CAMP DAMASCUS

Mara Wilson expertly narrates a queer horror novel about an evangelical religious community in Montana and the gay conversion therapy camp at its heart. Rose Darling is 20, and while she never went to Camp Damascus, she knows people who have--though they don't talk about it. The novel takes a sharp turn into the surreal in the first chapter when Rose vomits up mayflies at the dinner table and her parents pass it off as a fluke. Wilson narrates with emotional depth, conveying all of Rose's intelligence, inquisitiveness, and fear as she's hunted by otherworldly beings. Rose, who is autistic and, she comes to realize, queer, fights to discover the truth about the rot at the center of all she's been taught--and fights for her future. E.E.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2023]