Publishing Winter 2028 from Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers | Macmillan

Sixteen-year-old Emi has always been a bit of an outsider. It’s not that she doesn’t have friends, but no one in her real life is as captivating as her favorite online personality: Nina, a former child star now famous for her YouTube channel, which Emi has watched obsessively for years.

So when Nina’s family moves next door to Emi the summer before junior year, it feels like fate. It takes no time at all for the two to fall headfirst into the magnetic friendship of Emi’s dreams. But Nina is different in person. She claims she’s haunted, watched by a ghostly figure since falling from a barn’s hayloft while on the set of a horror movie when she was twelve. When Emi learns that the barn still stands in the redwoods of Northern California, within driving distance, she convinces Nina to travel there. Confronting Nina’s past together will only bring them closer—and any creepy footage for Nina’s channel will be a bonus.

A week after they return home, Nina is found dead in a ravine.

Four months later, sick with grief, Emi finds what she’s convinced is Nina’s toe bone and buries it in her mom’s garden. She’s stunned when a redwood tree begins to grow in its place, and a new girl moves into Nina’s house next door: Sage, who is both charming and elusive. In the weeks that follow and as the redwood sprout grows, Emi’s friendship with Sage escalates. But when Sage starts emulating her late friend, Emi is forced to confront her messy relationship with Nina, and her role in her death.

PRAISE FOR THE OTHER HALF OF A HAUNTING

“THE OTHER HALF OF A HAUNTING  is everything I love about YA. Heather Ezell’s voice is moody and atmospheric, with a taut control that makes even the quietest moments feel like earthquakes. This is the kind of book that sinks its teeth in you and doesn’t let go” —New York Times bestselling author Rachel Lynn Solomon

“Gripping from the first sentence, THE OTHER HALF OF A HAUNTING pulled me in and refused to let go. With Ezell’s dream-like prose and vivid sensory details, this story lingers long after the final page. Singular, unforgettable, and—as the title suggests—haunting in the very best way.” —New York Times bestselling author Rachel Griffin