New high school graduate Sully is desperate to leave home, and an amazing local thrift-store handbag seems valuable enough to be a ticket out. Except for one thing – the item is haunted by the ghost of a 1950s drag performer.
Bestselling co-authors Jonathan Van Ness and Kansas City’s own Julie Murphy talk about their collaboration, Let Them Stare. They discuss how their story about unlocking the past and finding a way out turned into a celebration of a hometown’s long-buried queer history and growing strong right at home.
In 2018, near the end of filming in Kansas City, Van Ness and his co-stars on the Netflix reality series Queer Eye launched their book, Queer Eye: Love Yourself, Love Your Life, at Central Library before a standing-room only crowd.
The book's official release day is May 20. The local bookseller, Under the Cover, will have early release signed copies available for purchase. Pre-order your copy here for quick pick-up at the event, and submit your receipt for a special gift from the publisher!
About the book
Sully is ready to get out of Hearst, Pennsylvania. With a fashion internship secured, the gender-nonconforming eighteen-year-old is trading in their stifling small town for the big city. Sully even sells their beloved car, to Bread—er, Brad—the most boring (and maybe only other) gay kid in town.
When Sully’s internship goes up in smoke, they’re trapped in Hearst with no cash—and no car. Desperate, they go to the thrift store, their personal sanctuary. There, they discover a vintage bag—like "put this baby in an airtight case at the MET" vintage. If Sully can authenticate it, the resale value would be enough for a new life in the city.
But when they begin to investigate, Sully finds themself haunted. Literally. With the ghost of Rufus, a drag performer from the fifties with no memory of how he died standing—no, floating—in their bedroom, Sully’s summer has a new purpose: 1) help this ghostly honey unlock his past and move on and 2) make bank—after all, the Real Real doesn’t take poltergeist purses.
With Rufus in tow, and Brad—who’s looking pretty scrumptious these days—playing chauffeur, Sully delves into the history of the town they’re so desperate to escape. Only to discover that there might be more to Hearst than they ever knew.
