Review: Camp Damascus – Chuck Tingle

Chuck Tingle’s long been known to the romance crowd for writing, well, very interesting stories called Tinglers. Part-satire, part… I don’t even know what, they’re fun if somewhat bewildering. Underlying everything, though, has been the author’s unwavering “LOVE IS REAL” devotion to acceptance and love in all its forms. When I heard he was coming out with a horror novel? Yeah, I could totally see that – and I also knew I had to get my hands on it as soon as possible. While I was expecting to be thoroughly creeped out and amused by some dark satire, I had not expected the kick in the feels that ultimately brought the book together for me.

Rose Darling has been raised as a faithful follower of the Kingdom of the Pine church, known mostly for Camp Damascus, a gay conversion camp with a 100% success rate. With the end of high school approaching, Rose is troubled by new feelings for her best friend and her lack of feelings for the guy who wants to be her boyfriend. Plus, she keeps catching glimpses of a strange ghastly woman. But one crack reveals even more issues within the church and secrets that everyone has been keeping from Rose.

“I love Jesus, I really do, but Jesus would want me to be cool.”

It’s hard to understand Rose without first understanding her faith. The Kingdom of the Pine is a Christian pretty-much-a-cult sect founded during the Industrial Revolution by their prophet who lost his hand machinery accident, then “pulled himself up by his bootstraps.” It’s Jesus but with capitalism, complete with church-sanctioned MLMs. It’s both the funniest and most true skewering of American Evangelical culture I’ve seen. It shows how every moment of Rose’s life is tied to the church, from frequent biblical quotes to how long she goes to school to family structure. Bonding with her mother means going for walks and coming up with imaginary sins for the houses they pass, while Rose suggests the biblical passages to “save” them. In other words, all the law and none of the compassion.

“I was taught the importance of perseverance by Kingdom of the Pine, so I suppose they brought this upon themselves.
I was also educated on vengeance.”

And then we have Rose. Rose has tried so hard to be the perfect daughter her parents want her to be. But Rose is something that is antithetical to their faith – curious. She’s also neurodivergent, so once she gets a path of research into her head, she can’t let it go. I don’t think it’s too spoilery to say that Rose is forced to separate from her faith community. The tangle of emotions she feels – betrayal, relief, painful – is well described. But most of all? Rose is angry. Coming from a culture where women aren’t allowed to be angry, where “niceness” is valued over justice, it was so refreshing to see Rose come into her own.

Rose’s last name is Darling and there’s no missing the Peter Pan references. In the first chapter, a side character – and Rose’s crush – points out that Rose has no shadow, just like Peter Pan. In Peter Pan, and in this book, the shadow can be viewed as an absence of light, as a loss of memories, as a lack of grounding. There’s several other references to the play – including a point where Rose climbs throw a window, one that’s basically been dismantled by her friends to fool a security system – but most are too spoilery. Suffice it to say that it’s another added layer of meaning to the book.

There’s a lot to unpack about the various ways (real and imagined) LGTBQ+ people are persecuted and how they respond. The author carefully handles two extremely divergent reactions to religious abuse – atheism and seeking out a more accepting religious sect – and shows how friendship and acceptance can bridge that divide. Rose is also somewhere on the autism spectrum, and her family scolds her for her single-minded focus on subjects and her stimming. To Rose and to her friends? She’s just curious, a trait that’s to be admired. Simply put, I was not expecting this much sweetness in the middle of this horror book but rather than break me out of the book it only made me care about the characters more.

Of course, the book’s not perfect. While it quickly jumps into the action and the tempo remains mostly brisk, there’s some pacing issues in the middle that bog it down. But on the whole, the characters redeem that.

”We haven’t been blessed by some incredible superpower from the great beyond, we’re just curious.
Sometimes that’s all it takes.”

Overall, ok, wow, Chuck Tingle can really write horror, too – and without losing some of his trademark vibe. Highly recommended to any fan of LGBTQ+ horror!

Content notes: View Spoiler »death, homophobia, gore (including immolation, breaking of body parts, death), body horror, religious abuse, misogyny « Hide Spoiler

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