“I was a cog in a terrible machine for years, and now I’m honored to be the monkey wrench dismantling it.”
Rose grew up in the extremely religious town of Neverton, Montana, where the biggest industry is a gay conversion camp that boasts a 100% effectiveness rate. She’s just about to graduate high school, and she strives to be the perfect Christian daughter. One area she falls short is that her parents are pressuring her to get married and have kids, but she has no interest in the guy they’re trying to set her up with. Meanwhile, she’s not sure why she wants to be around her friend Martina so much, why she’s so interested in her. Things begin to change for Rose when she sees a demonic figure in a red polo shirt in the distance and then vomits up a deluge of flies at the dinner table. Something strange is happening, despite her parents’ insistence to the contrary. As the demons begin to close in on her, she’ll have to find answers before it’s too late.
I really enjoyed this horror book about gay conversion, and a lot of that is because of Rose’s point of view. As you’d expect from someone raised in an insular extremely religious sect, she sees the world through that lens, but she’s also autistic, and she combines that Christian perspective with her unbridled curiosity and scientific interest. She understands the world through facts. For instance, when she is afraid, she thinks, “This fear is my parasympathetic nervous system. The solution is grounding and prayer.” She also has a matter-of-fact way of describing even the most grotesque and bizarre horror elements, which was a fresh take on the genre that I appreciated.
Another aspect that I found worked really well was the tension between the horror and the heartfelt elements. This is gorier than I expected: there are some truly stomach-turning scenes. It’s also sincere and at times moving. Rose has to grapple with her queerness—which she’s completely oblivious to in the first few chapters—as well as come to terms with where she now fits into her community and family… or doesn’t. Luckily, she’s able to find new connections that offer her a chance at a new, more authentic life.
This wasn’t what I was expecting, because it’s not set at Camp Damascus, for the most part. I don’t want to say any more to avoid spoilers, but I thought that was a great choice.
Camp Damascus was a quick, engaging read with enough blood for horror fans while also having Chuck Tingle’s trademark sincerity and sharing the thesis underpinning all his books: love is real. There were some parts of the book that felt a bit awkwardly constructed, but those were minor. I’ll definitely be picking up more of Chuck Tingle’s horror books in the future.
