Camp Damascus

This was aggressively fine. Short, entertaining enough, pretty well paced. The thematic content is very important. As an exvangelical, I found a lot of it relatable.

For a story told in first person, however, there’s remarkably little introspection. The story is more a tale of “I did this and then I did this” with minimal reflection. I was also hoping for some kind of epilogue to wrap up the story of Rose and her parents, but that doesn’t happen.

I like how Saul and Rose have different responses to the situation in terms of their faith, and the book doesn’t judge either of them for where they land. They also don’t judge each other which was refreshing.

Overall the book was just too surface level and honestly didn’t get as horrific or as dark as I thought it would. I wasn’t as moved as I wanted to be as a result. I think it’d work well as a movie, though, and I might enjoy that version of it a lot more.

My curiosity has finally done what everyone warned it would, and I've bitten off more than I can chew. The only thing left to do is see if I choke or swallow.

Yes I was traveling through airports for a good chunk of the day yesterday, but I still think the fact that I - a notoriously slow reader - ripped through this in two days is a ringing endorsement on its own.

At face value, I didn't expect to get much out of this book. Say what you will about the author's... uh... unique previous body of work, but I knew this one was meant to be a more ~serious~ story. The opening chapter gives us a protagonist with major Christian Horse Girl™ energy with an extra serving of awkward autism on top. I was afraid I was about to buckle in for a test of literary endurance being tied to someone so different from myself, but those fears quickly melted away and Rose Darling ended up being one of my favorite things about this book. She's curious to a fault, but she's never outright stupid and goes through a complicated reassessment of her own faith throughout.

In fact, the whole thing was way more nuanced than I was expecting vis-a-vis religion. There are a lot of shades of gray presented, but not in a way that felt like a cop-out with nothing to actually say.

Also there's some pretty gnarly (yet creative!) body horror that shows up towards the end. There's some blatant supernatural shenanigans, but it's not overwhelming and there are definitely peaks and valleys of action to keep things moving along nicely. I also guessed the big twist/reveal fairly early on, but I don't think that's a bad thing because there's plenty of plot left after the characters make that discovery themselves.

If you like stories about cults, tense religious family drama, actual literal demons, or just want some spooky lesbian stories without any gays getting buried, absolutely give this one a shot.