HarperCollins Children’s Books has announced the publication of Let Them Stare, a forthcoming YA novel collaboration from Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness and author Julie Murphy, due out next spring.
The YA novel follows gender nonconforming teen Sully, who discovers a vintage bag while trapped in their hometown of Hearst, Pa., for the summer. Sully soon learns the bag is haunted by Rufus, the ghost of a drag performer with no memory of how he died. In working together to uncover Rufus’s past, the pair finds that there is more to the history of their small town than they thought.
“Just like Sully, I know what it’s like to feel trapped in a hometown that doesn’t feel like it has room for someone like me,” Van Ness said in a statement. “That’s why I’m so excited to partner with the amazing Julie Murphy to tell this story of finding the extraordinary in perfectly ordinary places and learning how to take up space even in places where you’re certain you don’t belong.”
Murphy said, “So much of this project originated with what we wanted to impart to our younger selves, but it turned out that our adult selves needed Sully just as much if not more,. What started as an ambitious idea about a haunted handbag (yes, really!) and queer history is really, at its core, about being human and how that is an experience we all have in common.”
Kristin Rens, executive editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, will edit; Gwen Beal and Albert Lee at UTA sold U.S., Canada, and open market rights. Let Them Stare is scheduled to hit shelves on May 20, 2025.
