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 Reckoning” 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 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 trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get 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 watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. 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, searing novel from “one of horror’s modern masters” holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.
Dark bleatings, my anxious tribe. This novel is…phew, a lot. It’s a lot. At the time that Clay was writing it, there’s no way he could have known that the level of disaster in this novel would so closely represent the current state of things, but here we are. I’m writing this review in Feb 2025, by the way (so you’ll be seeing it in April or even May, and hopefully everything will have just magically blown over and calmed down by now….).
I’m avoiding talking about politics in the real world here and focusing only on the story in the book.
A man has essentially cut his parents off since they made racist remarks in the presence of his not-white girlfriend, and by extension, their unborn grandchild. However, after listening to one final frantic, panicked call from his mother, who seems to have been getting more and more tangled in hateful, far-right media rhetoric, he finally gets worried enough to call her, only to find he can’t get hold of anyone in his family. Sincerely worried, he makes the trip to his childhood home to check in on his parents, to find that they’re no longer just opinionated, but acting so unlike themselves it’s like they’re possessed….
The novel opens with a bang and then we switch to the brother of our protagonist, and spend almost all of the rest of the story with him and his family, and their rapid descent into what can most accurately be described as a next-level, surely supernatural cult. I have to say, though I loved the opening (if terrible, on-the-edge-of-my-seat anxiety counts as enjoyment), but didn’t love the shift in perspective. I was quite invested in the couple we started with and found myself a bit bewildered by the change and I was impatient to get back.
The indoctrinated family we spend the most time with are a lot. It’s relentless, far-right propaganda, a spiralling and shocking lack of empathy, and scenes of a family’s descent that are truly chilling. The thing to remember is that there’s a horrible supernatural edge to this, a reason that people have slipped so far past what is even normally, even by not-nice standards, considered acceptable or even sane. I felt miserable and freaked out reading it, and I’m sure that some people with conservative views will see this book as a personal attack. Though, if anyone – right or left leaning – identifies and feels prickled by these characters, they probably should take a look at themselves, honestly.
Like I said a minute ago, Clay wrote this probably 6-12 months prior to the most recent Presidential election. If you’re drawing parallels through one open, twitching eye and trying not to see the horror through the other because this is all a bit too close to reality for comfort, it’s worth remembering that Clay couldn’t even have known who the current President is at the time of writing. That is a nightmarish, dystopian coincidence.
Overall, I found this engaging and absolutely horrific, so stressful that I feel sick typing out this review. So basically, an effective horror story, though not one of my favourites this year. If you’re as anxious as I am about the current state of the western world, this might stress you out. That said, it might also bring you some comfort because of the shared empathy aspect, so I guess decide for yourself whether to dive in or keep it on your TBR for a little while, depending on your sensitivities.
Oh crap, I did talk about politics a bit after all, didn’t I? Oh well.
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
Leave a comment