This book turns the despair and rejection of gay conversion into a satisfying revenge tale. We meet Rose, who is happy with the strictures of her upbringing, until weird things start happening that don’t make sense to her orderly, logical mind. As she uncovers what is going on, and what happened to her, she’s forced to confront buried parts of herself that she didn’t even remember were there. Recommended for anyone who isn’t squeamish and is currently deconstructing the faith they were raised in.

A horror novel about a gay conversion camp run by a sort of Christion/sort of cult organization. Um... yes please.

We start off getting to know Rose, a fervently devout Christian, who loves her friends, her family, her community and of course the good works her church does, especially saving sinners from themselves up at Camp Damascus the only gay conversion camp with a 100% success rate.
I honestly found Rose a bit irritating at first. She was so very... well.. I guess brainwashed into perfection.... and I guess that was the point. But as the story got moving, and it was revealed how Kingdom the Pines operated and what their secrets were, it made sense.
I also wouldn't call this strictly a hardcore horror novel- it was definitely creepy, but more YA/action/fun/a little scary, which I preferred, as I'm not a fan of ten pages of detailed disembowelments.

This book was a joy, even through the pain. I loved the horror of it, and the hope. It was so nice to see a queer, autistic protagonist too! Definitely a favorite of 2023.

Not so much a review as we were sent this book to prep for our Scarred for Life Podcast interview with Chuck Tingle. Loved the book and loved getting to chat with Chuck.

This is a story about our inner (and outer) demons.

It’s taken me forever to review this book because I honestly don’t know what to say. I like weird books, but this was on another level & I’m still not fully sure that I “get” it. The writing style was offputting for me personally, but that’s just a personal preference issue. I think if you enjoy religious horror & don’t need to understand the logistics behind things, this will work for you!

Thank you so much @netgalley & @tornightfire

Thank you so much @netgalley & @tornightfire for the eArc!

I really wanted to get to this one, as it seemed interesting. I have put this on my Christmas list in hopes that I will be able to check this out! This was requested when I first found out about NetGalley and I had requested so many ARCs that I could not get to all of them before they were archived. If I can find this somewhere for a reasonable price, I will try to get it if I don't receive this for Christmas!

This book is alot of telling instead of showing. It makes Rose's story bland and ininteresting. It felt like a gay reimagining of a clock work orange .

“Jesus would want me to be cool.”

Camp Damascus is a whirlwind of emotions. It starts off with a tone Grady Hendrix fans would love as we follow Rose, a religious teenager navigating her last year of high school.

But soon it takes a dark turn. The one thing that brings in a lot of money into her small town is a conversion camp boasting a 100% success rate.

I loved how this was written. It has a Twilight Zone feel to it where you know something is off but you don’t know what. Its initial cheery vibe felt immediately interrupted when you start to figure out exactly what’s going on and dismantle certain aspects as arose does. There’s no words for the heartbreak that comes with it.

The horror aspects were on point. The what behind it all was a unique addition supported by arguments that we unfortunately still hear today.

Fair warning- you don’t want to eat while reading certain parts of the book. But you do want to add it to you spooky season tbr.

I am familiar with Chuck Tingle as the author of parody erotica with hilarious titles, but I've never read anything by him before. I was intrigued with this crossover into the mainstream with a traditionally-published horror novel, but unfortunately the results as a whole were disappointing.

This social horror book deals with gay conversion therapy and religious fundamentalism, but after a promising start of intriguing body horror and a convincing setup of small-town religiosity, the book became too explanatory for my tastes. Mr. Tingle's book is a prime example of telling, not showing, and when it comes to horror and suspense I prefer more mystery and dread.

However, I was still entertained and can see how appealing this kind of story would be to many people (myself included). I appreciated how Mr. Tingle explored faith deconstruction by showing multiple angles (protagonists both losing faith entirely and retaining belief while letting go of harmful practices), and some of the imagery was gruesome and disturbing, which is always good for a quick thrill.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group, Tor Nightfire, and NetGalley for an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of this book in exchange for my honest review!

3.5 stars. Commentary is very good--I especially appreciate how the narrator had to uncover her queer feelings throughout the story. It went places I wasn't anticipating!

However, some of the narrative was very simplified. I'm not sure how any of the magic/demons/fantasy really works? And I'm not sure Tingle does either.

Overall, I'm glad I read it.

You can tell this is a Tingle book, but it was way scarier than I had prepared for! I read through about forty percent of the novel before it was too much for me to complete. I liked what I did read though. I can see patrons enjoying those who like horror and weird and I know it has circulated well at the library already. I hope that this is the start of a line of Tingle that we could purchase for fans as his Amazon hits are wild and have a cult following. I appreciate the change to something more mainstream from Tingle.

This was my first book by Chuck Tingle so I didn't really know what to expect from it. Somehow, I was still left disappointed. I wasn't a big fan of the writing, there was nothing particularly good about it and I found the characters pretty surface-level and boring. Also, there was this weird decision made in the writing that had our main character referring to her parents as "mom and dad" in one sentence and then referring to them with their actual names in the next. This bothered me so much, it was as if the author didn't want you to forget the parents' names.

The main thing I was looking forward to in this story was the conversion camp setting. Unfortunately, the camp didn't really come into play until maybe halfway in or a little over halfway into the book and it wasn't as big of a setting as I thought it was going to be. We didn't spend much time in the actual camp itself so that was a bummer for me.

While I should have known that this was going to be heavily religious-themed I didn't really expect it to be as heavy-handed as it was. It was so overly done that it seemed a bit unrealistic. But hey, maybe there are some extreme cases like this out there.

I also thought it was very odd that this reads VERY young adult but the main character is 20 years old. Although, she reads very young as well. I wouldn't have been able to tell you she was 20 years old with the way she is treated and talked to by her parents. (There is even one scene where her father takes her laptop away from her because she's researching too much??)

This one definitely was not for me!

This is a horrifying tale of religious trauma, body horror, conversation "therapy", and literally facing your demons. I couldn't put it down.

This was my first time reading a Chuck Tingle novel despite knowing about his more racier-titled books, and I enjoyed it for the most part. I'm still struggling with first-person narration, but that's a me thing. I thought the way the story played out was great, and the twist on the demons was good.

This is one of the best books I've read this year. We keep it in stock at the bookshop & I've sent copies to friends. It's my bookclub read. It's a great horror read. It's a great sort of coming of age novel--teens could certainly read it if they have any stomach for horror.

BOOK REVIEW TIME! I missed the book birthday of this fiery little gem of a book last week but the good news for YOU is that means CAMP DAMASCUS by @chucktingle is already out in the world for you to get your grubby little hands on!! Thank you to the author, @netgalley, and the publisher @tornightfire for the e-ARC.

This tale of extreme social horror starts out as Rose Darling navigates being a young adult in the small town of Neverton - cliff-jumping, relationships with friends, keeping her parents happy and doing it all in the name of God as a devout member of the Kingdom of the Pine. Soon she realizes her parents are trying to force an arranged relationship between her and her friend Isaiah which she has no interest in. Her autistic brain might process things differently but she is highly intelligent, has amassed a wealth of knowledge and has a sense of curiosity that she is warned by her therapist bleeds into the realm of hubris against God.

Rose wants to be a good soldier of her faith but can't stop seeing flashes of memory she can't understand involving a dark haired woman. Then she coughs up a sludge of mayflies at dinner one night and her parents clean it up like it is totally normal. When she starts seeing a pale, stringy-haired creature wearing khakis and a red polo with the name Pachid on their employee style name tag, her curiosity starts to rip into dangerous territory indeed...

🔥🔥🔥

I went into this one not knowing anything about it and that proved to be the right move. I will only tell you that I was horrified not only by the extreme measures this cult-like town takes to make their members walk the "straight and narrow" but by how much this story echoed real life when it comes to the fight for equality for LGBTQIA+ folks' basic right to live and love in the world as they are. Definitely check the content warnings for this before reading!

I flew through this story as there were so many good hint drops that just gave you a scrap of a puzzle piece that you really wanted to see come to fruition!! The subject matter is heavy but there is still some subtle humor. Check it out!

#booknerd #chucktingle #campdamascus #tornightfire #netgalley

Unexpected, so uniquely unsettling and a beautiful commentary on finding the ones who will love you as your whole self. I loved Mara Wilson's narration of the book.

The slow realization, the play of demons, the unstoppable raw emotions and so much more. The story pulled me in right away and drew me a dire picture of how forcing someone's belief under religion can look like (that itself is a terrifying tragedy). I thoroughly felt the palpable cult-ness of these 'brainwashing camps' and haunting reality that main protagonist was left to deal with. Highly recommend!

I didn’t know what to expect when I dove into this story, but boy did it surprise me numerous times! I thought the beginning was going in one direction and then it completely took another narrative and I loved every single minute of this wild ride. The terrifying moments were creepy AF and I absolutely loved the protagonist Rose, who stepped up and became the most badass final girl. Although the demons were incredibly scary, the scariest aspect for me was the Christian cult mentality from the beginning and the lengths this cult went to obliterate any queerness in someone. This is a very timely book seeing the climate surrounding queer people, and I love that this exists to show how wrong it is to try to “convert” queerness into straightness – no matter what.

I wasn’t aware of Chuck Tingle before this novel (maybe I’ve lived under a rock!) but I’m very happy to say that I’m a full-fledged buckaroo now and will look forward to anything else he puts out (no matter how far out it is!).

Check this book out if you love coming of age, creepy demons and insects, and a badass protagonist.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I can see why people do not want to go to camp. I never wanted to go to camp as a child, and even as a homosexual adult, I decided Camp Damascus, solidified this “undesire” for the rest of my life. Mind you, I will Air B&B, have a BBQ, but if anyone in a red polo or a counselor shows up, I am going to start knocking out some teeth. Chuck Tingle scorns your senses with true life horror in ways some may not understand until you read this book, or have a familiarity like, Rose, the MFC of Camp Damascus. The book contains horror, supernatural, ancient demons, LGBTQIA+, organized religion, what else can you ask for in a debut horror novel?
Chuck Tingle is imaginatively creative. If I could combine Willy Wonka and Stephen King into a writer after reading this book, you’d have this book. Each chapter led you to a new scene, theme, feeling, emotion, some of which the neurodivergent client did not understand herself. I found her representation impressive as it was overstated, but focused on stemming, and emotional understanding. She is Rose. She is a whole woman who is more than just representative adjectives. I found her character compelling and highly intelligent; she never doubted herself or fully relied on faith or science. Though of the way she was in Montana, encapsulated in one of the most religiously sought out conversion therapy camps in the world.
The elements of horror churned in your stomach like clotted cream. The imagery Chuck designed of the horrors was easily visionable and enough to make you hear more than crickets at night. Overall, Chuck Tingle is a great writer. One of the most impressive elements in this book alone is character development. Rose, her father, Willow, Dr. Smith, and even her mother. You felt their tonality, expressions, and mood. I am absolutely impressed and look forward to more reads by Chuck Tingle.
Love is real.
Thank you Tor Publishing (my fav. Group) for this wonderful book & Caroline for sending me this ARC. It was greatly appreciated and a wonderful read.