Open Your Eyes by Heather J. Fitt book review: One for Adolescence fans

Open Your Eyes by Heather J. Fitt: The review

If you happened to see Stephen Graham’s Adolescence on Netflix, there’s a good chance that you’ll also be interested in Open Your Eyes by Heather J. Fitt. Fitt’s dark, disturbing story that delves into the world of incels and extremism actually came first: this book, Heather’s first, was originally released back in 2022. But it’s as relevant as ever three years on, and if the themes of Adolescence struck a chord with you, this will too.

Open Your Eyes is the story of two main characters. There’s Frankie, a young woman working as a journalist at a local newspaper in Edinburgh. She’s been stuck on writing meaningless features for far too long, and after writing about International Women’s Day, her editor gives her the go-ahead to start covering more women’s rights content. It’s not long before she’s involved in things like equality marches — but it’s a world that isn’t free from danger.

The other side of the coin focuses on a teenager named Liam. When the book opens, we read about an upsetting situation where he’s been publicly humiliated by a girl he liked. It’s an event that changes the entire trajectory of his life: he loses all his friends, he barely goes to school, and instead he finds solace online with a group of men who, putting it lightly, believe women should be held accountable for their bad behaviour. Incels — extreme ones.

Frankie’s journalism takes her to writing about an increase in rapes and assaults across Edinburgh. We quickly learn that it’s Liam’s online group behind this: carrying out revenge and vengeance acts on women who have wronged them. Or simply, women they feel deserve it. It isn’t long before Frankie’s reporting catches their attention, and for Liam especially, Frankie becomes his number one target. I won’t say any more than that in terms of plot, but I imagine you can guess where things go from there.

This is a dark, unsettling read at times, painting a disturbing and unsavoury view of our modern world. Perhaps the reason why it’s so troubling to read is because we know it’s steeped in reality: the events of Open Your Eyes may be fictional, but we know that similar actions and atrocities happen every day. It’s an easy book to get through thanks to Heather J. Fitt’s clear, concise writing style, and the characters she’s created are interesting to say the least.

I liked Frankie, although sometimes I found myself shaking my head at some of the rash decisions she made. At the same time, Open Your Eyes has an important message running through it: we shouldn’t put our lives on hold, or stop doing the things we want to do, because we’re living in fear. It’s a message that’s delivered through every action that Frankie takes. Her boyfriend, Todd, acts as the antithesis to this, frequently going up against Frankie, telling her to stop writing her ‘feminist’ stories in order to keep herself safe. While some of Todd’s actions are reasonable, he’s also an abhorrent character, written in a remarkably unlikeable way.

Then there’s Liam, who is perhaps written a little too sympathetically at times. It’s impossible to see and understand his viewpoint, and I can’t imagine Fitt ever intended us to. While the humiliation from his school friends is a little upsetting, any sympathy you had for him will quickly dissipate as Open Your Eyes progresses. You’ll be screaming at the pages for something to give, for something or someone to get through to him and change the reckless path he finds himself on.

I wish that there was at least one redeeming male character in Open Your Eyes, but there’s not, which doubles down on the message that all men are bad. I hate that message, and I don’t know if that’s a conscious decision made here by Fitt, but the story would have really benefitted from some extra male presence, be it a brother, a work colleague or a friend, who could have acted in a supportive, positive role. There is one, a police officer helping Frankie, but he’s a problematic character in his own right. I won’t go into it: I’ll leave it for you to make your mind up about him.

Regardless, Open Your Eyes is the type of book that you cannot help but think about long after you’ve finished reading. Its themes will stick with you for a long time, for better or worse, and it’s a very interesting starting point for discussions not just about feminism and the so-called incel culture, but also about internet trolling and the pervasive nature of being ‘always online’. Huge props need to be given to Heather J. Fitt for creating such a thought-provoking debut novel — and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Thanks to Love Books Tours for supplying me with a digital copy of Open Your Eyes. I also purchased my own paperback copy.