Book Review: Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. A few weeks ago, a person on Reddit was looking for books with queer, neurodivergent characters. Someone recommended Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle. All I knew about the book before starting to read it, was that it’s horror about a gay conversion camp and that the main character is autistic. I’d hardly ever read horror, but somehow, the book appealed to me. Tonight, I finished it, so here’s my review.

Book Description

A searing and earnest horror debut about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down.

They’ll scare you straight to hell.

Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold.

Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy.

My Review

The book started out quite weird. Honestly, I had no idea what was happening until midway through the book. That, at first, frustrated me. However, having finished the book, I now feel this unknowing fits in nicely with the plot.

Once I got beyond the first half, I started rooting for the main character and her friends. I really feared the book would have a horrible ending. I felt all kinds of feelings as I made my way through the second half and was chilled to the core whenever something bad happened to the main character or her friends. I also didn’t expect the ending. Honestly, I still have many questions now.

The main character, Rose, is autistic like I said. This isn’t a main focus of the book, but the presentation of her autism is a bit stereotypical. That’s not a big problem though.

I don’t really know what I think of this book. Its weird first half sticks with me, but at the same time, I’m pretty excited to read the author’s next book. As pretty much an intro to the horror genre for me, it’s really good. I hardly do Goodreads anymore, but if I had to rate this book, it’d get 4 out of 5 stars.

Reading, Watching and Listening Lately (January 6, 2025)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. Today I’m sharing what I’ve been reading, watching and listening to lately. I’m joining It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (#IMWAYR). Most of this post will be dedicated to books, but I’m also sharing a little of my recent travels through YouTube and podcasts.

Reading

I saw the book Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle recommended online when someone asked for queer autistic characters in young adult/new adult lit. It’s horror, which I rarely read, but for some reason its description appealed to me. I am surprised to say that I’m already 25% in even though for me it’s a pretty long book. One thing that already disappoints me a bit is that, 25% in, I still seem not to have a clue of what happens.

Other than that, I’m mostly just paging through my over a dozen collections of smoothie recipes. I will be buying new ingredients tomorrow.

I don’t do these posts every week, so for my recently finished reads, I’m sharing a book I finished just before Christmas: Murder on Christmas Eve (A Dodo Dorchester Mystery, #6) by Ann Sutton. It is a cozy mystery set in early twentieth century England. I didn’t initially realize it was historic and I hadn’t read the other books in the series, so it was a bit hard to get into, but it was an intriguing story.

I still have half a dozen books I haven’t finished but intend to finish… someday. That being said, I honestly have no idea what I’ll be reading next.

Watching

Yesterday, I watched a YouTube video from an American guy who lives in the Netherlands, sharing ten things (American) tourists should not do when visiting Holland. Oops, that’s one of them: calling our country “Holland”.

I also have been watching some snippets of 3FM Serious Request’s feature on metabolic diseases. 3FM is a Dutch public radio station and Serious Request is an annual fundraiser event, this year for MetaKids, a Dutch foundation that funds research into metabolic diseases. Since one of my fellow residents has Sanfilippo Syndrome, which is a metabolic disease, I was intrigued to learn more. I didn’t donate though.

Listening

On New Year’s, I watched a fascinating episode of the Real Survival Stories podcast on a paraglider who landed in a storm and was pulled up to 10,000m into the sky. It was truly chilling!

Now I realize most of the things I enjoyed lately are on the dark side. I don’t care though. I do usually hope for good endings. If you’ve read Camp Damascus, please don’t spoil it for me.

Reading Wrap-Up (March 16, 2020)

Posted on by Astrid

Okay, so clearly I didn’t make a reading wrap-up a regular feature. In all honesty, I didn’t read much over the first two months of the year at all. Thankfully, I got back into the mood for reading just in time for the near-complete lockdown due to the coronavirus this week.

My day center is still open, but tomorrow will most likely be the last day for the duration of the lockdown. The staff and management need this day to be able to decide on staffing issues, as normally the homes aren’t staffed during the day. We’ll see where this goes.

I am linking up with #IMWAYR again, as well as Stacking the Shelves (hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality). Lastly I’m linking up with the Sunday Post.

What I’ve Been Reading

I started reading Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan in January, so it hasn’t made it into a reading wrap-up yet. I finally finished it on Friday and wrote a review on Saturday.

I finally moved along in Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. No, it’s not finished yet (no, still not!), but with the day center closing soon, I’ll have more time on my hands to read and should be able to finish the book this week.

I’ve also been reading Heroine by Mindy McGinnis, which so far I’m really enjoying.

Stacking the Shelves

Firstly, of course I’ve been stocking up on journaling books again lately. The ones I downloaded are free though. I’ve also been downloading a few books of quotations and Bible verses. Then come some handbooks on intellectual disability and autism that I only intend for reference.

With respect to fiction, I added two books to my shelves in the past week, both downloaded from Bookshare. The first is All the Water in the World by Karen Raney. I got interested in it looking for White Oleander by Janet Fitch, which I’ve been wanting to read ever since it came out some twenty years ago and was recently mentioned on another blogger’s reading list. I couldn’t find that one on Bookshare, so am considering buying it from Apple Books as either an audiobook or eBook. Then I saw All the Water in the World in the related books section.

The second is The Institute by Stephen King. I haven’t read any horror so far yet, but this title really intrigued me. I’m also still looking for horror stories about deadly viruses or pandemics or whatnot. I know, we’re living it now, but that’s exactly why I want to read some of this type of fiction. If anyone has any recommendations, please share them in the comments.

What have you been reading lately?