Let Them Stare

PRE-ORDER FOR MAY 20, 2025

Let Them Stare by Jonathan Van Ness & Julie Murphy

A Bighearted, Queer Coming-of-Age Story with Glamour, Ghosts, and Small-Town Secrets
Fashion. Friendship. First love. And one fabulously haunted summer.

From Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness and #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Murphy comes a laugh-out-loud, feel-everything LGBTQ+ young adult novel full of sass, sparkle, and self-discovery.

Sully, an 18-year-old fashion-obsessed, gender-nonconforming teen, has one dream: escape Hearst, Pennsylvania, for a life of glamor in the big city. With a coveted internship lined up, they’re ready to trade small-town boredom for fashion week front rows. But when the internship crashes and burns, Sully is stuck—broke, carless, and totally over it.

Then comes a game-changing discovery at their favorite thrift store: a museum-worthy vintage handbag. If they can verify its authenticity, it might be their ticket out of town. But there's a catch—the bag is haunted by Rufus, a ghostly drag performer from the 1950s who needs help solving the mystery of his death before he can move on.

👻 Perfect for fans of Cemetery Boys, They Both Die at the End, and One Last Stop
👻 Queer romance meets paranormal mystery and vintage fashion fantasy
👻 Themes of identity, self-acceptance, and small-town queer resilience

Format: Hardcover 
Genre: YA Contemporary, LGBTQ+ Fiction, Paranormal Coming-of-Age
Tropes: Queer Coming-of-Age, Ghost Companion, Small-Town Secrets, Unexpected Romance
Audience: Teen & New Adult readers who love heartfelt stories with humor, sparkle, and a dash of the supernatural

✨ Let Them Stare is a fierce and funny journey of self-expression, chosen family, and embracing the place you thought you had to leave behind—with a little help from a fabulous ghost.