I Bought a Haunted Summer Camp

by Sam Whittaker

Summer Camp Was Never This Fun… Or Bloody.Sandra is just along for the ride when her wealthy father buys a defunct summer camp. She believes he’s just trying to recapture his youth, but there may be something more going on.

She rolls up her sleeves and gets to work helping, but it isn’t easy. Especially not with the unexplained things that start happening, like the renovation crew’s tools that disappear and inexplicable childlike laughter in the oddest places… when no children are around. And then there are the sightings of a large, menacing machete-wielding man hiding behind trees.

As the mystery of the camp unfolds, Sandra sees the danger to campers and counselors alike. And when the summer fun reaches its highest point, then the real mayhem begins.

Genres: Horror, Paranormal

188 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 7, 2025

Reviews

[Amber J (Thereadingwitch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. It was a quick and fun read but very stereotypical I guess?

[Emily Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sandra's father has purchased the summer camp he attended as a youth. He plans to open it back up. Strange things occur. A man is seen but then can't be found. Strange noise are heard. What is happening at the camp? Spooky read full of creepiness.

[Mickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

*ARC REVIEW*
Sandra's dad has just bought the summer camp he had attended as a child. He says he loved it so much back then, he wants to give other children that same joy he felt. Whilst getting the place ready, Sandra notices a large man spying on them and then disappearing. Plus she keeps hearing children laughing. When the camp opens, strange things keep happening. And Sandra isn’t so sure they should have opened. And what is her dad hiding?

Summer camp horror? You know me, of course I wasn't passing up the chance to read this.
This was a brilliantly written story, it was fast-paced, the spooky atmosphere was perfect and I loved every second of it. This is definitely my favourite of this series so far and I can't tell you how excited I am to see what comes next.
This is the perfect read for spooky season, so make sure you grab a copy. It's the third in the series, but can be read as a standalone.

[Ali O · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought a Haunted Summer Camp by Sam Whittaker
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Thoughts of summer camp should bring happy memories… unless it’s a haunted camp! This story has creep, thrills and mystery!
Sandra’s dad buys a summer camp that he went to as a child and she’s along to help him with the summer camp duties.
Trying to get the camp fixed up in time for the kids to come, proves to have lots more issues then they realized. Strange and unexplainable things begin to happen right away.
Is someone lurking in the woods? Why is Sandra hearing children laughing? There’s lots of secrets that Sandra must unravel to find out the truth.

I was lucky to get an arc of this excellent book! It’s a fast and very exciting read! It’s well written and I really enjoyed it!

*It comes out October 7th and I recommend grabbing this one!!* ⛺️⛺️⛺️

[Breanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Bought a Haunted Summer Camp by Sam Whittaker was just as I expected—a glorious, ghostly read. The story follows a father and daughter as they team up to rebuild and reopen a summer camp from his childhood. At first, everything seems to be going perfectly, but soon mysterious shadows, unsettling stalkers, and even a sudden death or two turn the camp upside down. It’s eerie, suspenseful, and a fun haunted tale that kept me hooked.

[Amanda S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Sam Whittaker writes my perfect haunted tale. I am simply in love with the writing style and the way he tells a story. I eagerly look forward to each new book in this series.

[Stephanie Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good summer camp book and this one did not disappoint! First book I’ve read by Dan Whittaker and won’t be the last. It was a quick read that drew me in from the first chapter. Great story, great characters, great everything! Thoroughly enjoyed it; highly recommend!

[❤ArtfullySinful❤ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something bad happened here. I don't know what it is yet. They're not telling us. Come get me. I think the camp people may call you about it. Just in case, I am writing this letter. Please. I am scared.

Summer camps should be filled with excitement, first times, and so much more positivity then this camp ever felt. Peyton Rawls was only a child that summer when Rebecca was savegly beaten and stuffed down a pit toilet. Only a child when two teenage boys also were beaten and then drowned in the lake by the maintainence man; Jacob Joiner. As his summer of fun was cut short by discovering Rebecca still alive but barely, Peyton has been determined to bring joy back into this abandoned camp. Along with his twenty two year old daughter Sandra, they've worked tiredly through the cleaning, repairs, and the first four weeks of summer camp for dozens of children. Hiring along six counselors; Amy, Natalie, Mark, Emily, Pete and Josh, they each experienced u explainable sightings and laughter, her they never could predict how deadly this night will become. Seeing a man in green overalls wandering the trails by the lake, it didn't take long for Sandra to shift her thoughts from a living stalker to something paranormal. With her father refusing to open up about the tragedy that unfolded here, she's left running the camp and trying to put aside everything else.

“It was kids laughing,” Lester put in. “But not, like, in a good way.” Carl nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah,” he said. “And it sounded like they were right there in the room with us, but when we looked, no one besides us was in there. It made me go cold all over.”

Finally the fifth and final week would begin and with it brought the teenagers, something nobody truly looked forward to. During the summer bash celebration, Josh would have a creeping phamton snatch him off of the dock and drag him beneath the water. Desperate to save him, Sandra would dive in and come face to face with a mutilated boy who trapped her friend by seaweed. As she witnessed his final breath, it was her turn to be habked down but luckily her father would jump in and pull her to safety. In her absence from the lifeguard post, Natalie took the seat and would face an awful death. With the support beams cut weeks prior, the teenage ghosts would push her over and leave her fatally impaled through the chest. Running blindingly mad being cornered each way, they're forced to leave the main trial and run to the dilapidated cabin located further away. With eighty campers and themselves taking shelter, Pete would be drug through the window before being killed. Knowing time isn't on their side, they would keep running until the deceased maintence man would hunt the boys down instead.

I stopped when I saw the doll. It was a hideous little thing. The figure was ratty and bedraggled. But for some reason, I was drawn to it. While they dealt with Noah, I glided toward the doll. I stopped, leaned forward, and studied it closely. One of its eyes was closed while the other was open. It looked like a child had taken play scissors to the hair and cut an uneven mess. Its dress was dirty and stained. And the thing smelled bad, too.

Reading a letter of confessions from the man who committed these horrible crimes, she learned the two troubled teenagers took revenge and killed his daughter. Forcing his hand for revenge, he beat them before drowning them and then finished by stuffing their own bodies down into the pit toilets like they did his daughter. Knowing nobody would ever see passed this, he hung himself and forever trapped his spirit to this camp. As Sandra forced her father to confess all the nightmares he's housed, they know they need to close this camp, but unfortunately her father would be killed before that. Held down by one of the phamton teens, he had his throat slit with broken glass as his child watched on in horror. Refusing to ever open this terror to the public, she's making the plans to demolish the buildings and cabins and leave an empty plot of land instead.

His skin was pale with a blue tinge. Purple veins stood out on his arms and face. A section of flesh was missing from his cheek, showing bone beneath. The wounded edges of flesh surrounding the exposed bone were angry red and ragged. Wet black hair plastered to his scalp. And just below his brow, two piercing yellow eyes that I swore glowed with menace peered out like searchlights. The boy paused long enough to lock eyes with me. His eyes widened in hellish delight as a wicked grin stretched his face. My heart seemed to stop beating, anticipating whatever horrid thing the specter had in mind. I shoved the whistle in my mouth, intending to warn Josh with it. There was no time for that. The ghostly form grabbed Josh by the ankles and yanked his legs out from under him. Josh's face hit the dock and bounced. Even over the pumping music, I could hear his nose crack with a sickening crunch.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

🎃Spookoplathon 2025 Book 9🎃

The premise grabbed me by the throat and I knew I had to read this story for the Spookoplathon prompt I rolled (set in the woods.) Creepy things start happening almost immediately, and the last few chapters are great, spooky fun in a deliciously over-the-top campfire story meets supernatural slasher horror kind of way.

But...I kind of hate the characters.

Peyton, the MC's dad and instigator of the camp's revival, is a rich gym bro who likes to throw his money and strength around to get people to obey him. He's the kind of guy who crushes your hand when shaking it to assert his dominance. This is actually stated in the story. When a body is discovered, he demands that the cops pull it down. Sir, that's a crime scene. Your power trip has been halted by a delayed flight, mmkay? He occasionally refers to himself in the third person, avoids reasonable confrontation by intimidating others away or ignoring them, and ignores pesky details like the sounds of kids that shouldn't be there, his daughter's room being broken into, and a literal dead body being found the first day of reconstruction. Oh, and his inability to face facts results in who knows how many people dying that final night.

Sandra, our sorta final girl, is an elitist brat. She calls the construction workers Neanderthals before even meeting them, seems to be proud of her dad's pompous behavior, and when there's an issue with two rich kids and a goth kid, she says the goth "looked like twice the trouble at half the cost." Because we all know rich kids never start problems, right muffin?

Also, no one could accuse her of being a girl's girl after this line: "Amy was… different. She came into the office space and sat without being asked. She had a sly way about her, which, combined with her classic good looks, gave me pause. If I’m being honest, it had more to do with Mark than any character deficit I detected in her. She struck me as someone who might be on the prowl for a guy."

Homegirl hates this chick for being possible competition for the cute male employee she'd just hired. Too pretty and confident, you know. What a skank, amirite?

Luckily Sandra's character evolves throughout the story and she's less of a spoiled daddy's girl by the end. I'm still not certain what past traumas she'd endured, why they were relevant to the story, or if it had anything to do with her being hyper-reactive to a construction worker checking her out (which doesn't bother her at all when clean-cut Mark does it upon first meeting, it must be said). It felt kind of random, to be honest, and was only mentioned directly in the end after a few allusions to it before. No details though.

Final thoughts: I was a little surprised the author went with an amalgamation of classic slashers Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees - the huge man in coveralls, work boots and hidden face, and the machete-wielding stalker trawling the woods and lakeshores of a summer camp. I liked the nostalgia of it though. I don't understand Sandra's bland reaction to her dad and others being murdered by sociopathic ghosts in front of her (and I didn't get the impression it was PTSD, more of an "I'm over this whole thing" kind of feeling, which is also how the abrupt story ending came across.) And are we just going to ignore the fact that all the adults in this situation left a bunch of potentially injured teenagers in the water to fend off the murder ghosts on their own while they ran for cover?

Anyway, I know I complained a lot about Sandra and Peyton, but overall the story was a good, creeptastic time, which is everything you could want out of a book for spooky season. 👻🔪

[Josette Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with the other books in this series something terrible happened in the past and now new people will pay for awakening the spirits. Reopening a summer camp seems like an awesome idea. The place just needs some renovation to allow a whole new set of campers to enjoy all the benefits. When things start to happen the same response is given; to just ignore the red flags. I found it quite odd that when Sandra tried to research the camp’s past and was unable to find anything. Her father changed the subject whenever she questioned him about the past. So when things broke into chaos everyone was in the dark. They had no advance knowledge to go against the ghostly specters. When Sandra finally pieced together the information she had found it was too late for some of the members of the camp. Only when the spirits were able to find a solution was there allowed to be peace. After this harrowing experience, I think I would raze the place and place the property into silence.

[VDKeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y’ALL. I Bought A Haunted Summer Camp by Sam Whittaker is the perfect mix of campfire nostalgia and pure nightmare fuel. 🔥 Sandra shows up to help her dad rehab an old camp, but between missing tools, creepy laughter echoing through the trees, and a machete man playing peekaboo in the shadows, this “family project” turns into a full-blown scream-fest. 😱🌲

Sandra’s sharp, funny, and surprisingly brave—the kind of heroine you’d actually want on your horror team. And Whittaker’s writing? Chef’s kiss. Crisp, cinematic, and soaked in tension. You can smell the pine needles, hear the crackle of the fire, and feel that cold prickle of dread when the woods go silent. 🌒

Fast-paced, witty, and wickedly fun—this book slices through clichés and leaves you grinning like a maniac. If summer camp had been this wild, I’d have packed marshmallows and pepper spray. 🔪🔥

[Angel Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Strange Haunted Places series. I must say this was another fun read, this time taking place in the middle of a summer camp that a father buys to reignite his memories of his childhood. Or at least, that's what it seems on the surface. Oh boy, it turns into something far more sinister as one continues reading. Just like the Haunted Church book, this one caught my attention right away and I couldn't stop reading once I got to the middle.

If you pay attention within the story, there are letters written by Sandra's father that seem to give off a very different vibe. Sights of a man with a machete begin to appear. The history and realization of the mysterious 'ghostly' figure is as dark as it comes. If you enjoy stories based on haunted places, you need to add this one to your list!

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Sandra's father buys a long-abandoned summer camp, she's not sure it's a great idea. He assures her it will be a success, providing summer fun for kids like he had there decades before. But things quickly get strange. The workers hired to fix up the camp find their tools missing and hear children's laughter. And Sandra keeps seeing a hulking figure in overalls wielding a machete. And once summer camp starts, all these things start happening more. As the summer winds down, all the ghostly occurrences ramp up until Sandra fears a catastrophe is coming.
Despite the amusing little title, this book was surprisingly not the least bit lighthearted. The further the story went, the darker it got, fully erupting in a bloody, violent finale. - 3.5/5*

[Becci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was fun.

This is a ya creepy little tale of ghosts at a summer camp.

Sandra is the daughter of the owner of the summer camp who is helping to get the camp ready for opening and run it during the summer.

She starts to see and hear things that creep her out and she starts to believe there are supernatural forces at work.

It also seems her father is hiding something from when he was at the camp as a child.

This was a fast fun read with some great creepy elements. A relatively slow build up to a fast paced finale.

[Dan Mckeithan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunted summer camp! Sam brings us to Sandra, who's dad buys an abandoned camp and plans to open it up. As always, the creepiness and spookiness occur when a man is seen around the camp, but is also not there and children's laughter is heard from somewhere. The atmosphere keeps you in the edge of your seat and you know if you've read any others in this series it's going to be a fun, bumpy ride. By the end you're ready to see what Sam has for us next.

[Amanda Elizabeth Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again Dam Whittaker brought us to a place that’s supposed to be fun and happy and filled with laughter and turned it into a nightmare. I Bought A Haunted Summer Camp was perfectly written to keep you on your edge and needing to know what was gonna happen and the why. I loved it as much as his previous books in the series.

[§amantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sandra and her dad own a haunted summer camp. once open Sandra notices someone watching them from the tree line. Will the campers/leaders be ok and make it out alive? another fun read by sam. enjoyed the twist and will definitely be checking out more books by this author.

[Carolyn Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unexpected

A solid summer camp horror story where the past refuses to stay buried, this has a fantastic plot twist that I truly enjoyed.

[Shemekia Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read!!!!

Another great read!!! The first chapter had me lured in and I couldn't put it down after that. I am enjoying this series.