Sunday, March 31, 2013

Bible Camp Bloodbath

by Joey Comeau

Bible Camp Bloodbath

Q: WHAT IS BIBLE CAMP BLOODBATH?

is it a self-published, minor note novella from a notable Canadian talent?

is it a biting satire of splatter films and/or a culture of violence aimed at children and/or Christian hypocrisy?

is it a surprisingly tender and real depiction of tweens at a summer camp, threaded with poignant angst and quick moments of miniature heartbreak, and featuring an endearing and appealingly quirky little protagonist?

is it an exercise in viciously sadean excess - one where all those moments of angst and heartbreak serve to punish the reader when served alongside horrifyingly pornographic descriptions of disgusting, sadistic acts of cruelty?

is it the kind of novella with an ending that kicks you right in the face, and then closes with a sentence full of a yearning, despairing sort of beauty?

is it the kind of sardonic, nonchalantly intelligent novella you can read - rapt - on your cell phone's kindle app on the bus to a party, then during this so-called "party", and then on the way back home again?

is it the kind of novella that made you feel sick at the end, a dead and hollow kind of sick, a sick where you had to immediately rinse your brain out with an ornate classic fantasy, in an only semi-successful effort to quickly move past that feeling of empty sickening sadness?

is it all of those things?

A: YES

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