Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

46 reviews

_meeg's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Body horror, Biphobia, Physical abuse, Stalking, Car accident, Child abuse, Abandonment, Child death, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Grief, Blood, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Moderate: Confinement

chrobin's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Some nice lighthearted Christian/cult queer revenge fantasy with some good body horror moments - that’s a pretty unique genre! Excellent concept, pulpy one dimensional delivery, but I think that’s what they’re going for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Self harm, Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Violence, and Vomit

cosmopsis's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Body horror, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Violence, and Homophobia

Moderate: Drug use and Injury/Injury detail

twiller's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

This book is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, fucking LOVE Rose Darling she is the character of all time she has so much personality and I love just existing in her head for a lil while. I’m not autistic specifically but am neurodivergent and she’s one of my fav portrayals of neurodivergence maybe ever; Chuck Tingle KILLED IT w/ her. I also find Chuck Tingle’s writing super interesting in general, the first person present combined with blunt descriptions of emotion the skirt the line of the show-don’t-tell “rule” (something which Chuck Tingle openly disregards anyway) is rly interesting. On the other hand, I feel the body language in this book is severely lacking. I rly love the dialogue but the complete lack of character movement to accompany is almost distracting. It makes it hard to rly get a feel for these characters, especially the ones that are introduced later, which sucks.

I’m also not obsessed with the ending. There’s certainly a level of catharsis to it but I feel like “and then all the BIG MEANIE ASSHOLES got fucking YOINKED and DIED and WENT TO HELL” is a lil,,, simplistic to say the least. I felt like Smith n the pastor guy actually got some decent depth in the last few chapters, showing how they rly do think they are being compassionate, in their own twisted ways. Perhaps I was just expecting this book to be smth it isn’t, but I thought the ending would be much more humanist and love-focused (as Tingle’s work tends to be), maybe even showing the perpetrators some of the compassion they refused to show their victims. Not a terrible ending, but not rly what I specifically was looking for

So yeah, mixed bag. That being said, I still think it’s an interesting read and I would generally recommend it on the strength of its unique concepts alone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Violence, Blood, Body horror, and Child abuse

Moderate: Ableism

bruisedtigers's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

An easy read, very fun and surprisingly balanced in what its doing with the religious aspect. This could've been a lot more trope-ridden or preachy (ha, ha) in that regard, but instead there's deliberate effort to depict some nuance involved. I appreciated that a lot. The second half, which is more action, isn't as fun as the creeping mystery of the beginning, but it's still enjoyable. Lots of great spooky imagery and great concepts for what's usually well-trodden horror ground. The charming characters really elevate it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Outing, Child abuse, and Forced institutionalization

dealingwithdragons's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Outing, Child death, Religious bigotry, Violence, Murder, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Medical content, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Blood, Child abuse, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Ableism and Abandonment

thebearnest's review

dark inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Confinement

jaedia's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Ableism, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

katietregs's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I loved this book. It really helped me take a look back at my own religious trauma, and I wish I had a book like this when I was in high school. I did feel like the end felt a little rushed.

I was so excited for Rose to reunite with Willow and then we didn’t really get to see them spend any time together. And we didn’t see Saul reunite with his partner.

But once again, Chuck Tingle reminds us that loving each other should always be the end goal, and loving someone by trying to change them is never the way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Homophobia, Body horror, Murder, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Medical content, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

No graphic sexual content

throwback682's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Blood, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Torture, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Vomit, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

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