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You may (or may not) have heard of Chuck Tingle. Maybe the name sounds familiar, but you don't know why. Once you look into the enigmatic author that is Chuck Tingle, there's no stopping the obsession. His identity is a mystery cloaked in pink. His books are queer as fuck. His novellas are outrageous, and I thought until recently that they were only funny, intentionally terrible book covers. Boy, was I wrong. I have yet to read one of his ludicrous novellas in the Tingleverse, but it's happening, and soon. As of today, he has 455 books published; most of them are his unhinged novellas. Truly incredible.
Camp Damascus is a full-length young adult horror novel following Rose Darling. Rose is twenty and lives with her very religious family in the very religious town of Neverton. She's a firm believer until a series of terrifying events creates hairline cracks in her belief, because Rose is seeing demons. Demons in camp counselor uniforms.
Camp Damascus is the most successful gay conversion camp in the world, boasting a 100% success rate. But Rose isn't gay; she's a normal girl who has perfectly normal desires to cuddle up with her female friends. As the cracks in her world spider, memories of a woman she's never met assail her. Her perfect life in the perfect town falls apart as the demons close in.
Despite the heavy themes, Camp Damascus is an easy read. The writing is straightforward with a fun, adventurous tone—if you can describe horror as fun. I think it's fun, but not everyone would agree with me. It's a fast read that I'd recommend for anyone looking for a break between more challenging books and craving a satisfying ending. This book is like horror candy.
When I searched Camp Damascus to grab the cover art, the first sponsored result was an actual Catholic missionary camp. Oh, the irony!
One of the interesting conundrums Rose deals with is her relationship to God and religion. As she peels back all the lies and manipulations of the church she was raised in, her belief disintegrates. Saul, a former camp counselor and Rose's friend, is a great foil. Saul is a Black man who listens to death-core Christian rock music and sees his unwavering belief as resistance by not allowing the church to take his faith. He also defies the trope of the Black side-kick who helps the main character and then either sacrifices themselves or disappears. Saul fights his own literal and emotional demons and plays an equally important role in the end-game.
Camp Damascus is an exploration of queerness in relation to an abusive system that sees queer people as a problem to solve. So often the great lengths and cruelties the church stoops to in order to force conformity bring into question its legitimacy. Who is the church for, and how does that compare to belief outside the strictures of organized religion? Queer people build their own temples because we are so often excluded and made to smile at our uncle's homophobic comments, and bear no resentment when everyone nods along all the while praying you don't call him out. People seek safety in silence, happiness in turning the other cheek. Not looking at and identifying harm when we see it allows the harm to continue. Camp Damascus shows us the path of building our own church from the love we find in found family and painstakingly reinforcing the foundation of our own identity.
/rae/