Reviews tagging 'Death'

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

89 reviews

trashkingmax's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Car accident, Religious bigotry, Vomit, and Homophobia

Moderate: Violence, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Drug use, Cursing, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Stalking

jessicadoom's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Going into this, I knew I was going to likely compare it to the movie They/Them just because they both center around conversion therapy in a horror landscape. And, unfortunately, that comparison left me wanting more.

I wouldn't say the book was bad in any way. The story was intriguing and new, but it definitely could have been developed more. It either needed to be shorter and focus maybe on just the retribution act, or be longer and flesh out some of the details more.

Overall, it was all right. Could have used a bit more terror, and maybe a bit less Jesus, but still all right.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Drug use

insects

vyralvyris's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

Such a fun book, really fun view on what is and is not a sin to the eyes of demons and people.  Always love a cult story.  The only thing keeping it front a 5 is the pacing is a bit of a drag at the beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Kidnapping

Minor: Deadnaming, Car accident, Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Gun violence

If you don't like bugs in horror, I wouldn't fully recommend. It isn't super graphic, but if insects in people is a trigger, fully do not recommend reading this however good it is.

ella_babin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Child abuse, Car accident, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, and Homophobia

aceofknaves88's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Lesbophobia, Car accident, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Death

raneyak's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Religious bigotry, Death, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, and Lesbophobia

badam868'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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Gore, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Torture, Car accident, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Confinement

menderash's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I've been looking forward to this book since it was announced! I'm a big buckaroo for Tingle's tinglers, but also a die hard horror fan, so this was an obvious pick. I loved the first person narration from the perspective of an autistic person (as written by an autistic author!), the straightforward pragmatism brought the supernatural horrors into a very stark light, very much highlighted the gruesomeness. The plot was a fresh twist on an underutilized real life horror with a very interesting delivery. My only caveat that prevents this from getting a full five stars is that the fast pace felt TOO fast. Part of it was warranted by having such an efficient protagonist, but I felt like we weren't given enough time to sit with a plot development or emotional revelation before the next one arrived, and it kind of spoiled the gravity. I think if this book was twice as long, or even a quarter longer, the pacing would be much improved.

All in all solid 4 outta 5. Tingle does it again! I wish he'd write longer books, though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Vomit, Death, Homophobia, Car accident, Religious bigotry, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Torture, and Sexism

snerp_reads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

Felt a little slow in the beginning, and a bit cliched, which made me struggle to finish it in a reasonable time. However, once I picked it back up and got to the last bit, I really enjoyed it. The concept and world building is interesting,

and makes me want to know more about the demons and their world, and just how the church obtained them in the first place.

I loved the incorporation of Rose's autism into the narrative of the story, and it was used in a way I've never seen in a novel before. The Rose biblical verses interspersed were also nice and added to the overall themes. 

All in all, I think it's a good YA novel, and if you like the YA genre, give it a read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Murder, Torture, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Abandonment, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Gaslighting, and Body horror

Minor: Gun violence and Death

anonymousse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gaslighting, Gore, Death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Blood