The House on Yeet Street

A clandestine crush and Luciferian curse threaten to rupture a tight-knit group of Massachusetts boys in this sprawling queer horror novel by Norton (Hopepunk). Unassuming Aidan Cross—who has a “personality like wet socks”—has feelings for close friend Kai. Unable to confess his crush to Kai or vent his emotions to the other half of his friend group—snarky Zephyr and intelligent Terrance—the 13-year-old instead pours his feelings into a private journal. After his notebook ends up inside a nearby haunted house, Aidan hopes to use his friends’ ill-advised sleepover at the house to retrieve it without them noticing. During their excursion, the crew begins to tease apart a gruesome local legend, and Aidan’s journal catches the attention of one of the resident specters. When some of the contents of his notebook are made public, Aidan, petrified of losing his friends, scrambles to solve the centuries-old mystery to reclaim the book before his private thoughts ruin his friendships forever. Though the overlapping layers of both the curse’s backstory and the boys’ social lives lend to an overcrowded plot, the core protagonists’ goofy humor makes for an endearing and wholesome adventure. Terrence reads as Black; other characters cue as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Aug.)