Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

26 reviews

trashgobby's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia

Moderate: Gore, Medical content, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Abandonment, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Torture, Gaslighting, Ableism, Gun violence, and Drug use

emmehooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body horror, Misogyny, Blood, Physical abuse, Car accident, Sexism, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Kidnapping and Gun violence

gman4757's review

dark emotional funny hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Body horror, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

bites_of_books's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is Chuck Tingle's first adult horror novel and I am very pleasantly surprised! We follow Rose Darling, a young woman who is starting to notice that things in her very religious town aren't all that they seem but also that not everything she thought about herself aligns with said community. Her town is known for housing a 100% success conversion camp for queer youth and she hasn't thought twice about this until she starts feeling a certain way about another young woman in her school. Her therapist and parents are incredibly supportive so she's pretty sure she'll be able to figure things out, except her own curiosity is starting to peel back at the given truths around her until she finds.... way more than she expected to find... 

A true horror book that starts a bit slow but escalates to an ending that was deeply satisfying. I did almost wish for it to be multi-POV so that I could see things from the other character's perspectives as well, I'm super curious about their lives! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Car accident, Death, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Vomit, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, and Religious bigotry

eeriekeri's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, and Child abuse

Moderate: Body horror, Murder, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Torture, and Homophobia

Minor: Kidnapping and Confinement

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

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I have so many thoughts about this book; I’m having trouble collecting them for presentation in a way that makes sense, and doesn’t just sound like manic, incoherent rambling.

Having been raised Evangelical, this hit particularly close to home, especially in the way that it depicts the type of psychological conditioning and manipulation employed by the Church as a means of control.

For instance, the genuine fear and distrust of one’s own thoughts and natural impulses; the constant sense of being surveilled by some unseen entity, be it God or Satan (who is always on the prowl for an opening to possess your soul); the looming threat of eternal damnation; the discouragement of curiosity for the sake of remaining ignorant and dependent on faith; etc.

This book does such a good job of portraying the slow, unsettling experience of beginning to notice how the things around you—that you’ve accepted as normal your entire life—suddenly seem wrong, ridiculous, or at worst, downright sinister. It also addresses the various ways someone who grew up in the church, then left it, might grapple with a) their relationship with God/faith, and b) their guilt over their involvement with the Church at all. (It reminds me of that “I’m sorry for the things I said as an Evangelical teenager” photo that went viral.)

Most importantly, this is a book about regaining one’s autonomy and sense of self. I LOVED that about it.

But while I enjoy stories that hold up a mirror to my own trauma because I find them validating, I also recognize that this book depicts a horror that some people have actually lived: conversion therapy camp. So I understand if that’s just too much for some folks. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Drug use, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, and Kidnapping

_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

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