Oh, I really like this. A little predictable in spots, but still a great, creepy read.
Thank you very much to Tor and NetGalley for the ARC!

Camp Damascus was a wonderful novel of horror, and truth. With the very real horror of conversion camps, it really allows you to connect with the book as you read it.

My favorite aspect of CAMP DAMASCUS was the way that Rose retained her faith; I would totally use the Gospel of Rose as a life choices touchstone.

I enjoyed every minute of this. Five stars, no notes. Extra props for neurodivergent protagonist. I'd have loved for it to be longer!

I was so excited to get an arc of this book!!

Unfortunately maybe Chuck should stick to adult books. This read like juvenile fiction and not YA. The story was somehow so boring until 70% thru where it all started going warp speed. I'm mad the cult stuff wasn't mentioned more.

Maybe my coworker expectations were too high because a lot of folks are loving this🤷🏻‍♀️

So happy to have gotten an egalley from NetGalley for this title. I'm a big fan of Chuck Tingle as an internet personality but have never read any of his other works. Camp Damascus is a wonderful debut as a more "serious" horror work. As a lesbian adult woman who has dealt with serious religious trauma, this book really resonated. All of Tingle's characters are wonderfully fleshed out with realistic reactions and motivations. I often get concerned about men writing women lead characters but this was lovely.
Sort of a combination coming of age and coming out novel, but leans more adult with graphic depictions of gore and violence. If you're sensitive to gore/violence or religious themes I would avoid but I would recommend it to all other audiences from young adult to adult.
Looking forward to more works in this vein from Chuck Tingle!

I'm not even surprised how much I enjoyed this book and I think a huge part of it was that in all of Chuck Tingle's work that I have read so far- no matter how wacky and ridiculous- there's a sense that he genuinely cares about the representation in his stories and the messages he sends with his characters, the stories just come across as really genuine and Camp Damascus is no exception. I loved Rose as a character and seeing her grow and develop and learn how to accept herself was really heartwarming and at times touching. The story is fast paced and despite the fact that the plot was fairly predictable, it was enjoyable to read and impossible to put down.

3.5 stars


This was such a fun outing from an author who is already an icon lol. I was really excited to finally read Chuck Tingle's first traditionally-published novel, and it did not disappoint. The book revolves around themes of queerness & religious trauma through a horror lens. And what a delight that the main character was also autistic!

I feel like the way the themes were expressed was a little heavy-handed at times, and the characters and relationships weren't as well-developed as I'd have liked, but I still had a great time reading this. The horror elements were compelling and original, and literally made me say "ew????" out loud. Def recommend for those looking for a novel dealing with the trauma of queerness in Christianity, horror lovers or otherwise. I'll definitely be picking up the author's future horror work.

This was my first Tingle book, and if he writes more horror it won’t be my last. I thought the twist on the conversion camp was interesting and unique.

Thank you so much to @tornightfire for providing me with this arc!!

Jesus fucking christ this book was good. Chuck Tingle found himself a new fan. This book unveiled religious trauma i didnt even know i had. The story was beautiful, the character development was thoughtful. I binge read the second half of this book i just couldn’t stop. Campy and glorious!

4.5⭐️

Camp Damascus was a book I was very excited for. I requested it as soon as I saw it was available. I’m so glad I did, because I loved it.

The concept of this story is so interesting to me. Chuck Tingle is known for his creative titles, and he definitely put that into this story as well. It was a serious story, but Chuck’s personality still shown through. It was one of the more unique stories I’ve read in a long time.

Camp Damascus is a famous gay conversion camp in Neverton, run by the local church, Kingdom of the Pine. It’s unique because it boasts a 100% success rate. Rose Darling is the poster child for Kingdom of the Pine: she’s pious, she respects her parents, and she loves her church. When weird things start happening to Rose, her curiosity gets the better of her and she starts researching, and what she finds is terrifying.

The conversion camp boasts a 100% success rate because they use alternative means to convert queer kids. It’s no surprise that Christian fascists are complete hypocrites.

This story is full of surprises, and I will leave those for you to find out for yourself. It’s a cathartic story for those with religious trauma, but be aware it also may be triggering.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the chance to read this advanced review copy.

CW: vomit, religious bigotry, gore, torture, death, fire, car accident, homophobia, medical content, abandonment, blood

CAMP DAMASCUS is a sweet, earnest hug for queers and "weirdos" AND a scorching rebuke of intolerance/persecution. This book contains genuine horror, but the magic is in how it also remains a joyous celebration of (and for) Outsiders everywhere. Love is real! So is Chuck Tingle's talent.

I got an ARC of this book.

There is a lot to like about this book. The MC is autistic and a realistic autistic character. The way it manifests for her is her thinking patterns, her stimming, her need to know things. Very similar ways to my autism appears. The first clue that things just aren’t right with her parents is the way they act around her stimming. The people who love her, love her stims. It was a way of clearly seeing who was and was not ok in her world. It was not subtle either.

The demon aspect was really cool. It is not mentioned in the book description, so it was extra surprising (not that I read the description until now. I just saw Tingle and knew I needed it. I am a buckaroo after all). The way that everything came together to make something that is already abusive and horrific even more abusive and horrific was fascinating. Some elements didn’t work as well as others to make everything cohesive, but it was a bit wild.

That being said, this book felt like it dragged. It didn’t have a ton of emotions or really any character growth outside of Rose getting her memory back and becoming herself again. None of the other characters grew. The bad guys were clearly bad. The good guys were clearly good. There was no grey. There was no 3D characters. It was all pretty point blank. A lot of horror is this black and white, but it is worth mentioning. The horror aspects were more what people were capable of, than the supernatural bits that were involved. So solid base, but slow going.

Overall, not the worst horror I have read. It is not the best either. Pretty solid middle horror. It was amazing to see another side of Tingle. As a buckaroo, I have seen him prove love is real. Now I have seen him show the dark side of love and how much more terrifying it is when someone who claims to love you tries to “help” you by erasing you.

In the interest of letting other people have as good of an experience as I had with this book, I'm not going to get into the plot at all, because there were a lot of curveballs that could be easily spoiled and that are a lot more fun to find on your own. I think it's enough to say that those of us who grew up around fundamentalist Christian churches will find a lot to recognize about the culture and environment the protagonist is in here, and find a whole lot of satisfaction in where this book goes.

The prose in this book is a little stiff: There are a unnecessary and over-emphatic adverbs (the "'I hate you!' he shouted, angrily" type problem) and other really blunt descriptions of actions or emotions in ways that come across as kind of simplistic and overstated. But while that approach bothered me a lot in the setup, particularly where I was getting to know the characters, it works shockingly well when it comes to the book's horror elements, where unnerving and terrifying things are described in the most basic and straightforward ways, without any attempt to dress them up, and it just makes them more unnerving. Chuck Tingle has a real talent for creepy imagery that I would not have suspected.

But I think what's likely to make this a hit with the Tumblr crowd is just how uncompromising it is about some of the hypocrisy behind the urge to control other people's bodies and brains at any cost, and to justify it as something God wants. The mythos in this book is pretty horrifying, but there's a sense of cosmic justice behind it all that makes it satisfying to read, and a lot of empathy that jibes extremely well with Chuck Tingle's obvious sympathy for people's bodily autonomy and respect for the importance of consent, not to mention the need to see other people as people rather than projects. This was a fairly breathless read for me — easy to tear through because of that very simple prose, but also an "Oh God, then what?" style horror story where you just want to know whether the people you care about make it out intact.

Thank you NetGalley, Tor Nightfire, and Chuck Tingle for the advanced copy of Camp Damascus in exchange for my honest review!

I thought this was such an interesting and *unique* concept! I don't want to spoil too much because it took me a hot minute to figure out what was going on but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

I was a little worried about whether there would be graphic content pertaining to conversion therapy but found for the most part that wasn't the case. Regardless, if that topic is a difficult one for you, please proceed with caution.

The ending felt a *tad* rushed, but I'm starting to see that might just be a horror genre thing.

Chuck Tingle has long been one of my favorite people. From his early days of writing Tinglers, to the Hugo Awards, podcasts, and social media stardom he's been a joy to follow. I can also confidently say, after his forays into fantasy and horror, he is one of my favorite authors. CAMP DAMASCUS just solidified that. If only he was doing a signing near Baltimore!

CAMP DAMASCUS is focused upon Rose, a girl growing up near the gay conversion camp in rural Montana. Rose has had a normal life, or as normal as it can be when you're being raised by the Kingdom of Pine fundamentalist Christians. She loves God, learning scientific facts, and perhaps a certain girl a little bit too much... Then a mysterious figure starts showing up, and she's coughing up flies. What's going on?

CAMP DAMASCUS is horror, sheer brilliant horror. It's a spine-tingling read with a queer, autistic protagonist who is not defined by those aspects of her - but certainly doesn't deny or play down either. It's a book that is funny at times, horrific at others, but always and forever thrilling to read. I can't really call this a debut novel since Chuck Tingle has been writing for well-over a decade at this point - but as a mainstream debut, the power of this book can't be beat.

I was thrilled to have Chuck join the ranks of the horror writers with STRAIGHT, and I am even more thrilled now for him to officially be breaking out into bookstores everywhere with CAMP DAMASCUS. Get this book, and join this trot - CAMP DAMASCUS is a chilling read that above all else proves LOVE IS REAL.

A fun, fast horror read, with relevant but not overwhelming gruesome bits.

Probably more toward 3.5 stars.

I'm so excited for Chuck Tingle. After following his hilarious erotica titles for the last few years, I couldn't wait to read his first "mainstream" novel. The fact that it falls in the horror genre was the cherry on the cake. While I wasn't fully blown away by this story (I wanted to spend more time IN the horrid conversion camp as opposed to on the outside--personal opinion) there was some amazing imagery! The demons are well crafted with just enough quirk to qualify them as unique to the story. It definitely reads like a b-horror movie and I would recommend it to anyone who needs a little knock on all the crazy religious fervor that exists, shockingly, even today.

I breathed in relief as I finished this one. And while it has a lot of heavy, anger-inducing characters and elements, it also has this breezy mindset to it. CAMP DAMASCUS is everything I could ask for in a book that blends together gay horror and religious horror. Chuck Tingle is shining a light on this slithery, slimy world of Evangelical Christo-fascists, and especially in a way of their views and treatment of Queer people. It was hard to read at times, but then I felt empowered a lot, too. There are so many relatable thoughts that our main character has and I just felt such a connection. Some moments are so tense I wasn't sure if I was even *allowed* to breathe. Lots of great imagery at work and some of the body horror is off the charts.

And I have always enjoyed the ultra-weird, erotic, and out of control stories Tingle has put out over the years. But this story... this writing... it is on a completely new level. Tingle's got chops that exceed his creative imagination to shock and tantalize. You might have a difficult time accepting it is, in fact, the same author, but I think there are so many moments where the "Tingle" shines through in his writing.

It made me nervous. It made me angry. It freaked me out at times. I loved it.

What an incredible debut horror novel from Chuck Tingle! Conversion camp horror where demons aren't just in your head? A wild ride from start to finish and a great showcase of what Tingle can do!