Great atmospheric writing that kept me full of intrigue and suspense! Perfect for readers who enjoy horror stories with vivid imagery. The book excellently uses horror metaphors to explore religious persecution of queer communities.

"Camp Damascus" by Chuck Tingle is an unconventional and humorous take on the classic romance genre. Chuck Tingle's distinctive style blends humor and sensuality in a way that is both entertaining and unique. The story revolves around a summer camp experience that leads to unexpected and steamy encounters between its characters.

Tingle's writing is characterized by its tongue-in-cheek humor and a playful approach to the subject matter. He uses over-the-top scenarios and puns to create a lighthearted and entertaining atmosphere. While the plot may not be particularly deep or intricate, it serves as a backdrop for the real focus of the book: the interactions and connections between the characters.

One thing that sets Tingle's work apart is his ability to explore diverse relationships and identities in a sex-positive and inclusive manner. "Camp Damascus" is no exception, with a range of characters and orientations represented.

Overall, "Camp Damascus" is a fun and titillating read that doesn't take itself too seriously. If you're in the mood for a light-hearted and humorous romance with a twist, Chuck Tingle's work might just hit the spot.

I won’t lie, I came in to this not sure of what I was going to get. Would it be a slasher camp crystal lake type horror or would it lean heavily in to the Conversion Camp side of things? As it turns out, it was neither of those things. It didn’t focus too heavily on what actually went down at the Conversion Camp, but did focus on the main character Rose, and her experiences. It explored homophobia and extremism in a poignant yet horrifying way, and left me sad, yet extremely impressed with the body horror (hooray for body horror always).

A wild ride about conversion theory, homophobia, extreme religion and straight up horror. Could not put it down!

Thank you to @memydogandbooks and @booksbethanyreads for buddy reading with me. Always so much fun.

✩✩✩✩

Thank you to @netgalley and @titanbooks for the eArc.

This was a super fast read that went in some fascinating and unexpected directions and I really enjoyed it. From the start, the atmosphere is tense, despite what seems to be a perfectly normal scene of teenagers enjoying a rite of passage during the summer. As the plot progresses and the weirdness amps up, Rose is a great guiding presence through the narrative. Her logical and analytical mind help to keep the action grounded as she comes up with reasons for the things she witnesses. The action continues to keep the pace high and the plot is compelling, which keeps the pages turning. Overall, I thought this was a really successful horror novel and I will definitely check out any future horror from the author.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A wild ride about found family, horror and everything that comes with it. As someone new to writing horror, Tingle doesn't pull any punches - especially when it comes to the more 'real' horror, namely how the queer characters are treated, makes you feel angry.

Keen to see more horror from Chuck Tingle.

This was very good?? I am not sure what I expected, but this was a well-crafted horror but also managed to give warm, found-family vibes.

Loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley, Tor Nightfire, and Chuck Tingle for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Neverton, Montana is the home to Camp Damascus, the number one gay conversion camp with a one hundred per cent success rate. Run by the enigmatic and charismatic leader of the Kingdom of the Pines church. Rose is a young woman, deeply devoted to the church, but when she starts to witness strange things happening around her, everything she believes in will be shaken to the core.

A horrific, unsettling, and unnerving depiction of the trauma and torture that is gay conversion therapy and the burden and impact it has on queer youth, Camp Damascus is emotional horror at its best. A fictitious, but not too far removed from reality, representation of the tireless work of extremist Christians to mutilate queer youth, Camp Damascus is heavy, but really worth it. Rose is an intelligent and lovable protagonist, and the antagonistic characters will genuinely make your skin crawl. A fantastic read.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Titan Books in exchange for an honest review.

Did I ever think I would be reading a serious horror book by Chuck Tingle? Absolutely not! But I am so glad I did.

Camp Damascus tells the tale of Rose Darling, a 20 year old woman who is happily living a very Christian life in her very Christian community. Everything seems idyllic until one day, her male best friend tries to kiss her. Shortly after, she throws up an astonishing amount of flies and her life takes a demonic spiral from there.

This book is a little different than the kind of horror I normally read, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It has good queer rep (in my queer opinion), it has some really memorable characters and addresses an important modern issue through a horror lens (mainly, conversion camps). I was particularly impressed by how 'real' the characters felt. This book does a good job of capturing the complexity of having a shitty family whilst absolutely making no excuses for them.

My only issue with this book is it felt a little linear? Not every book has to have twists or surprises even, but it felt reasonably obvious what was going on quite early into the book and the story didn't evolve much from that point. I still enjoyed it a lot because of the characters but the horror aspect was lost to me due to the predictability, which was a bit of a shame.

Overall if you can handle the subject material, I would definitely give this book a try. It's definitely not a book that I will forget for a while, and I look forward to more serious work by this author given the standard of the character writing

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

As I write this, I can't help feeling that this book doesn't need any help from me! It's been a huge success since its release a scant week ago, but I was still so excited to read it. The author is a fine fellow, and I'm glad to support them - they've catapulted to the top of my Must Buy list (even with the... slightly unorthodox titles that they sometimes write!).

Camp Damascus...

Taking a deep breath here. Because what is it?

Camp Damascus is unique, as a book and a story of very real characters. It's not heavy-handed in the slightest, and if you want to read it as just a brave story of a girl and her friends rebelling against a restrictive town, then go for it. If you've any awareness of modern life, however, the undercurrents are hard to ignore.

Protagonist Rose is a pleasant, thoughtful girl growing up in a town that's known for its strong sense of ethics and Christian values. The titular Camp Damascus is the world's most successful gay conversion camp (stick with me), but by and large, the community seems happy with its lot. Until inevitably, questions begin to be asked.

Rose's story made me smile at first, because the style is so much like those rebellious Judy Blume books that I read in school, which we got hold on even though they were banned. Red flags quickly pop up, but her situation is so normalised that nothing seems really wrong at first, beyond the town's extreme Christianity.

As we progress, we realize that Rose is autistic. And gay. Remember what happens to gay folk in this town?

It's not that clear-cut, either. Rose is seeing strange figures wherever she goes, supernatural camp counsellors who appear whenever she has Bad Thoughts. Who can she talk to about it? The adults in her life will just encourage her to pray (the gay away).

As the story progresses the weirdness ramps up, but the cleverness grows with it. Rose grows (not the only easter egg/pun by a long shot) into herself, aided by others who try to escape and overcome both the regular citizens around them and those mysterious shapes. Hopefully without dying or being brainwashed in the process.

This is a strong contender for my Book of the Year. It's funny and revolutionary, smart and self-aware. The ridiculousness of the town seems a parody, but there's aspects that sadly aren't: the wilful blindness of the residents, for example, as their children literally die for just being who they are.

I quite literally couldn't put this book down, and would love to give the author a huge virtual hug for writing such a brilliant book. I hope everyone reads it, and then shares it with their friends. It deserves to be held on to and remembered, and the lessons it holds absorbed and passed on.

Go buy it.

Camp Damascus has been one of the best surprises of the year so far. I love it when books take you in a direction you weren’t expecting, where the place you end up is even better than the destination you thought you’d signed up for. I expected to enjoy this read but nowhere near as much as I did.

Rose lives in Neverton, a God-fearing small town in Montana whose claim to fame is being home to the world’s most effective conversion therapy camp.

“A life free from sin is possible, and it’s waiting for you at Camp Damascus”

Regardless of what genre a book is marketed as, as soon as conversion therapy makes its way onto the pages, it’s always going to be labelled horror in my mind. This one was already filed in the correct genre but it gave me so much more than I’d hoped it would.

Rose is a Kingdom Kid, churched in the doctrine of the Kingdom of the Pine. Her parents are devout, making sure they abide by the Four Tenets. Coffee is not allowed in their home, which is about the biggest red flag ever.

“Perfectly normal” Rose has recently begun seeing a woman that other people don’t seem to notice. She’s also started vomiting up all manner of creepy crawlies. Yeah, nothing to see here…

“God’s plan can feel pretty crazy sometimes, huh?”

I loved Rose’s pursuit of the truth. I loved the squirmy, squishy body horror. I loved to hate everything even cultish adjacent. I couldn’t read this book fast enough and am so keen for a reread.

“Follow the rot”

Content warnings include mention of death by suicide, gaslighting, homophobia and religious trauma. I’m pretty confident in saying that if you have emetophobia or entomophobia, this is probably not the book for you.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

I received the ARC courtesy of NetGalley, my opinions are my own.

Rose is 20 years old, but only now finishing high school - because she's a member of an evangelical christian cult. She loves Jesus, and her parents, and she's absolutely not gay. She's never had any gay thoughts. Except, she kind of likes this girl, and weird things keep happening, and the economy of her town is all tied up in the eponymous conversion therapy camp. And then she starts vomiting insects... And then things get weirder.

I'm not sure if my too high expectations are to blame, but I found myself disappointed. The first person narration was very particular, clearly by design, but the voice didn't grip me. The emotional states fly by without pause or exploration, the characters who are not the narrator are flat (and occasionally disappear completely as soon as they're in the rear view). I expected the camp itself to have a much more central role in the story (though to say more may be a spoiler). And then there's the expository style and lack of high stakes.

I've seen others say this book had great emotional resonance and touched them deeply. I was afraid/hopeful for that kind of connection (I'm a queer person who was raised fundamentalist, so seemed like a given) but I just didn't find myself persuaded by the religious bits. There's a little bit in the interactions Rose had with her mother that rang real and the therapist himself was scary, but other than that... I don't know, maybe it's a cultural thing (see e.g. narrator switching between referring to her parents by name and by family connection in her head, which throws me every time), but I was completely indifferent most of the time and occasionally bored (there are some thoughts that the narrator has twice, or reactions she overthinks - maybe on purpose, but it jarred me). Which may absolutely be a YMMV thing, I know Tingle is many people's thing. But clearly, not mine, at least not in light horror mode.

Camp Damascus just gets the perfect balance of queer affirmation, queer rage, tension, and of course visceral horror. It is very brave to unpack not only conversion therapy but the fundamentalist mindsets that leads to it, and the books absolutely manages to be both outlandish and chillingly realistic. Rose being autistic (and in particular ways that chime with me) only elevated this book further. The narrative is certainly straightforward and reasonably predictable once you clock onto what's going on (I also expect that more horror-savvy readers will find this a little tame and safe), but I think this simplicity does help to produce a timely work well worthy of attention.

Rose lives in a small town in Montana. The town is famous for its Christian gay conversion camp, called Camp Damascus, where teenagers undergo certain procedures to learn to “love right.” Rose realises that strange things are happening in her town, then they are happening to her. Since the ‘adults’ pretend that everything is in order, Rose takes it on herself to find out what’s going on at Camp Damascus.

The neurodiverse gay main character might explain why some of the descriptions seem unemotional and why there is a lot of repetition in the writing. Unfortunately, the whole novel reads like a rather mild YA horror. The tension of a horror novel is missing. There are images of body horror, but they are just that images and never really convey a sense of dread or disgust. Furthermore the plot twists are signposted and hence very predictable.

If the name Chuck Tingle is new to you, then oh boy, you’re in for a treat…

In a nutshell, Chuck Tingle (a pseudonym) is a Hugo nominated, iconic writer of spoof erotica short stories. With over 300 titles to his name already, a search of his bibliography via his website or Wikipedia page is highly recommended for a good laugh.

That being said, this book is not a spoof, nor is it funny. For his horror debut novel, Tingle has kept the weirdness from his short story roster, but morphed it into a terrifying and thought-provoking horror story. We follow Rose Darling, who lives with her parents in an extremely religious small town which is famous for it’s controversial gay conversion camp, Camp Damascus, which boasts a 100% effectiveness rate. To say much more would risk spoilers, but it goes without saying that this book is potentially triggering for those who have had experience in a strict religious setting, and the subsequent less-than-favourable views on LGBT matters.

I thought the imagery and building of suspense were both excellent in Camp Damascus, and created some truly scary and spine-tingling scenes throughout the book. Without ruining the ending for you, I thought the book’s conclusion was also handled very well, resolving most plot points while leaving a few deliberately open to interpretation.

I was very excited for Camp Damascus. I haven't read any of Chuck Tingle's work before, but the setup of religious fundamentalism and queerness were right up my alley. I loved the main character and felt I understood her very well from the outset. I also enjoyed that she was neurodivergent and could relate to a lot of her coping mechanisms and ways of thinking. The setup for the book works very well, with the creeping sense of dread as the character is introduced to Rose's family and community. The mystery is introduced subtly, which I enjoyed.

I also really appreciated, in the latter sections of the book, the more cosmic horror elements. The book escalated to a place I hadn't been expecting, and that feels quite fresh for the genre. I almost wish we had seen more of the front of Camp Damascus so that the end reveal would have been even more surprising. Without wishing to give spoilers, I particularly enjoyed the inhabitants of the tanks, and the final fate of Rose's 'doctor'. That felt pleasantly poetic but horrible creepy at the same time.

The only issue I had with the book is it felt like Rose made a very quick and straightforward transition from being a hard conservative evangelical Christian, to throwing Christianity out of the window. She never seemed troubled by having spent a lifetime thinking homosexuality is sinful, and switched very easily to loving herself including her sexuality. I know that we in the queer community are kind of tired of narratives about being a self-hating gay, but Rose moves so seamlessly from one extreme to the other, it felt quite jarring and I couldn't help wondering how many people in that situation find the transition that straightforward. I did really appreciate the inclusion of the ex-camp counsellor who was gay and kept his faith as a response to the variety of ways in which people come out of this situation, but in his case as well, we don't see much about how he transitioned from being someone who worked trying to convert gay people, to being comfortable with his own sexuality.

I acknowledge I may be looking for realism in a book that is largely about symbology, and for that I apologise. I did love the horror elements of this book. The human ones felt like they could have done with some more attention.

What an entertaining and bizarre book. I loved it and couldn't put it down and was left wondering what was more terrifying: the horror or the religious fanatics that made me think of Christian Stepford Wives ?
Rose is the young girl who thinks she's living according to the Gospel and her religious education: there's something going, there's repressed emotions and some phenomena nobody seem to care.
There's solitude, there's a Camp for conversion therapy and there's something that goes bumping into the night.
And a lot of fun as the tone are sometimes so over the top to be very funny even if you're feeling for Rose.
There's a lot of Bible quote and there's a lot of religion to the point that I think this is also a description/satire of fundamentalist way of livigin

Camp Damascus
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was such a wild ride. I honestly had no idea what was happening for half of it but I absolutely loved it. Camp Damascus is a heavily Christian camp for queer people, with the aim to make them ‘love right’. But no one can remember their time at the camp and things are getting weird back home. The book was a little heavy on the religious stuff for me - the characters would sometimes communicate in bible verses which I thought was a bit odd. But the book on the whole was so much fun and threw so many unexpected surprises out! A brilliant queer horror that you can easily binge in one sitting!

Released on 27th July

What a ride this was!! From the slightly eerie and unsettling glimpses of an untold secret on the first few chapters, to a full blown, demon and sinner horror story. Not only was this written well, but the world was fleshed out and it felt believable, despite the horror/sci fi aspects. It puts into perspective the horrors of organised religion and the gut wrenching torture that humans can inflict on each other. Highly recommended, it’s horror enough to keep horror readers satisfied, but not too grim to turn off non-horror readers. Yes it’s a horror technically, but it’s also an honest exploration of emotions and will scare you both because of the body horror, and because of the way this feels like it could be real, especially given the current social climate.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC to review!

4 stars!

Wow! I loved this! I was so excited when I read the synopsis and THEN who the author was I was so curious to see how this would go and I’m so so so happy I applied for an ARC.

This is such a great idea and move on conversion therapy and the way people will use religion. I really liked how the story was written and how things began to unfold as we got to see Rose deal with her life and how things slowly began become more clear.

This is such a great queer horror story that has it all, it made me question things and want to find out more. It gave me heartfelt moments, some even ‘bodyhorror’-esque moments! Fantastic!

This was a fun, creepy and roaring adventure into a world of demons, cults and conversion therapy that is equal parts hilarious and moving. Our main character is a star from the get-go, and her wit is felt on every page. This wasn’t the book I was expecting - for Camp Damascus being in the title, you only experience the camp for the last quarter. That being said, however, the looming nature of the horrors experienced there creep throughout the entire book. Pacing was great, characters were even greater. If anything, for me, the love element is a little too perfectly resolved at the end (but it works very well for the nature of the story). Not as much death and destruction as I possibly would have liked, but still fun nonetheless.