Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

160 reviews

shinypurplepants's review against another edition

4.0

Gross, horrific and romantic! Long, long list of content warnings and the biggest one isn't even recognized by Storygraph: do not read this if you cannot handle bugs, body horror and religious abuse.

Otherwise, this Tingle title is a visceral romp from abuse to self actualization. As a queer person raised in a religious household I felt seen. It is a cathartic and horrifying feeling. 8/10 highly recommended!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

quitegood's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow. Just wow. When I first saw this book one fateful lunch hour, I thought "Chuck Tingle? The guy who writes the meme erotica? That Chuck Tingle? He wrote a novel? And its horror!?" so of course I had to buy it.

And I do not regret doing so one bit. This blindingly paced horror yarn about love, loss, and faith. If you want horror that makes you feel a whole gammet of emotions, this is for you! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Homophobia, Torture, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Lgbtqa+, horror, dark,

kshertz's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Really Chuck Tingle can do anything and I would follow him anywhere. I’m not much for a horror, but I love the type of horror that he writes. His horror is based on the world around us and the people that make the world horrific. He makes excellent Points and I find myself swept up in the story and committed to the characters. Camp Damascus and the idea of conversion camps as a horror with certain supernatural pieces was really well done. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

zellerpress's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I read this for a local book club, and I’m glad I did! While I don’t typically read horror books, I couldn’t put this down. I think it helps that I went into it with no expectations but with curiosity. 

I loved this book. The story, the writing, the audiobook narrator, all of it. One of my favorite reads of this year. 

I think don’t think it’s a YA book and not sure why other reviews feel so strongly about that. The main character is 20 years old but isn’t in college. There’s also some pretty gruesome descriptions of gore and body horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Car accident and Fire/Fire injury

spaghettii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this (in a good way). When I was able to predict something, it would be only shortly before it was revealed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book really cemented for me that I need to read more Chuck Tingle books.

I wasn’t super sure what to expect from the book just from the blurb, but I really enjoyed it. I love how it explored sexuality and religious trauma. Rose’s personal journey of realising what her feelings were and that confusion around that was deeply relatable. It made me take to her as a MC quickly. Not just the realisation of her sexuality, but the complex feelings around religion and realising how it hurt her. I liked the variety in how characters felt about religion, each had complex but still valid feelings on it. I especially liked the contrast between Rose and Saul. While both suffered at the camp, Rose turned away from religion while Saul embraced it in a more accepting way. I appreciated that neither was depicted as wrong, it was a level of nuance I hadn’t expected.

The characters as a whole were also so well done. Each felt like a real person with complicated feelings and motivations. They all felt consistent and I understood why they were doing what they did. I was pleasantly surprised by how many characters were given depth and complexity too. It was nice that even the less that stellar characters were still people.

The book’s atmosphere and descriptions were also great. Things were described in delightfully disgusting ways. It just made everything properly creepy. Not to mention how well the book did with atmosphere and tension building. There was a deep underlying sense of dread to the book and most scenes that I really enjoyed.

The only flaw that really bothered me was how heavy handed the book could be at times. However, a lot of topics the book discussed are really complex. I think it can be helpful to clearly state what you mean when talking about such layered topics.

Overall it was an amazing read and I highly recommend it. Even if you usually a horror reader, I think it’s worth checking out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, and Grief

r3allybadusername's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was great! My only complaint would be that I wish the ending felt a little unfinished.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Gaslighting

esteemichael's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

4.25

Even with the sense that you know some of what's coming, you're peeking through your fingers while the characters Go Through It.

The unflinching gore was well done, check trigger warnings! The pace from the middle to the end slowed a bit still 100% worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

rlaortiz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, Torture, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

acechemicals's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I can't objectively review this book in any meaningful way. It resonated with me in every single way, from

memory loss due to religious abuse

to

finding a family that understands the need to protect others.

It took me four hours to read and I'm sure everyone I love is completely irritated by me reading passages or sending heart-rending quotes in DMs (or setting the book down so I could cry several times during the last quarter or so). 

Entwining religion and horror is not new by any means, but done to great effect here. Everything is scarier through Rose's eyes, because she's sheltered. And we're so used to denial of the protagonist's experiences as a trope of horror that "you didn't see anything weird" seems normal, "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for this" isn't out of the ordinary, but it ratchets up seamlessly and quickly for Rose in a way anyone familiar with high-control religion would recognize immediately.

I want everyone to read this. I also want to cry for the next six months. And I couldn't have asked for a better ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Car accident

Minor: Deadnaming, Drug use, and Gun violence