chapman is the real deal.--Gabino Iglesias, author of The Devil Takes You HomeClay McLeod Chapman is a weaver of nightmares and Ghost Eaters is his darkest creation yet. A non-stop thrill ride, all you can do is strap in and prepare to be haunted. Chapman is the 21st century's Richard Matheson. He's that good.--Richard Chizmar, New York Times best-selling author of Chasing the BoogeymanA quintessential ghost story with a fresh, trippy twist. Chapman weaves hair-raising, goosebump-inducing horror through a sharp exploration of loss, addiction, and grim history. Haunting guaranteed.--Rachel Harrison, author of Cackle and The Return