The Haunting Between Us

Paul Michael Winters
Completed 10/14/2025, Reviewed 10/15/2025
5 stars

Wow!  This book scared the pants off me!  I read it mostly at night and every time something creepy happened, I got intense goosebumps.  It was also a terrific first love gay teen novel.  I’m a sucker for romances, and this was great.  I was completely caught up in both the romance and the haunted house shenanigans.  It also tackled some important issues like racism, body image, bullying, and parental acceptance.  Growing up a gay kid in the 60’s and 70’s is way different than now, but the issues are still the same.  There’s just a lot more support now, if you know where to look and are lucky enough to have the right friends.  Winters’ first book, Together in a Broken World, was good.  “Haunting” is a stunning sophomore effort.  I’m so glad I met him at WorldCon in Seattle where he convinced me to buy his books.

Cameron is a gay sixteen-year-old kid in the small town of Port Townsend, Washington.  He’s out to his family, but his father is in denial.  He lives across the street from an abandoned, dilapidated Victorian known as the Crimson House for its terrifying, storied past.  Cameron himself had a terrifying experience in it when he was twelve.  His best friend is Abby, an intense amateur ghosthunter with whom his father hopes Cameron will fall in love.  Out of the blue, another teen the same age moves into the Crimson House with his dad.  Hugo and his dad have been moving from place to place flipping houses, never settling down long enough to develop friends, let alone find a boyfriend.  The boys meet under less than ideal circumstances.  Eventually, they become friends, and Cameron introduces him to his circle of friends.  They start falling for each other.  Through all this, strange things happen in the house, and Cameron, Hugo, and their friends try to investigate.  They are quickly out of their league, but have to do something to save Hugo, his dad, and Cameron from the terrifying reality of the strange old woman who haunts the house.

Cameron, Hugo, and their friends are all terrific characters.  They are angsty and self-conscious, as most teens are.  Cameron was bullied his whole life for being fat and gay.  He’s lost weight but is still a little fluffy around the middle, and he hates it.  He’s now out to everyone, but there’s one particular bully who still tortures him.  Abby is a good friend, trying to help him build up his self-esteem, but with little effect.  Cameron’s dad is annoying, paying more attention to his sports loving older son, Jack.  He’s always dropping passive aggressive hints at Cameron about girls which Cameron hates but doesn’t confront.  Fortunately, Jack and the mom are very accepting.  Cameron is a good kid.  I was instantly drawn to him in the first couple of chapters.  

Hugo is Latinx and without connection.  His mom died in a car crash three years earlier and his dad is his only friend.  He’s been dealing with racist comments his whole life, as well as new kid taunts.  He’s more closeted than Cameron, never having come out to anyone but his mom and his college student older sister.  He gets into a fight with Cameron’s bully his first day at school and shuns the rest of kids in self-preservation.  Fortunately, Cameron breaks through Hugo’s shell, but it takes some effort.  

Abby and the others are good, quirky kids.  Chloe and Maya are a couple, and Chloe has insight into supernatural happenings.  Matty is an out, flirty kid with a supposedly straight, non-binary best friend who is also a jock.  When Hugo finally loosens up, they make a terrific team, tackling the mysteries and dangers of Crimson House.  

This book is called a “Heartstoppers” meets “The Haunting of Hill House” gay YA horror romance.  Now, I’ve never read either of those books, so I don’t know how much might be borrowed from them.  I just know that whatever the inspiration, Winters created a fantastic story.  In his Acknowledgments, he notes that some of Cameron’s experiences were his own.  I think it definitely shows in the ease in which I slipped into the characters.  In particular, the difficulty Cameron had letting Hugo put his hand under his shirt.  I struggled with this same issue when I was first coming out and trying to date.  

As I noted at the beginning, the spooky parts really creeped me out.  I thought it was all done masterfully, with the right amount of setup and suspense.  I had my guesses about the back story of the house, one of which turned out to be correct, but I was still surprised when it was revealed.  

This book is no literary masterpiece, but it is terrific, fast paced storytelling.  It kept me thoroughly engaged and spooked.  I would say it’s great fluff, but it’s deeper than that.  It has great world building, with an intricate haunted house, complex ghostly happenings, and a terrifying backstory.  I give this book five stars out of five.  This is definitely an emotional rating, based on my fear factor, my love of romance, and the fact I was up until 3 a.m. every night trying to read as much as I could.