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A review by galacticvampire
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
4.0
Camp Damascus is a entertaining thriller that expands on themes of queer horror.
The first half of this book was a solid 5 stars. The gaslighting, the feeling of dread, the religious brainwashing and unsettling interactions; it was all executed extremely well. You can really feel Rose's fear and confusion, and it was also a thriller really well crafted for the reader to slowly put the pieces together.
I particularly love Chuck Tingle's writing style. It's captivating and funny without dampening the creepy elements, and I really want to see more horror out of him.
The second half of the book felt under baked. It moves really quickly from a religious mystery to a YA save-the-world mission, with the characters just telling each other things instead of we actually following the actions and development.
From Rose's abrupt break from 20 years of religious indoctrination (no doubting herself, no trying to justify it. Just straight up ok they're evil) to her flavourless romance (if SHE doesn't know why she's in love how can we?) it just felt like a lot of wasted potential. Even the most important thing they do to stop the villains happens off-page!
In the end, it was a quick and fun read, and since most of my issues were with structural elements, I believe Chuck Tingle has a great future within the genre.
The first half of this book was a solid 5 stars. The gaslighting, the feeling of dread, the religious brainwashing and unsettling interactions; it was all executed extremely well. You can really feel Rose's fear and confusion, and it was also a thriller really well crafted for the reader to slowly put the pieces together.
I particularly love Chuck Tingle's writing style. It's captivating and funny without dampening the creepy elements, and I really want to see more horror out of him.
The second half of the book felt under baked. It moves really quickly from a religious mystery to a YA save-the-world mission, with the characters just telling each other things instead of we actually following the actions and development.
From Rose's abrupt break from 20 years of religious indoctrination (no doubting herself, no trying to justify it. Just straight up ok they're evil) to her flavourless romance (if SHE doesn't know why she's in love how can we?) it just felt like a lot of wasted potential. Even the most important thing they do to stop the villains happens off-page!
In the end, it was a quick and fun read, and since most of my issues were with structural elements, I believe Chuck Tingle has a great future within the genre.