Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

52 reviews

brioches22's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful reflective fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexism, Outing, Cursing, Confinement, Car accident, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Homophobia

laboromi's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Car accident, Gaslighting, Stalking, and Body horror

Minor: Grief, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, and Alcohol

emizulu's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

I loved this book. Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and fulfilling. Interesting world building, at just the kind of pace that lets you put together a few of the background pieces yourself. Would definitely recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Torture, Violence, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Confinement, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, Biphobia, Dysphoria, Child abuse, Car accident, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

errie's review against another edition

dark

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Body horror, Homophobia, Violence, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Torture

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Body horror, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Confinement, Child death, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Car accident and Fire/Fire injury

princess_marie's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Body horror

Moderate: Child death, Religious bigotry, and Blood

Minor: Abandonment and Car accident

pacifickat's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.5

*full review coming...*

"Something is wrong in Neverton, and that something isn't me." -Rose

"Don't worry, Rose. I've got you. I've always got you." -Dad

"Let there be Rose." -Rose

Content Warnings:

Religious abuse,

Demonic possession, Demons, Hell, Eternal conscious torment,

Guilt, Shame, Fear, Thought stopping, Brainwashing, Cults and cult ideologies, Gay conversion therapy, Confinement, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Blood, Death, Homophobia, Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Body horror, Toxic relationships, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Car accident, Child abuse, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Drug use, Amnesia and memory loss

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Drug use, Grief, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Blood, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Gore, and Vomit

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Alcohol

Religious abuse,

demonic possession, demons, hell, eternal conscious torment

, guilt, shame, fear, thought stopping, brainwashing, cults, gay conversion therapy, gay conversion camps

tifftastic87's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

Camp Damascus lies in the forest of Neverton, Montana. The camp boasts a 100% success rate at making it's graduates "Love Right" in that it is a gay conversion camp. But something with the camp, beyond the ethics and morality, is just not right. 

I haven't expanded on the brief synopsis from the book because I feel like the discovery of the story itself is part of the experience. While reading this in the beginning I feel like if you liked "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" but as you've aged want it to be less about a man and his manic pixie dream girl, this book kind of does that. But it's better because there is a cult, and supernatural elements, and a discussion of religion and how it has been used to control people. I do think the ending was a little abrupt. The final action sequence was a little easy to predict and then it kind of just ended. I was ok with the scene itself, I just wanted a little more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Gore, Gaslighting, and Fire/Fire injury

machewson's review against another edition

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

5.0

Wow!  I consider myself to be a fairly slow reader, but I started and finished this book in one day.  It's not particularly long and I could not put it down.  The journey we go on in this book of self acceptance and love is absolutely incredible.  If you only read one book this year or even this decade make it this one.  I don't want to get into any spoilers, but if you are a queer person I can't recommend this book highly enough.  It feels cathartic, loving and incredible from start to finish.  The mystery and suspense absolutely keep you glued to this book until the last sentence.  I know this is rambling but my god this book has me feeling all kinds of ways.  This is very easily going in my top five all time reads.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, Biphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, Car accident, Confinement, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Murder

hexentart's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

*internal screaming*

Absolutely. Horrifying. Evil.

Oh, and demons too.

A gripping story of an evil cult masquerading as a church, the torture and abuse of young queer folk in the name of salvation, and
the power of love.

This book was A LOT and definitely not an easy read (mind your squicks), but it was all worth it. 

The ending was simply poetic and very satisfying. 😏

This was my first read of this author, but I'll definitely be looking into their other horror novels as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Violence, Torture, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Stalking, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Slavery, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Car accident