The Friday Face-Off: Current Read #13

      

 Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:

Current Read #13

This week I'm working my way through an ARC of Kell Woods' upcoming September release After the Forest and it has been a delightful reading experience so far! I was also pleased to see that there are already three different cover variations in existence for this book, so I figured we could have a look at some of those for this week's face-off. 

2023 US Hardcover

2023 Australian Paperback

2023 UK Hardcover

My choice(s):

These covers are all so gorgeous! I think I am probably most drawn to the Australian edition because of the colors and the general style of artwork, but I do think the US edition is also wonderful and captures the fairy tale aspect of the story perfectly. The UK cover is also gorgeous, but I do feel like that general setup of a girl in a dress walking away from us is a little overdone–although it does still look lovely! Which cover makes you want to read this book the most? I also think Owlcrate and Illumicrate (?) might be making special editions of this book as well, so I'm curious to see what those covers may look like. 

Review: Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

  

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023

Hardcover. 256 pages.

About Camp Damascus:

"A searing and earnest horror debut about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down.

They’ll scare you straight to hell.

Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold.

Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy."

I honestly don't think I ever expected to be posting a review of a Chuck Tingle book (or at least a serious one?), but here we are! Camp Damascus is the perfect summer horror novel to read on vacation–what's more relaxing than some religious trauma, anyway? This book was definitely not what I expected and I ended up having some fun with this one. Before diving in to this review, I would like to advise caution for anyone who may be sensitive to reading a book that centers around a conversion camp and everything surrounding that topic, as those are obviously quite prominent topics featured throughout the story. I also think this fits somewhere between the YA and adult categories, as there was nothing that really made it seem like it had to be an adult book and could easily be read as YA, in my opinion.

In all honestly, I expected Camp Damascus to be a little more predictable in how the conversion camp was set up and what the horror elements would be, but it ended up being much different than I anticipated and really brought some new (and truly terrible) ideas to the table. I was absolutely riveted for the first half of this book as I watched everything slowly build up and eventually unravel, and I think the author does a great job of really creating a story that will keep you entertained. 

We follow Rose Darling, resident of the somewhat secluded, sheltered town of Neverton, Montana. This town is also home to well-known conversion camp run by the local church, Kingdom Pine, that is considered to be one of the best and most successful (yes, residents actually are proud of this fact). Rose is a proud member of Kingdom Pine and happily commits her life to following God and her religion. Rose lives an extremely sheltered life when we are introduced to her, and I really liked getting this glimpse into her thought process, both from the start and through the many different tumultuous events that occur throughout the story. I won't be going into many more plot details than that because I feel like giving anything else away would be a bit too spoiler-y, so I'll be leaving the plot details a bit vague for this review.

I liked getting to know Rose and all of the different figures that make up her life, both those she knows when the story starts and subsequent characters we meet along the journey of this book. I would say that most of the characters felt somewhat like stereotypes of the roles they were meant to play, which works well for the story, but also gave it a bit of a 'campy' vibe than anything else, which was enjoyable to read while removing a bit of the more serious elements. The villains were bad in all the ways expected, and most of the things they had to say felt very predictable as well. There is definite character development of growth from Rose, but it also felt as though it went along a path that was well-defined by many stories before her. None of this predictability negates the enjoyment of reading this book, but it moreso took away from some of the more unique elements that this story does incorporate (such as the unique incorporation of demons in this story, which I won't say more about). 

The pacing felt fairly consistent throughout and I think this book's shorter length worked in its favor. This story is very efficient at doing what it sets out to do. There aren't really any subplots or additional things to consider–the main plot is what we get and the story sets out to follow along that plot. There's nothing wrong with this–in fact, in a way it's somewhat nice–but it does leave this feeling much more like a one dimensional story that arrived to tell one story and did just that. I applaud Tingle for managing to convey such an important message of tolerance, acceptance, and found family in such a concise and entertaining way. 

Lastly, I am not a religious person at this point in my life and, in all honesty, am not a huge fan of religion in general, and I really appreciated the author's rather nuanced take on religion and exploring the various consequences and influences of religion, both for the good and the bad. Although there are certainly plenty of anti-religion sentiments in this book, I actually appreciated that it wasn't outright hateful of all religion and actually does offer some strong points about why religion may work for some people–this felt like a more balanced approach than I sometimes see and I really liked how it was incorporated into a story that clearly poses the religious church as the main antagonist to our main character. 

Overall, I've given Camp Damascus 3.75 stars! This is a super solid horror novel that incorporates plenty of demons and sin and all the best things that go into a horror book with a strong religious components. 

*I received a copy of Camp Damascus courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Review: The Sapphire Altar (The Vagrant Gods #2) by David Dalglish

 

The Sapphire Altar (The Vagrant Gods #2) by David Dalglish

Orbit 

Publication Date: January 10th, 2023

Paperback. 544 pages.

About The Sapphire Altar:

"In this epic fantasy from a bestselling author, a usurped prince must master the magic of shadows in order to reclaim his kingdom and his people. ​ 

Cyrus wants out. Trained to be an assassin in order to oust the invading Empire from his kingdom, Cyrus is now worried the price of his vengeance is too high. His old master has been keeping too many secrets to be trusted. And the mask he wears to hide his true identity and become the legendary "Vagrant" has started whispering to him in the dark. But the fight isn't over and the Empire has sent its full force to bear upon Cyrus's floundering revolution. He'll have to decide once and for all whether to become the thing he fears or lose the country he loves."

David Dalglish returns with yet another epic installment in his The Vagrant Gods series. After finding myself captivated by The Bladed Faith last year, I'd been anxiously awaiting the return to this intense world Dalglish has created, and it did not disappoint. Please note that there will be spoilers for The Bladed Faith in this review, so if you have not read that one and you plan to, you might want to read that review first or simply proceed with caution! There will be no spoilers for The Sapphire Altar, and for that reason–as is usually the case–I will be keeping some of my discussion a bit brief on details so as to avoid spoiling anything. 

The Sapphire Altar picks up not long after the tumultuous events of The Bladed Faith, and it was easy to jump right back into this world. Also, for those of your who, like me, often struggle to remember some of the–ahem–finer details of books in series they read, Dalglish is a gem of a human being and includes a wonderful recap of the first book to get it all fresh and ready in your mind. We start at a point where Cyrus has realized that he has been betrayed by Thorda and is struggling to determine where his place should be as the Vagrant. Thanet has now been fully infiltrated by the Everlorn Empire and the rebellion that Cyrus is a part of has many new (and old) obstacles to deal with in order to achieve this goal. 

One of the things that I have most loved about this series is Dalglish's ability to craft truly captivating characters. All of the characters feel exceptionally realistic in how they are portrayed, with full fleshed personalities and individual traits and motivations, and they also therefore have many grey qualities about them that made them feel more like real people with real good and bad qualities. There is no perfection here. Cyrus has so much depth to his personality, desires, and motivations, and we see him struggle constantly with all the different sides pulling at him. This made him feel like a very relatable character who I could really empathize with and get behind (albeit we have very different issues to deal with, but I think you know what I mean).

We also get to focus on many more characters than just Cyrus in this installment, including (but not limited to) Mari, Stasia, Arn, Rayan, Keles, and more, I was thrilled at all the added depth this created. Stasia and Mari are two of my favorite sisters in fantasy at this point and I loved following along their arcs in this sequel. Both Stasia and Mari face some pretty enormous revelations and have to come to terms with what their futures holds for them, some of it good and some of it more difficult to deal with. I am really eager to see what's next for them in the next book. Keles was also a character that I didn't expect to connect with all that much and it felt like a relatively slow start with her chapters, but as the story progressed I found myself getting more and more intrigued by her role and seeing how it would play into the greater plot. And although we don't get a perspective from Thorda, I continue to find him an immensely complex and interesting character and I can't really predict anything about him.

I like that the overall world seems to be slowly growing in scope with this second installment, though I do still hope that we get to see even more of the world in the next book. I have really enjoyed moments where get to learn more about other areas int his world and their history, as well as learning more about Thanet's history and everything that has happened both within and surrounding it. Religion naturally plays a large role in this book due to the influence and incorporation of the gods, and I have been fascinated by how Dalglish has crafted this entire setup. There is a lot of complexity at play that I won't even attempt to explain in a brief review, but I do love that there is always something new to surprise me, as we are constantly learning more about the history of the gods and their various roles. 

Lastly, I just want to touch on Dalglish's writing style and the pacing of the book, both of which were excellently done. Dalglish has a very straightforward yet careful writing style that makes the story flow well and makes it easy to follow along. The pacing felt very similar to the pacing of The Bladed Faith, where things start of a little slower with some action thrown in, but as we got to the middle half of the book and beyond things really began to take off. We get plenty of scenes of introspection from characters and relationship-building between characters, and there are also plenty of actions scenes and more intense moments that really kept me hooked. And as someone who often struggles with action scenes and finding them boring, I really enjoyed these ones and actually found myself paying attention to all the finer details included. 

There are a lot of fantasy books out there that focus on rebellions and uprisings against harsh rule or wars fought over gods, but The Vagrant Gods has really stood out to me and has consistently brought an enrapturing story with alluring characters and a plot that has fully ensnared me. Somehow, Dalglish makes this premise fresh and exciting, and I cannot wait to see how the story will continue in the next book. Overall, I've given The Sapphire Altar 4.5 stars!

*I received a copy of The Sapphire Altar courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org