Shaye

[realness-remade]

[alfredpennyworththecat]

Before doing any Catstruction on your Pawperty, make sure to check in with your local Mewnicipality

[badluckbrian-deactivated]

[armandyke]

On my instagram I’m doing a monthly book highlight, where I share one of my all time favourites in the hopes more people will read them (and because they’re kind of like required reading if you want to know River better). Anyway I thought it would be fun to share here too.

This months book is Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, a book I originally read back in 2023 before I even started reviewing the books I was reading, so this review is brand new.

Packed full of tongue in cheek humour and social commentary on religious conservatism, this book is, in many ways, exactly what you'd expect from a debut Chuck Tingle novel. But then he whacks you in the face with some incredibly visceral violence and gore, reminding you that this is in fact a horror novel.

What I love most about this book is the way it reads as a young adult coming of age story despite the main character and her friends all being in their twenties. It's a really smart way to address the way cults and organised religion will suppress people and purposefully keep them as naive and innocent as possible in order to control them. And I love how the wholesome, coming of age vibe is suddenly wildly thrown off course with this sudden, shocking violence.

The possession and demonic presence in this book is really fun and original. This book is a perfect balance of scary and silly. It's literally camp horror.

[drchucktingle]

dang thank you for these kind words i love this analysis.

this touches on something that i have always thought was interesting about CAMP DAMASCUS. its something i am VERY proud of, but that some folks dont seem to notice

the MAGIC TRICK i attempted to pull with camp damascus was to use language and characters and tone to make it feel like a YA book when it is techincally not, and the reason for doing this was to, as this reader says:

'It's a really smart way to address the way cults and organised religion will suppress people and purposefully keep them as naive and innocent as possible in order to control them. And I love how the wholesome, coming of age vibe is suddenly wildly thrown off course with this sudden, shocking violence.'

looking back now, a few years after the release of CAMP DAMASCUS, it is funny how a few folks just did NOT get this at all, and would kind of TALK DOWN on the writing style of this book as if it was unintentional. honestly i could write a whole FIFTY PAGE THINK PIECE on the fact that if you are a neurodivergent artist people will basically always assume that something unusual or atypical about your art CANT POSSIBLY be an intentional maneuver and MUST be a mistake or a lack of technical skill (the old OF COURSE AN AUSTIC PERSON DIDNT MEAN TO DO THAT)

anyway this is a GREAT review thank you so much buckaroo. i am glad you enjoyed and really honored that NOW this book seems to be more understood. these days people are able to kind of see the magic trick for what it is. very cool. love to see the way art evolves over time

[bruzum]

[lastvalyrian]

This is literally what people are talking about when they say AI will be used to mainstream widely held bigotry. LLMs are trained on frequency and probability -> straight relationships are more well represented in the dataset -> straight pronouns and terms become the "correct" normal.

This is a form of backdoor bigotry from both normative facts (there are more straight than gay relationships) and well represented bigoted beliefs (men are superior to women).

Combine this with the mass of people inclined to believe (and being encouraged to believe) that if AI says and does something it must be correct

[arrow-ettes]

how it's feeling rn

[my-dailydreams]

[davidrussell323]

[outsidewolves]

[tonyzaret]

[cloudabserk]

WARNING do NOT start reading books and comics or watching movies or looking at art!!! you will start wanting to create art yourself. or god forbid. writing.

[cambriancrew]

[lorbeerprinz]

Free him

[thisismindof]

I spent some time figuring out the body shape I wanted for himb and I think this fits well?? Kinda????

[ominous-signs]

the need for blood is rising.

Official ominous sign

[theglitterking2005]

[ominous-signs]

Feel the blood on your skin

[drchucktingle]

FABULOUS BODIES is coming JULY 7TH from nightfire publishing with MARA WILSON voicing the audiobook. PREORDER NOW BUCKAROOS

[mrcatfishing]

More bowser pixel art, he's so full of fun shapes and colors.

[catnoli]

nostalgia web-core tiger sharks 💾 get it as a postcard and sticker here!