• Age: 13 to 17
• Grade: 8 to 12
• Reading age: 11 to 13

Adrian's best friend and his boyfriend don't get along. Oh, and his boyfriend is a ghost.

Adrian Yates expected his summer would involve sharing Slurpees with his best friend Zoomer and pretending not to hear his dads' whispered fighting. And that's exactly how it was going, until the night Sorel appeared in the graveyard by Adrian's apartment. Sorel gets Adrian in ways no one else has; the fact that he's not technically alive only makes things exciting. But Sorel can't always control his otherworldly behaviour, and Zoomer's worried he might be hiding something. On stormy summer nights behind the cemetery's iron gates, Adrian and Sorel meet in secret and the pair begin to experiment with consensual possession. Despite the warning signs, Adrian is certain he has everything under control--until suddenly he finds himself fighting for his life.

MARKUS HARWOOD-JONES is a writer, visual artist and documentary filmmaker. He has self-published the short story collections Confessions of a Teenage Transsexual Whore and Everything & All at Once; his feature film, Mosaic, tells the story of his journey across Canada and the United States to learn more about the trans community. He is author of the Lorimer Real Love teen romances, Just Julian and Romeo for Real. Markus lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Markus Harwood-Jones' profile page

"Markus Harwood-Jones cleverly uses the narrative possibilities of the ghost story to explore issues of consent, toxic relationships, possessiveness, and boundaries. They allow their richly developed teen characters to breathe, make mistakes, and be messy. It's a gift for queer and trans teens -- and any ghost boy/girl/theyfriends they may or may not have."

-- Autostraddle's "65 of the Best Queer Books of 2023"

"The Haunting of Adrian Yates is a cautionary tale about the perils of destructive dependence, but it is also a tale about learning and growing in a relationship, healing and reclaiming your independence, and accepting all the good and bad of life."

-- Quill & Quire

"Great galloping ghostbusters! Trans YA author extraordinaire Markus Harwood-Jones has given us all an incredible gift in The Haunting of Adrian Yates. Brimming with enough steamy drama and wry humor to entertain any soap-opera fan, Harwood-Jones' sharp storytelling and poetic prose also deliver several moments of true pathos that will haunt readers long after they close the covers. Phantasmagoric hijinks notwithstanding, the trio of central characters in the book spring to life from the page as they navigate the twists and turns of desire, depression, consent, and codependence while steadfastly refusing such binary categories as 'hero' and 'villain.'"

-- Kai Cheng Thom