We Were Never Here

by Sophia Hannan

A sapphic debut about three ghost hunters turned art thieves using their viral show as a front, who are blackmailed into completing their catastrophic last heist and retrieving the haunted painting that may have murdered their ringleader—but something followed them home that night, and it will do anything to stop them from finishing the job.

Genres: Horror, Lesbian, Young Adult, Queer, LGBT, Gothic, Paranormal

1 pages, Audio CD

First published July 28, 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. Her debut novel, We Were Never Here, comes out in 2026 with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Reviews

[Ricarda]

I'm sad to say it but this book about traumatized lesbians being haunted by a creepy painting did not live up to its full potential. I just expected more, especially since the beginning was very promising. The story is about a group of friends who used to visit haunted places and talk about ghosts on the internet. At one point they combined these activities with some art thievery (naturally) and so they spent plenty of time breaking into haunted places to exchange valuable paintings for forgeries. But a few months ago one of these trips went terribly wrong and left one of the girls dead without much of an explanation. None of the remaining friends is coping well with that and everyone ends up depressed and alone. One of them can't sleep without nightmares, one can't stop painting dead girls and will definitely fail her fancy art workshop, and one can absolutely not afford the elite boarding school without the stolen-painting money. They don't really have a choice but to return to the crime scene and steal that one fateful painting for good, and that's just the start of more problems. The heavy atmosphere was transported very well, but the plot just didn't manage to be equally intriguing. Very little happened in these 350 pages and the story started to drag and became repetitive. The characters were either thinking about the haunted painting or their dead girlfriend or their dead future, then they freaked out about it, calmed down and repeated the process. In between we got plenty of lesbian panic and tiny little crumbs of the things that I actually wanted to read about. Why was there so little about the art thefts? Why was there so little about the ghosts? The characters barely seemed connected to these things although they were supposed to be. There are little snippets from the ghost videos that they were filming, but they were less about the content and more about the toxic comments that two of the girls were getting. They were shipped by random people on the internet and later accused of queerbaiting, and while I thought that super interesting and an unusual theme in a YA novel, it also wasn't why I picked this book up in the first place. I also don't know what to make of the lesbian representation. While I liked the discussion revolving around coming out, it also was just so weird how the girls were deeply upset about the dead girl in one minute and then kissing in the next. It's definitely delivering on the messy lesbians, but I actually wanted to separate everyone in the group, wrap them in cozy blankets, give them a snack and call a therapist. I never thought that the characters were explored in a way that really showed their personalities or their growth, and plenty of things just stayed too vague to become invested. And that's a shame, really. While the overall vibes of the story do fit the gorgeous cover, it also stays the best thing about this book in the end. 2.5 stars.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Hayley]

i love this book so much! sophia is truly a genius and y’all are in for the time of your lives in 2025✨

[megs_bookrack]

We Were Never Here follows three estranged friends, Georgia, Circe and James, who reunite to finish a task they set out to do months ago. They need to steal a prized painting from a haunted mansion on their school campus.



What could go wrong, you're probably asking, and the answer to that is a lot. Back in July, the three, along with their other friend, Jules, had tried to steal the painting while filming an episode of their YouTube Ghost Hunting show.

The result of that mission was Jules, dead, with a knife in her chest, and Georgia waking up in a pool of blood with zero recollection of what happened.

Oh, and they didn't get the painting.



Now it's October, and the buyer for the painting is back, and he wants it. No excuses. They agree to get back together and try one more time. They need to put this to rest.

Unfortunately, haunted houses never rest and the three are about to enter another nightmare. Will they all make it out alive this time? And what's the deal with this painting?



Y'all, I'm not going to drag this out. In no way, shape or form, was this for me. I didn't enjoy any of it, really; not the writing, the characters, the plot, or even the overall tone.

I do love the cover though. The art style and colors, it drew me to it immediately. I really wanted to love this and while it had a solid concept, the execution fell flat, IMO.



It felt like it was 700-pages long. It just dragged and dragged. It's completely morose. There's no nuance at all in the pacing, or energy; very one note.

It also somehow felt like it was trying to do too much, while simultaneously not doing much of anything at all. James was the one beacon of hope, but even he couldn't save it for me.



I'm sure Readers for this exist. They're out there and I'm hoping they find it and love it. Perhaps someone with a bit more patience than me, or with less of an urge to eye roll all the drama at the end. Sadly, that Reader isn't me, and I'm ready to put this far behind me.

Thank you, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, for providing me with a copy to read and review. On to the next!

[Nicholas Perez]

Inject that cover in my veins.

[Stay]

"She was a painting and nothing else. Yet here she was, standing at the foot of Georgia’s bed, her mouth open like she might speak. It hung that way, exposing the black rot of her teeth and the dead white thing that was her tongue."

DNF @ 100 pages

Here I am, yet again being suckered into reading a book because of the hauntingly beautiful cover. I am such a fool.

I really wanted to love this but in a hundred pages nothing happened nor can I even remember anything exciting happening. Just wasn’t my time to read this. *sigh*

[Eden]

DNF @15%

This probably isn’t a bad book, but it isn’t to my personal taste. The author hasn’t made me care at all about the mystery, the characters, etc. And not a lot makes sense at this point. I don’t need the whole mystery to be revealed to me or to understand everything about the main characters, but I’d like some more context on their families, why they’re going to this school, etc. But whatever. I’m bored so it’s a DNF.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me an earc for review.

[Birdie Schae]

Even though I read a very early version of WE WERE NEVER HERE in 2022, it grabbed me by my throat and never once let me go. Full of grief, intrigue and the most perfect chaos, this sapphic YA horror novel has everything I love about the genre and is SO feral-worthy. You truly don't want to miss Sophia Hannan's unique, emotional and thrilling debut!!

[Kera’s Always Reading]

First of all, this cover is incredible and it just fits so well. I love a good haunting story and this is so fresh and different. Creepy art, paranormal investigation with a very intense fandom, mysterious death, grief, and queer longing... Strong characters! Vivid imagery! Unsettling and eerie from start to finish.

[molly]

1.5 rounded up because i dont want to be mean
but this is the type of 300ish page book that makes you feel like youre reading a 800 page textbook hello

[Stef]

3.5 ⭐️
The dark academia atmosphere of the campus paired with a haunted house was perfectly eerie.

This book contained multiple POVs, which was an incredible way for the reader to experience three different versions of grief over the same event. In addition to that, being able to follow the character arcs through their own and others eyes definitely enhanced this one.
The imagery used in the writing was beautiful and complimented the art themes of this book.

It was a bit of a slow burn, but every time I picked it up, I was still captured by the story.

[soleil ☀️]

wow, just wow
so proud of you sop 🫶

[Hannah Fraser]

Wasn’t going to drink tonight but I miss Jules

[Kaitie Reads]

DNF @ 17%. I can't get into this one at all! It feels too dialogue-heavy, with too many early multi-POV shifts for me.

[Em]

Unfortunately I had to DNF this one. The premise was really interesting, but I couldn't connect with any of the characters. The plot was also moving too slowly to keep my interest, but while this book isn't my cup of tea, I'm sure others will enjoy it.

[Megan]

This book caught my eye back in 2024 and I was very excited to receive an arc of it. The cover is absolutely stunning and captures the story so well. It gives those creepy "not quite right" vibes excellently. I thought the premise of this book was so interesting and I'm glad that it translated into the story, I found it so hard to put down and it always kept me going for just one more chapter until it snowballed into more like 5 more chapters. I was honestly a little surprised that others said the pacing was slow, to me it was just right for the plot and story to progress naturally. Which is saying something because ill be the first to complain about slow pacing, it often makes or breaks a book for me. But I just didn't see it in this book.

I really liked all three POV characters. James, Circe, and Georgia all had something to their perspectives that made me invested in them and their stories. I can't really say I had a favorite out of the three, but Georgia's story got me the most I think just because of her involvement in the haunting and connection to De Lys and The Lady, Drowned. I enjoyed Circe and her eye for art and when we got brief glimpses into how she forged old paintings. I never would have thought that deeply about it or the process honestly. I liked the inserts of transcripts of their show, but I would have liked more of them. It felt like the only time we got a glimpse into how the groups dynamic worked before and their relationship with Jules and it was a good addition. They all had different feelings about Jules once she's gone and they grapple heavily with those through the story but I felt it was important we knew Jules a little better than we ended up knowing her by the end. If there's one thing I love, its characters that haunt the narrative without ever being there. It always enhances books so much for me honestly. The creepy and unsettling vibes of the book were so enhanced by the writing and I think it really made the book what it was. I think there were a few more threads left unfinished by the end, but other than that I really liked this one. Thank you to Netgalley/Edelweiss and the publisher for the ARC!

[Brittany |planted.library]

Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada for this eARC!

I didn’t love this. I found it so slow and just honestly kind of boring.

I was initially drawn because of the amazing cover, but I just couldn’t connect to the story. I found that I really didn’t care about each POV, and was just reading to get the story over with.

[Martino Salciccioli]

3.5 ⭐️

[Chelsea (gofetchabook)]

I enjoyed this one and thought it was decent. I had no real complaints.

It was a YA horror about a group of teens who get involved in art theft. When one of the paintings is haunted, someone ends up dead and someone ends up haunted.

I guess the story was fine except I didn’t fully understand how a group of high schoolers ended up with a blackmailing, high end art dealing handler in the first place. You kind of just had to accept the story.

At the heart of it, I liked the characters and liked following what they were going through, I just didn’t fully grasp how they got there.

[kelisliveshere˚₊⋆ ʚɞ ⋆₊˚]

Thank you Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

Absolutely gorgeous cover, which is what drew me to this book in the first place. I won’t pretend it’s not a good story. The entire premise was intriguing and the representation of a comment section was so real that it was endearing even though they were pretty awful, which is the point.

However, everyone had the same personality and tone of voice. No one was distinctly themselves and I found myself losing interest because of this. Somehow everyone was underreacting while expressing how much they’re overreacting. It felt like the book had one steady, very neutral tone the entire time. I was completely unmoved by what would’ve been the scary parts but like I said, it’s still a very good story.

[Sidney Ann Coleman]

Ahh this was such a disappointment.. There were so many elements of this that on paper were great, but when put together they just didn't work..
I also feel that the story felt like it was dragging on much longer than it actually did, which is never a great thing for a story.
There were also many moments that the horror kinda felt shoehorned in.

[Starr ❇✌❇]

3.8
*Review to come*

Pre-review comments below
very into this cover I cannot lie

[Wen-yi Lee]

With gothic touches and prose like a submerged dream, WE WERE NEVER HERE paints ghostly grief for the gay Buzzfeed Unsolved generation. A delicately-wrought haunting of those who've grown versions of themselves online--about complicated love, reclaiming yourself, and the exorcising power of seeing and being seen.

[The Nightwatch Desk]

Four ghost hunters enter a house to steal a painting, but only three come out alive. Now the person who covered it up wants them to try again.

👻Young Adult Fiction
🖼️Gothic Horror
👻Former Ghost Hunters
🖼️Art Thieves
👻Haunted House
🖼️Sapphic Romance Subplot
👻Friendship & Grief

‘We Were Never Here’ is a gothic horror about ghost hunting art thieves. Yes, you read that correctly, ghost hunting art thieves. How could I refuse such an interesting premise?

This story switches between three characters Georgia, James, and Circe. They used to be best friends until Jules’ death pulled them apart (Georgia’s ex-girlfriend).

The three are struggling financially while they attend a private school. It was interesting to see how they perceived each other differently than how they viewed themselves. Georgia’s perspective had the most substance to it while she navigated her visceral grief.

This book's biggest problem is that it's too slow. It was less noticeable in audiobook format, but by the forty percent mark I noticed that there hadn’t been much movement. It's partially my own fault for underestimating the degree to which this would be a gothic horror. I thought the ghost hunting and the burglary would be more prominent. Instead, it was focused on the characters' inner turmoil and the shadows of grief.

[aila ✧.*]

idk what everyone else is on about this was such a fun time. yeah maybe it wasn’t that deep but it’s a 350pg YA novel?????? it’s not your next adult lit-goth 500pg novel-of-the-century okay…….

that being said there were a few things i wish had been expanded on and some things (namely the romance) that felt a little out of place, but for a debut it was really good and i had a great time reading it!!!! i’m so excited to see what sophia hannan writes next!!

and you know im canada down so im now her biggest fan 🙏

[Shannon]

A strong YA haunted house debut that sees a group of ghost hunting art thief friends and co-hosts of a popular YouTube channel going into an old house to steal a painting only for one to get trapped in the painting forcing the others to figure out how to get her out. Filled with ghosts, Sapphic romance, twists and more. This was great on audio and I look forward to seeing what this Canadian author writes next!

[Natasha]

Okay, first of all. This cover. STUNNING! And after now reading the book I feel it’s a great portrayal of the characters and haunted themes of the novel. This book follows four friends who used to visit haunted places and make YouTube content. Somehow that led to them stealing paintings and exchanging them for forgeries, until one friend ends up dead at one of the scenes but nobody really knows what happened. Two months later, the remaining three friends are hanging on by a thread. One is majorly traumatized, one can no longer paint anything but dead girls, and one is so worried he won’t be able to continue on in education without his money made from the thievery. So, when the opportunity pops up for them to return to the scene and finish what they started, they choose to do so.

I don’t really want to critique this too much because I just am not the audience for this. This is definitely YA, and YA can be very hit or miss for me (probably because I’m not the intended audience). At times I just felt old reading it and it couldn’t keep my attention. The plot seemed slow and the characters lacked growth, but again, maybe I just didn’t/couldn’t relate properly and had a disconnect. There was queer representation in this, so I think some young adults might really appreciate seeing that in the story. I think the audience for this would be lgbtq older teens/young adults who like spooky vibes.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for my gorgeous copy in exchange for an honest review.

[natália ✿]

Big thanks to Sophia Hannan, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for this ARC,

So, there’s several things that worked for me, other several that really…didn’t. I loved the cover, the dark academia vibe and the ghost hunters aspect; I loved the palestinian and sapphic rep too. I also really liked to read about all these friendships fracturing with the weight of romantic relationships and death. All these things totally worked for me. The things that didn’t work for me, REALLY didn’t work for me, which brought down my enjoyment of the book (just a bit, though). I didn’t care for the glimpses of their friendships and relationships from before things went wrong. I didn’t believe it. I also really, really disked the romantic relationship that began to form during the narrative: the grieving girlfriend and the grieving friend. I understand that, sometimes, grief brings people together, but I think that in this case it was completely unnecessary. Overall, I had a good time with this one, and I will definitely be keeping an eye for Sophia’s work.

[Izzys_Internet_Bookshelf]

2/5

Ok, in all honestly, I am currently in a reading slump. I hope with me typing this, the next book I read will get me out of said slump.

I wasn't fully able to grasp the story because the plot felt kind of slow. I wanted to like the characters more, but I feel like I've just been tired.

Overall, it was a good premise, but I felt like the story itself didn't unfold fast enough for it to grab my attention.

[Corinne Stella]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book- it kept my attention and I couldn’t wait to get back to it. It had all the elements that I love: mystery, suspense, confusion, art and ghosts - all wrapped up in short chapters. Circe, James, Georgia and Jules were authentic and interesting. Amazing debut novel , I’m looking forward to reading Sophia Hannan’s next book!

[PlantLady Reads]

This was so perfectly ghosty and sapphic and awesome in a creepy school and haunted place and a YouTube storyline and young we would've absolutely lived for this story.