Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes follows Noah Fairchild, who leaves Brooklyn for Richmond after increasingly alarming messages from his mother and finds both parents overtaken by violent behavior linked to the media they have been consuming. As similar attacks erupt across the country, Noah learns that his brother Asher has attacked an elementary school and goes to Asher's Northern Virginia home. There he finds his nephew Marcus hiding after Asher's household has collapsed. Noah kills the transformed Devon in self-defense and takes Marcus north toward Brooklyn.

The novel jumps backward from Noah's December 20 crisis to November 15, then moves forward week by week to show how Asher, Devon, and their older son Caleb are isolated and radicalized through different media channels. Asher becomes consumed by Fax News and Paul Tammany, Devon by YOGAMAMA and the Great Reawakening, and Caleb by Elzegan's online Wake-Up Call network. Their deterioration culminates on December 20: Devon records a self-mutilating testimonial, Asher attacks a school while searching for supposed crisis actors, and Caleb detonates a homemade explosive in his classroom. Interstitial recordings show the same Great Reawakening triggering violence elsewhere at roughly the same time.

Noah and Marcus continue north on foot after Noah crashes Devon's car, crossing Washington, Baltimore, and New Jersey while survivors offer competing explanations for the catastrophe. Marcus is drawn back into the 'Baby Ghost' videos through a replacement tablet and becomes possessed in the Fort McHenry Tunnel. Noah carries him onward and attempts an exorcism at a New Jersey pig farm, but during the attempt Noah himself succumbs, chokes Marcus, and joins the song. On Christmas Day, both reach Brooklyn. The narrative voice has shifted to a collective 'we' as Noah greets Alicia and Kelsey, ending with the possessed Noah poised to embrace Kelsey as a threat rather than delivering Marcus to safety.