The Summer Fun Massacre

SUMMER 1983. A blood-soaked summer camp counselor is found staggering down a country road. The sole survivor of a horrific massacre, Mary tells a nightmare of a masked maniac wielding an old skinning knife. Arriving too late to help, her boyfriend Tom Bailey is plagued by guilt.

SUMMER 1992. The camp reopens as Camp Summer Fun. Now a sheriff’s deputy, Tom doubts this is a good idea, but the camp has been refurbished, the counselors hired, and the little campers are on the way. Responding to reports of a blood-curdling howl near the camp, he again arrives too late to save anyone except a single brutalized teen. The killer nowhere to be found.

Hoping to catch the killer and finally right his mistakes, Tom reconnects with Mary. She’s convinced that the killer is not human but instead a rural legend known as the Hungry Hare.

The sheriff wants the case closed, but refuses to believe in folklore. Mary dreams of revenge for her friends. And Tom hunts for any traces of the killer: real or fictional. But the murderer could be closer to home than anyone expects.

The Hare is coming and is so, so hungry…

GET READY FOR THE GRISLY SEQUEL, THE YULE DAY SLAUGHTER, COMING TO YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSTORE, LIBRARY, OR ONLINE RETAILER NOVEMBER 17, 2026!

“DiLouie (My Ex, the Antichrist) lends substance and style to a familiar slasher plot in this duology-launching horror novel… Through confident, atmospheric prose, DiLouie adds tone and texture to a story that might otherwise have wallowed in splatter and gore. The arresting result raises high expectations for the sequel.” — Publishers Weekly, complete review here

“The Summer Fun Massacre swings back and forth like a bladed, unstoppable pendulum, gory slasher tale to eerie mystery and back again.” — New York Times bestselling author Peter Clines

“Urban legends, a summer camp, teens in peril, and a seemingly unstoppable killer, Craig DiLouie’s latest is a brutal exercise in nostalgic horror from an author at the top of his game. Fans of the camp-bound slashers of yesteryear will lose their goddamn minds.” — Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Sour Candy and Kin

“Amongst the splatter and ruptured corpses, DiLouie finds horror’s heart still beating beneath the cabin floor. An invigorating reminder that nothing ever really ends … unless you break the cycle.” — Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Handyman Method

“An enthralling, fast-paced take on the slasher genre that reminds us why we love these stories and makes everything familiar feel fresh, new, and exciting. The Summer Fun Massacre is simply the best slasher novel I’ve ever read.” –James Chambers, Bram Stoker Award winning author of A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World