Spoiler-free
Chuck Tingle is doing bits right now within the queer horror space and it’s cool to see. I first came across Camp Damascus in the wild (waterstones), when simply browsing the shelves and for whatever reason it jumped out at me. The premise intrigued me and I regretted not buying it as soon as I got home. This was before I had read Bury Your Gays also by Chuck Tingle, so he just wasn’t an author on my radar at this time. Bury Your Gays has really made a lasting impression on me, with certain scenes ingrained in my mind. Whilst Camp Damascus has an equally interesting premise, I felt as though it lost its way around the halfway mark and wasn’t executed anywhere near as well as I had hoped for. It wasn’t bad per se, just not all that good. Nevertheless, I will continue to read Chuck Tingle’s future books, as I think he’s quite an exciting author to have for queer horror. Besides, I have the stunning Black Crow Books edition of Lucky Day on my shelf ready to go.
The Premise
Camp Damascus is the name of a renowned gay conversion camp with a 100% success rate, thanks to a supernatural secret aid. Despite the name, we don’t actually spend much time at all in the camp itself. Instead, we follow a god-fearing young girl called Rose Darling in the neighbourhood, who can’t seem to stop puking up flies. Just what the hell is going on you might ask? Well, wouldn’t we all like to know.
A life free from sin is possible, and it's waiting for you at Camp Damascus
The Review
There is so much mystery and intrigue within this premise and it was for sure the hook in which got me to read it. Unfortunately, as the mysteries came to the light, the less interesting everything became.
Rose Darling is a horrible perspective to read from and I just didn’t like her at all. Although, she does have that kind of autism where you just state random facts, so that was fun.
Right-handed people live an average of three years longer than left handed people.
However ultimately, reading from a brainwashed hyper Christian perspective within a queer horror book is as frustrating as it sounds. I get that this is the whole point of the book. This perspective is absolutely pivotal to the overall themes of repression of sexuality and dismantling religious trauma. Rose is on her own identity finding journey and as more secrets are revealed she begins to challenge the far-right anti-LGBTQ+ views in which she has been so heavily raised on. This transition, combined with constantly puking up flies and also the supernatural demonic entities emerging into her life is what made me absolutely fly (lol) through this first half. It was fun! Horrific and frustrating - yes, but fun!
What is it about my friend that I find so utterly fascinating? I want to be near her, but not in a weird way. Obviously, It’s not like I’m gay or something.
As the second half gets underway, all sense of mystery was lost and the tone shifted into more of a ‘well, how are we gonna stop this?’ type plot, which didn’t grip me anywhere near as much as figuring out what the hell was going on in the first place. What began as a unique premise transitioned into a generic action type plot line, which honestly… bored me. I lost all interest in Rose as a character, and the new characters introduced were also kind of nothing to me. I just didn’t connect with anyone, which is a shame but hey ho. Saul did offer some interesting insight and conversation surrounding Rose’s own religious beliefs. Despite all of his religious trauma, he remains a Christian. This gives Rose a lot of food for thought, as heck, if demons really are real then why the hell shouldn’t God be?
“There’s a demon attached to you, Darling! Are you really saying the devil is there doing his wicked work, but now God is a bridge too far?”
As frustrating as it was to read Rose’s inner monologue, this constant questioning of her own beliefs was handled really well. I think I just found her annoying.
Speaking of annoying, the way that Chuck Tingle constantly switched between writing mum and dad, and then their real names when referring to Rose’s parents was infuriating. I just didn’t understand the logic behind it and it became unnecessarily confusing. Why do you want us to know their real names so badly? Heck, sometimes it was even in the same sentence.
Luke’s good-natured demeanour falters. My father removes his glasses and rubs the ridge of his nose for a moment
I mentioned in the premise that not a lot of this book is actually set in Camp Damascus itself. While this was the initial pull, enticing me to pick this book up, I admit that it was actually quite exciting to have my expectations inverted. Initially I was all for this shift in expectations, but ultimately the execution and pay off wasn’t there. It actually felt more like a sequel to a story never told. We’re very much dealing with the aftermath of traumatic events, instead of the traumatic events themselves. I think this is probably why it fell a little flat in the second half.
So yeah, after a strong start this one didn't land for me. I did still enjoy reading about all the mentioned themes, with a special shout out to the discussions of faith and its effect on the mind.
Faith is a vessel, and while it can certainly be used to justify truly horrible things, maybe I'm letting the aggressors off the hook by blaming faith itself
It's moments like this that really made me think deeply about this religious theming and that's why I think these discussions were handled well.
The supernatural elements were also handled in a horrific way, which of course, I appreciated. Chuck Tingle has a way to craft such vivid supernatural threats and there’s always such a clear monstrous image in my mind, from The Smoker and Mrs Whys in Bury Your Gays, to the demons in Camp Damascus. Whatever the novel, Chuck Tingle continues to weave intriguing tales, paving his way as an iconic author within the queer horror space. I look forward to picking up his new book, Lucky Day soon!
Memories come and go, but the present is ours.
🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 - 3 stars
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