Demon Camp

A Soldier's Exorcism

By: Jennifer Percy

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

In 2005 a Chinook helicopter carrying 16 Special Ops soldiers crashed during a rescue mission in a remote part of Afghanistan, killing everyone on board.

In that instant, machine gunner Caleb Daniels lost his best friend, Kip Jacoby, and seven members of his unit. Back in the U.S., Caleb begins to see them everywhere - dead Kip, with his Alice in Wonderland tattoos, and the rest of them, their burned bodies watching him. But there is something else haunting Caleb, too - a presence he calls the Black Thing, or the Destroyer, a paralyzing horror that Caleb comes to believe is a demon.

Alone with these apparitions, Caleb considers killing himself. There is an epidemic of suicide among veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, men and women with post-traumatic stress disorder who cannot cope with ordinary life in the aftermath of explosions and carnage. Jennifer Percy finds herself drawn to their stories, wanting to comprehend their experiences and pain.

Her subject, Caleb, has been bringing damaged veterans to a Christian exorcism camp in Georgia that promises them deliverance from the war. As Percy spends time with these soldiers and exorcists and their followers - finding their beliefs both repel­lant and magnetic - she enters a world of fanaticism that is alternately terrifying and welcoming.

With a jagged lyricism reminiscent of Michael Herr and Denis Johnson, Demon Camp is the riveting true story of a veteran with PTSD and an explora­tion of the battles soldiers face after the war is over. Percy's riveting account forces us to gaze upon the true human consequences of the War on Terror.

©2014 Jennifer Percy (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[Percy's] sharp, unadorned writing captures the rawness of the congregants' lives, the permeability of the borderline between reality and imagination." ( Publishers Weekly)

Astounding Story!

Riveting and devastating story affected me like few other stories! You'll never look at the Iraq-Afghanistan wars the same way.

billions & billions & billions of good

real good book. Demon camp is beautiful and devastating and totally crazy. I loved it

Deep Dive Into Scary

Percy gives a close and dark look into this lesser known world of demons and exorcism. Deliverance. Potter delivers with a clear voice and puts you in the middle.

good story, sometimes hard to follow

the book was very interesting. there were just moments where i couldn't figure out where she was. i feel scenarios changed quickly and sometimes i missed it but it could be because i listen while driving so the book isn't always getting 100% of my attention.

Very interesting concept and good story line. Narr

Easy reading, good narration, interesting story concept. I will give this more thought after reading this book where I Welton have before.

To far around the bend with the religious zealots

Struggled to finish. The crazy religious zealots got overly annoying for me. The story wandered a bit to much. Seemed to make people who suffer from PTSD seem crazy and completely unstable. Not my experience at all.

Disturbing and chaotic yet familiar account

Such a rich account of experiences and beliefs and how trauma can physically manifest. Deep undercurrents explored without bias or slant. Truly different than anything. Very well narrated with a unique style.

Don't bother.

Not at all what I thought it was. More about hyper fundamental weird extremism than PTSD.
Wish I had my time back.

Don't Waste Your Time

What would have made Demon Camp better?

I don't think it could have been saved. This one needs to be scrapped.

What was most disappointing about Jennifer Percy’s story?

Everything. It was boring and odd.

How could the performance have been better?

I'm not someone to decide something like this myself but it definitely needs changing if we are to keep it.

What character would you cut from Demon Camp?

All of them lol

Any additional comments?

This book was terrible.