Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Camp Damascus

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

145 reviews

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

A call to love in the face of self-righteousness and wilful ignorance, this book is horrifying, entertaining, and incredibly loving to those who need it.

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l0v3lu's review against another edition

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dark hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

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emstring's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.5

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aceofknaves88's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

When I heard a while back on a Stephen King podcast I listen to that Chuck Tingle was the guest I was surprised. The guy who, for about a decade, has been something of an online celebrity and joke for writing bizarre gay erotica with titles like "Pounded In The Butt By My Book 'Pounded In The Butt By My Own Butt'" did not seem like a guy who had a lot to say about King to me.

Boy was I wrong. And ol' Chuck had a lot of interesting things to say about horror in general and about queer culture.

Enter his 2022 debut horror novel, "Camp Damascus", a riveting, horrifying book about religious trauma, bigotry, neuro-divergence, found family, gay conversion camp and demons.

Great horror, great social commentary, and a main character you are behind and root for all the way.

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raneyak's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! That being said, I really wish it slowed down and spent more time on the details. I would have liked to see more internal struggle when

Rose gets her memory back and loses faith in religion

rather than the abrupt shift we see. Additionally, there are many sci-fi elements that I would have loved to learn about in more detail. For example:

How did the mayfly testing work? How long has it been going on? What was the origin of the camp? How did they trap the demons in the first place? Etc.

Overall a good read for those interested in the complicated intersection between religion and the queer community.

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trashgobby's review against another edition

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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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midnightgremlin's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? No

4.0

This book delves into the religious trauma and horrors that queer individuals in North America may face as well as what people are willing to do to "fix" what is not broken. Losing one's community, family and friendships for daring to love someone of the same gender as yourself.
I found the autism representation in this book to be well done and integrated in a way so that readers who do not fall on the spectrum or personally know individuals who fall on the spectrum can relate.

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