We Were Never Here by Hannan, Sophia

"The haunted art heist of my dreams!" --Trang Thanh Tran, New York Times bestselling author of She Is a Haunting

The remaining members of a ghost hunting show return to the haunted manor that may have killed their friend in this "moody, character-driven" (School Library Journal, starred review) contemporary gothic debut.

Four teens went into the manor, three came out.

In July, Georgia Perry and Jules Park--secret girlfriends, covert art thieves, and cohosts of a popular YouTube ghost hunting show--step into a haunted house to steal a priceless painting. A few short hours later, there's a knife in Jules's chest and Georgia is waking up in a pool of blood with no painting and no memory of how she got there.

Now it's October, and Georgia is underwater. She hasn't been to class in weeks, and she's avoiding her old crew--and only friends--like the plague. But when the three remaining thieves get a call from the man who paid a hefty sum to keep them out of jail, demanding that they return to finish the job, Georgia has no choice but to return to her old life.

As the estranged friends scramble to steal the painting with no cover story and no leader, they quickly realize that something is very, very wrong, and it's not just the suffocating memory of Jules or the prying eyes of their viewers. Between the strange shadows that begin to trail them and the nightmares plaguing Georgia's sleep, only one thing is certain: something followed them home from De Lys manor, and it will do anything to keep them from going back.

Author: Sophia Hannan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 07/28/2026
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 1.50d
ISBN: 9781665958332
Age Range: 13-17

Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 05/01/2026 pg. 80
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2026
Publishers Weekly 04/27/2026
Booklist 07/01/2026

About the Author
Sophia Hannan is a Canadian author of YA fiction. When she's not writing about ghosts and the girls they haunt, she can be found studying English literature and forcing her friends to watch horror movies with her. We Were Never Here is her debut novel.