Titan Books signs 'funny and warm' queer fantasy romance from Raines

Titan Books has signed Camilla Raines’ debut YA novel, a queer fantasy romance entitled The Hollow and the Haunted.

Editor Katie Dent acquired world English language rights from Kat Kerr at Donald Maass Literary Agency. The novel will be published in October 2024.

The Hollow and the Haunted follows teenage psychic Miles Warren whose life is interrupted when he has a premonition of Gabriel Hawthorne’s murder, a boy whose family has a decades-long feud with Miles’ own. The boys form an uneasy alliance to try and solve Gabriel’s murder before it takes place.

Raines said: "I wrote The Hollow and the Haunted at a time in my life when I needed to put something heartfelt and hopeful out into the world, where my characters find the courage to fight fate, family and their own insecurities. I want people who read it to feel represented, to see themselves in these anxious and awkward queer kids who are trying their best despite the odds stacked against them."

Dent added: "I was immediately charmed by The Hollow and the Haunted  – Camilla’s voice is funny and warm, drawing you into a lush, darkly magical world while also capturing the spiky, sarcastic vulnerability of being sixteen in a way that feels so true to life. Miles and Gabriel are fantastic characters, whose opposites-attract chemistry leapt out from their first encounter. I can’t wait for readers to meet them and fall in love with this brilliantly crafted world."