Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

40 reviews

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

kit666's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I am honestly shook that Chuck Tingle wrote this. His stories are already ridiculouly well written for such silly prompts and now this? I love it!

I loved the way autism is represented here. It's not positive or negative or Rose's only trait. It's just a part of her. Same with the queer representation. Being queer in a religious setting is already horror in the real world and I think Tingle has woven a fantastically horrific supernatural element into it. I would love to know more about the demons and hell and everything that goes on down there. Who do they serve? Is Camp Damascus the only camp of its kind? What's the history behind it all? Did the demon's get the campers families too? Did the other campers regain their memories? I'd love to read a sequel!
The parts with the flies were especially disgusting and horrific to me. Loved it! So disgusting! When they crawled out of Dr. Smith's tear ducts I had to rub my eyes to remind myself that it wasn't happening to me. 
I also loved the spin on hell being cold and demons being killed by fire. I'm sure it's been done lots of times, but it was a first for me and super interesting. 
The entire found family aspect was heartwarming. The bond between Willow and Rose still remaining after all this trauma and them not immediately going back to "before" when they met again was lovely. It draws you in, when something so human happens.

A lovely found family supernatural horror book. I loved it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Kidnapping and Murder

Minor: Drug use, Gore, Medical content, Confinement, Torture, Deadnaming, and Gun violence

emmahe's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Blood, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Death, Medical trauma, Gore, Violence, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia

greywolfheir's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Minor: Medical content, Drug use, and Gun violence

Bugs (specifically flies) are discussed in detail

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

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

Bugs

momogajo's review

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-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

5.0

I literally could not put this down. I read it in a day. This is my first Chuck Tingle book, and man, it was a good one. I don't know if it is that the antagonist was everything I hate (Prosperity Gospel, Homophobic, and Gaslighting Bad Parents/Church Congregation) or that the protagonist is everything I love in a Hero (a self-aware, de- and re-constructing, free thinking, queer woman), but I love this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Violence

rhiannonafternoon's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence

nixieba25f's review

challenging dark 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

4.75

Honestly I’m just ecstatic to read an autistic character who knows she’s autistic written by an autistic author. Even though my Way and Rose’s Way are very different, I still felt more at home in her head than I have been with any other character in my 25 years of voracious reading. And as a horror fan and queer person, I was compelled by the narrative and pleased at the avoidance of certain tropes (cough bury your gays cough). I definitely would have loved a more extended novel where I could spend more time falling in love with these characters and drawing out the tension, but Camp Damascus was a perfectly good snack-sized story.

Thank you Dr. Chuck for proving love once again!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Vomit, Ableism, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Torture, and Violence

mo345's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Death, Vomit, Confinement, Car accident, Homophobia, Medical content, Outing, Child abuse, and Gore