Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for the eARC.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle starts in a completely innocuous way. A beautiful, sunny day. Kids hanging out at the water...

But there's something off. And Tingle does such a great job of making moments that should be wholesome something disturbing and anxiety-inducing.

It's some powerhouse writing that leads to genuine terror as the books progress with the story of Rose Darling, a devout 20 year old, realizing there's something mething going on in the small town of Neverton.

Okay, I’m on the fence with this book. The first 45% of the book was promising, but afterwards it fell short.

I’ll start with what I liked. I really like that the author made the main character autistic. It’s cool to see her thought process throughout the story. I also like that the MC is a lesbian. It’s always nice to see characters that others can relate to. I also liked the dynamic between Rose and Saul.

The plot of Camp Damascas seems promising. A story based upon a Christian Conversion Camp?? Yes please.

Anything to go against the radical Christian Church is for me. I do not believe in organized religion so it was nice to see the church deemed as morally wrong. I know some readers will feel offended by this book but it shows an accurate image of the absolute ridiculous, radical beliefs of the Christian church/ religion.

The author also threw in some creepy creatures that brought fun horror elements to the story.

Unfortunately those are the only shining points I can think of. Other characters in the story seem like they were placed there just to move the plot along.

I also found it odd that the first half of the story had a lot of details, plot building, creepiness etc, but the second half felt rushed. One example being the relationship between Rose and Willow. After Rose “comes to” her senses she meets with Willow in an old bookstore where they first met and all it takes is a simple conversation for Willow to embrace Rose and fall back in love with her despite a good span of time between their time at Camp Damascas and present day events. It doesn’t feel realistic.

Another key point where I felt like the story was rushed is when Rose has her spiritual awakening and decides to “denounce” her family’s Christian beliefs. There wasn’t much explanation or detail around her change of heart which is important considering Christianity was her entire life.

One other thing I want to point out are the grammatical issues. The author uses A LOT of adverbs. I checked my Kindle and the author uses “suddenly” 64 times. A lot of adverbs cause congestion a good story and can take the reader out of a good reading flow. The author also used other words often that were noticeable like “caustic” For me this came off as lazy writing.

I wouldn’t say this is a bad book, but it needs an edit.

Dr. Chuck Tingle pounds us buckaroos in the butt with religious trauma & homophobia... and I'm here for it!

I will say some of the metaphor is pretty on the nose in a way I'd expect more from YA than adult horror, but still, it was heart felt and effective. This is gross, poignant, and sadly, relevant for our current moment. And as someone who grew up in a fundie, I can tell you that the portrayal of that way of thinking is pretty spot on. All in all, exciting to see an author branch out successfully from their roots

I absolutely loved this one. I knew Chuck Tingle could write but I was completely blown away but his absurdist horror adventure quest. Sign me up for more.

Camp Damascus is a book I knew was going to be utterly terrifying from the moment I read the blurb and first sample chapter. The reason why? It's about a conversion camp for gay kids with a one hundred percent success rate. The silent screaming the first chapter induced was enough to make me hesitate to read it. This would be because it seemed Camp Damascus would be one of the rare horror works that I actually found scary instead of gross. (Spoiler: It was both! It was actually scary, and actually very gross!)

Our Protagonist is a young autistic woman named Rose Darling. (Spoiler: as a theme, there are some shout-outs and references to Peter Pan worked in. I may or may not have some ideas on what the underpinning reasoning was.) She lives with her parents and belongs to a conservative Protestant denomination that runs a conversion camp for gay and lesbian kids. Rose absolutely believes in the "mission" of her church up until an outing with a friend that turns out to have been a date. (No she did not realize it was a date. Most of my terror early on was based on, "Oh no she's asexual and her parents think she's a lesbian so they're going to send her to the camp and Bad Things Will Happen." It was so much worse than that. So much worse.) Which Rose finds out after the fact when her parents ask her how her "date" went. This leads to some awkward, earnest conversation on the importance of making a family and getting married, and then some increasingly bizarre behavior from both of her parents.

This leads to Rose questioning just about everything about her current reality and perception of the same. She ends up discovering a great deal about herself, and also about what lies behind the conversion camp's one hundred percent success rate. (It is something that's extremely horrifying! I suspected or was clued in on what was going on fairly early but this did not take away from the tension or the sense of horror. Tingle works in some twists I hadn't expected, and twists that just add to the sense of dread. The fridge horror was backed deep into that refrigerator. Lurking like soup you forgot about and is now a very strange color due to bacteria and mold.)

Camp Damascus has a lot of tension in the narrative. There were points where I very much had my teeth clenched from anxiety. There are some moments of unreality that mix in with the supernatural/fantasy/science fiction aspects of the plot, which heightened my dread at moments when Rose was being gaslit by her father and her therapist. (There is so much gaslighting. I had so much secondhand anxiety from the gaslighting. It was very effective from a narrative perspective, but there was just. So. Much. Gaslighting.) Chuck Tingle does a great job at building these tensions and increasing the moments of unreality as Rose discovers what's going on behind what she's experiencing.

And on top of that, he also manages to sneak in aspects of found family and acceptance into the work. This is occasionally strangely heartwarming. (I do love me some found family.) The mystery and thriller aspects of the story are interesting and engaging, and Rose's journey to get to the bottom of the conspiracy she's surrounded by is well-plotted with lots of interesting twists and turns.

I reviewed this book for Booklist magazine to be published in a future issue, so I cannot write about it here. But you will see my review when it is published there.

Camp Damascus follows Rose, a young adult in Neverton, Montana where nearly everyone follows the teaching of a religious prophet. Within Neverton is Camp Damascus, the most effective gay conversion camp in the country.

Strange things begin to happen around Rose, and a edge-of-your-seat thrill ride begins.

It's hard to talk about this book without giving much away. There is so much packed into this story that is so fun to discover for yourself as you read.

What I can say is that this book is just SO inventive, scary, fun, and beautiful. It's hard to believe that this is Tingle's horror debut - it's really incredible.

Rose Darling is a paragon of faith, a reverent daughter to her parents and the Kingdom of the Pines church. She lives in a seemingly idyllic town of Neverton, Montana, home of Camp Damascus, the most successful gay conversion camp in the country. Their methods are mysterious, but the results speak for themselves. Rose attends high school parties that serve root beer and eschews secular media. She is definitely NOT falling for her new secular friend, Martina.

The plot of Camp Damascus draws the reader in with the same gravitational force as its namesake. While the body horror is starkly vivid, it is appropriate for young adult horror fans and beyond. The conflicts between Rose and her devout family are like the plucking of an overwrought guitar string. It is the horror movie soundtrack to real-life family rejection, religious homophobia, and scared straight sermons. Readers will root for Rose whose satisfying character arc propels the plot to an immensely cathartic conclusion.

Wow! I'm familiar with this author's previous work, and this quite an impressive pivot. Tons of fun while taking on the horrors of extremism in an altogether compassionate way, which is not surprising to those of us who follow Chuck on social media.

Camp Damascus was a fabulous book. It was a horror book that also takes on the horrors of the real world and those faced by people in the LGBTQ+ community. A gay conversion camp with "the most successful conversion rate," the kids who go in do not come out the same people. They also come out with a demon now tethered to them that keeps them from thinking "bad" thoughts. This book was so darn good, but also infuriating, because there are real conversion camps in this country. It was so poignant and so timely and just the perfect read.

Welcome to Camp Damascus, the most successful christian camp, where all your bodily sin’s including homosexuality can be cured permanently. Our methods work so well, your child won’t even remember coming here, nor will they have any recollection of their previous sinful desires. But if, god forbid,if any camper does have any recurring desires, we personally guarantee their own demons will keep them under control for the REST OF THEIR LIVES. Your satisfaction is a guarantee.

However, The Kingdom of the Pine Church never expected a camper quite like Neverton local Rose Darling, an on the spectrum, fact based and highly religious 20 year old girl.

As a "secular" girl myself, the first half of the novel was a slow start, with many religious references flying right over my head. I did not understand Rose's love of religion and found the Darling family a little weird. But as I got further into the book I truly began to appreciate the story and how texts can be used and manipulated for personal gain. I've grown up on the stories about how horrible Catholic education was for my father and his brothers, with all three boys finding unique ways to be uninvited back to school (including a streaking incident). The book really started to pick up for me halfway through and I could not put it down. I fell in love with Rose and Saul, their strange friendship and united goal. Rose's weird facts kept me hooked, and made me want to know more. Chuck Tingle created a wonderful LGBTQIA+ and Religious Horror novel filled with gory visceral body horror that will have you looking for the nearest garbage bin to throw up in thanks to the transmissions from the other side. I highly recommend enrolling yourself in Chuck Tingle's Camp Damascus this July!

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the opportunity to get an advanced readers copy, this book got me through a long hospital visit, and Rose being there too at the vending machines made me feel so much less alone.

Wow! What a ride! A fun, creepy, and empowering story that shows compassion for all of the characters--even for the villains.
This would be a great nominee for the Alex Awards.

What an interesting book! I didn’t know what to expect with the authors other books being so, well you know. But I found myself really enjoying this book. Ominous and satisfying.

An autistic lesbian teen discovers the horrific secrets of the ex-gay camp that dominates her small Montana community. An excellent fast-paced novel with humor and poetic justice served HOT.

Tingle knows his stuff. The neck-breaking demons and suchlike supernatural apparitions are not the most frightening part. That honor is reserved for the smiley-face gaslighting that our heroine Rose endures from her parents and the celebrity pastor of the town's prosperity-gospel church. Her family's homophobia stems from the same root as their manipulation or dismissal of her neurodivergence. It's all about alienating you from your body and mind so you can be brainwashed more easily. Very true to life.

I also appreciated how the camp survivors arrive at different perspectives on religion after getting clear of the cult. Whether reclaiming an inclusive Christianity or trusting in empirical investigation, they coexist respectfully and complement each other's strengths.

Even given that teens in Rose's church take two years off during high school for religious studies, she came across as a lot younger than 20.

This is my first time picking up one of the author's books, so I'm not sure how much his voice differs from here to there. No one gets pounded by anything, so the tone definitely differs. Tingle's experience writing definitely shines through, the pacing of this book is extremely well done. It has a driving force that keeps the plot moving forward and kept me pushing through as quick as I could.

The first half to 3/5ths of the book has this intensely ominous, dread filled energy that made my skin crawl. When we started transitioning from the what and why is this happening into the let's fix the problem stage of the book I do think it lost a little bit of the horror that the previous part had.

Rose and the rest of the cast have a lot of heart, Rose's autistic swag truly captivated me.

I sincerely hope this is a trend, I would really love to see some more non-Tinglers from the author. I do love seeing all of the titles that involve things getting pounded in the butt, but I would love to have a couple of these mixed in the catalog to see how his writing improves.

While I don't think this one is for everyone, a little bit of queer fear and religious trauma definitely adds a little bit to the horror that builds at the very beginning, this really worked for me. If it sounds even a little bit interesting, at just under 300 pages it's not too much of a commitment if you want to pick it up and give it a go.

Hoo boy, where do I start? I really like Chuck Tingle. I've actually read a few of his romance titles and enjoyed them. I follow him on social media and really enjoy what he has to say. As an autistic person, seeing him out in the world and creating what makes him happy delights me. I love to see other autistics win.

That being said, this book fundamentally did not work for me. The writing style felt clunky and lacked the stilted charm of Tingle's romance titles. The horror and suspense didn't work for me. I had to force myself to plod through this book. Little details like Rose calling her parents by their first names but also by "mom and dad" took me out of the narrative. I hate to say it because I'm a very "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all," person, but the writing was bad. This book felt like self-published middle grade.

I did genuinely enjoy the autism representation. Rose's facts that she shares through the story were my favorite part. I'll absolutely win trivia with some of those tidbits. That was one of the few parts of the novel that really worked for me. The religious aspects felt surface level. As someone with religious trauma who grew up in a fundamentalist environment, this feels like someone writing fanfiction about it, rather than addressing the traumas of religion.

At the end of the day, Chuck Tingle has a lot of fantastic ideas and a great heart. I want him to share his art with the world, but this book was not for me. As an autistic, queer, religious trauma survivor, this book should have worked for me. I am the target audience. The writing was so unpolished I couldn't finish the book. I'm sorry Chuck. I'm sure other buckaroos enjoy the book and maybe I'm just an outlier.

Holy shit. I thought this was a slow starter given its length, but when things go off it escalates quickly. I never read any of the author’s work before, I just thought the cover looked cool so I requested the ARC. Camp Damascus viscerally captures how fucked up aversion "therapy" is, how stultifying religion can be, and the difficulty of growing out of something which has defined your entire life.

Some reviews mention it reads like YA, which is true in the sense that it's the first person perspective of a (mentally, emotionally, forced into extended childhood) teenage girl in a cult.

<i>"I love Jesus, I really do, but Jesus would want me to be cool. He’d want Martina to think I’m cool."</i>

Rose has been indoctrinated her entire life, with very controlling parents in a siloed community. She has been emotionally abused by a member of her church LARPing as a therapist, and her autism has gone entirely undiagnosed. She's only had herself and an internet connection. Coupled with what else happened to her, she doesn't start out as the best narrator. But she gets better, which is the point.

<i>"That acknowledgment could arrive after several decades, or it could happen tonight, but the time will come. Eventually, I’ll have to fully contend with this simple fact: the love I was promised is conditional."</i>

The voice gradually matures as Rose becomes less of a puppet and more aware of the issues within her religion.

Some parts of this gave me strong Twilight flashbacks (my own fault for knowing too much). When Rose and her family go apeshit over their "naughty" spaghetti with extra garlic reminded me of Bella speed eating molten microwaved lasagna and a glass of milk, a singularly rancid combination. There's also a bit where Rose has a three part revelation somewhat similar to Bella's. Both have a lot of hot Google action (at least Rose gives us interesting factoids)

There are better comps. But I'm A Cheerleader. Event Horizon. Half-Life.

They should've <spoiler>livestreamed the showdown</spoiler>, I think at least one of them would have thought of it

My only gripe is that the description heavily implies this takes place at Camp Damascus, when we see very little of the camp itself. Then again, I think, in this case, “how things got this way” is a less interesting story than “what are you going to do about it?”

Ultimately, this was an entertaining and cathartic read. Frick Camp Damascus

The fact that Chuck Tingle, an enigmatic author who’s been known chiefly an internet meme for years, wrote a “serious” book is surprising. That this book was deftly written, that the story was compelling, the characters relatable, the horror and the heart both present in spades, is nothing short of shocking.

A horror story based on a fundamentalist gay conversion camp is something of a niche genre at this point. I can specifically think of at least three other titles that cover largely this same theme. And no wonder, so called “conversion therapy” is more terrifying than anything to be found in the pages of a Stephen King or Clive Barker novel. But Camp Damascus may do it better than any other book I’ve read. Without veering into spoiler territory, Mr. Tingle, whoever he really is, has a keen sense for what makes conversion therapy, and religious fundamentalism in general, scary. He uses this insight, and flowing prose to spin a very fine yarn from beginning to end.

This book grabbed me from the first scene and propelled me on to finish it as fast as I could. I was intrigued, I was scared, I was entertained, and I may have teared up once or twice. I would encourage anyone who likes horror fiction, or just simply good storytelling to pick up this title.

This book is wild. There is a level of ferocity in which I consume books that feel religious cult-y and conversion camp-y. But this one did something I haven’t seen before…

In this literary creation from Chuck Tingle, we have a world where literal demons represent as the manifestation of “unpure” thoughts… and for Rose, she is awakening to the truth, ripped from her in her god fearing little community of Kingdom of the Pine.

This book did a great job straddling the line of horror and faith. Taking something like the real life horrors of the existence of conversion therapy camps and adding in the visual horror as well as the existential horror of the converging the mortal and demonic evils. This book has a lot of heart and such a great path of self discovery for our protagonist, Rose. She is a teenager trying to maneuver through faith and love… and real monsters, human and supernatural.

It’s REALLY difficult to review this one without giving anything away, considering the book’s synopsis is intentionally vague…

This book kept me up at night. Rose was such a great character and I love her with my whole soul. Also, pretty wild that with all the supernatural type stuff going on, the church remains the scariest thing about this book. This one's for my religious trauma folks!