Take It to Your Grave

A ghost-hunting teen is unprepared for the violence and emotional weight of a successful spectral encounter in this chilling thriller from Bou-Montes (Till the Last Beat of My Heart). When Puerto Rican youth Joaquín and his friends break into an abandoned Massachusetts house, the group’s intrusion awakens the restless spirit of Maximiliano, a teen who, 30 years earlier, died in a presumed suicide after falling from the roof. Following Joaquín’s flight from the scene with a bracelet that once belonged to Max, the ghost becomes tethered to him. Max, who has no memory of his own death, discovers he can communicate through electronic devices, but his unstable emotions often overload or destroy anything powered by electricity. Though Joaquín’s relationship with his Deaf, Chinese Puerto Rican ex-boyfriend Marte is strained, the pair team up to tackle the haunting and help Max move on, with Marte relying on his ability to perceive ghosts and drawing on his prior experience with hostile spirits. But the more they dig into Max’s past, the more emotionally unstable he becomes, each new revelation resulting in increasingly perilous consequences for Joaquín, whose own body and health become disturbingly intertwined with the ghost. Genuine suspense, surprising revelations, and moments of real danger culminate in a gripping contemporary haunting. Ages 14–up. Agent: Saritza Hernandez, Andrea Brown Literary. (July)