Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

25 reviews

rhaydragon's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Violence, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Child death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Stalking, Sexism, Ableism, Animal death, and Outing

Minor: Domestic abuse

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

m_petranoff's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

An interesting premise with insight into the psychology of religious groups, I felt the book was a little weak in its ending and general pacing. I was somewhat disappointed, however, I think this book could be a favorite for someone other than me, and for that I'm glad it exists. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism

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

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

janewa's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Violence, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Medical content, Car accident, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Ableism and Cursing

solarwitchbooks's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Gore

Moderate: Ableism

blacksphinx's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

If you have ever heard the good Dr. Chuck Tingle shout LOVE IS REAL and thought to yourself, "what the heck is that all about?!", this book is your answer.

This is the most hopeful, love-filled horror novel I have read yet. It's also extremely gruesome with some eye-watering descriptions of torture and gore. The fact that he can balance these things is impressive, and I think this is a  shoo-in for next year's Stoker ballot. Our first-person narrator is a joy to be in the headspace of, with an extremely authentic and interesting voice. Publish more books with autistic protagonists! 

However, the book isn't perfect. I think it's main flaw is its brutally short length. Characters make serious emotional and philosophical changes that gave me whiplash because they happened so quickly. I think the narrative needed some more room to breathe. I also wish we got more time with our antagonists

you literally only meet one of them in the same chapter they are brutally torn apart, and I felt almost nothing about them because they were just a cardboard cutout to be knocked down.

That doesn't stop it from being a fun romp, and if you've ever wanted to watch hateful homophobic Christians get some comeuppance while the Doom Eternal soundtrack blares, this is your book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Religious bigotry, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Car accident, Medical content, and Vomit

Minor: Gun violence and Ableism

keen's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Death

Minor: Ableism, Confinement, and Kidnapping