Book: The Summer Fun Massacre by Craig Dilouie
Reviewed by Weird | weird.reads.books
Rating: 3/5
Craig DiLouie just gave us the ultimate 80s/90s horror movie throwback, but he completely flips the script by filtering it through the lens of a small-town mystery. If you are a fan of classic slasher tropes, The Summer Fun Massacre is a read for you.
Instead of sitting in the back of the theater screaming at the teen counselors to not go into the dark cabin, we are strapped into the passenger seat of a squad car. The story follows Deputy Tom Bailey in 1992 as Camp Summer Fun attempts a grand reopening—nine years after a brutal 1983 massacre that left Tom’s high school girlfriend, Mary, as the sole survivor. When history bloodily repeats itself on the night before the new campers arrive, Tom is forced to hunt down a killer while wrestling with a decade of heavy, suffocating survivor's guilt.
The small-town cop procedural worked here in creating a fresh perspective from the usual Final Girl trope. Tom isn't an omniscient action hero, he’s a empathetic guy trying to solve a puzzle while his bureaucratic sheriff just wants the case closed before election season. It reads like Scream and Friday the 13th meets a dark, atmospheric detective noir with an unreliable, inexperienced cop narrator.
DiLouie masterfully builds an eerie, claustrophobic tension that swings back and forth like a pendulum between a grounded crime investigation and the supernatural whispers of a local legend called the Hungry Hare. The historical texture of the two timelines is incredibly vivid, right down to the cinematic, nostalgic visual styling.
This was an exceptionally gory and quick read that honors its roots while giving the genre a breath of fresh air.
Thank you to Orbit for the eARC. All opinions are my own.