Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

(Titan Books, 2023)

Reviewed by Kate Onyett

Chuck Tingle is an internet philosopher and a spirit on the electronic winds, best known, perhaps, for his e-novellas of seminal erotic fiction. You know the ones: “Pounded In The Butt By [human, animal, objects, metaphysical concepts]”. He espouses above all love in all its forms and self-determination.

Camp Damascus is his first ‘serious’ novel, about a demonically successful gay conversion camp run by a conservative Christian sect. It is a journey of revelation for Rose, a devout 20-year-old honestly devoted to the teachings of the sect. A clever, sheltered, fact-curious and mildly autistic woman, Rose’s life is complicated with feelings of attraction for girls. We begin at a wholesome social at a local waterfall with her friends and peers under a warm summer sun, but things quickly get weird. She spots a literal demoness on the cliff opposite and later at home coughs up a load of mayflies.

Continue reading…

Review from BSFA Review 23 - Download your copy here.