Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

Chapman (What Kind of Mother) takes a big swing and misses in his attempt to explore the mounting political tensions in America through the lens of a splatterpunk apocalypse. Noah Fairchild, a young father in Brooklyn, despairs over his conservative Southern family members getting sucked into a popular cable news channel’s far-right cult of personality. When his parents and siblings stop returning his calls, Noah travels home to reconcile with them. Unfortunately for him, the ideological horror he confronts in his childhood home is only the beginning. Soon, he discovers that a mysterious force transmitted through the television is turning formerly normal people into monsters, and that it’s up to him to stop it. Chapman has a confident hand when it comes to horror, and, with carnage as creative as it is copious, fans of transgressive gore will find plenty to enjoy in these blood-slicked pages. Unfortunately, the author is less successful at crafting the political metaphor at the narrative’s heart, which winds up feeling both heavy-handed and somewhat muddled. The continued use of caustically profane narration, clichés like “snowflake,” and false equivalences between violent IRL rhetoric and anodyne internet fads undermine the politics. The result is a gleefully nasty story that fails to deliver a coherent or insightful message. (Jan.)