Don’t Tell Me What Happens
Don’t Tell Me What Happens
by Raphael Simon and Phillip De Leon
An enticing, highly illustrated queer rom-com featuring one beat-up notebook, two love stories, and a happily ever on hold for over three-decades—a sweet, summertime mystery that perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston, Adam Silvera, and Alice Oseman.
At nineteen years of age, with my days seemingly numbered, I make one request:
Deliver this journal to Casey Rohner, wherever he is.
A dedicated New Yorker, sixteen-year-old Noah is dreading summer in Venice Beach — until he stumbles into Billy Goat Vintage and meets Tomo, the effortlessly cool skateboarder behind the counter. Buried in a box of old records, the boys find a sketchbook from the 1980’s: the journal of teen artist Diego, filled with notes, scraps, and drawings of cute boys. This glimpse of the queer past turns into a gripping read when Diego falls for a closeted surfer at his high school named Casey — only for their secret romance to come to an abrupt, devastating end.
Noah finds the questions around the journal almost as irresistible as he finds Tomo. What happened to Diego? Where is Casey? And what of Diego’s cryptic request? Tomo’s solution: Track down Casey Rohner and deliver the journal. As Tomo leads him on a search across the sun-soaked streets of Venice, Noah can’t quite tell if they’re chasing ghosts, or just maybe forging a future all their own.
On Sale April 13, 2027
About the Author
About Raphael Simon
Raphael Simon has come out twice: as gay at age eighteen, and years later as Pseudonymous Bosch, the no longer secret author of the New York Times bestselling Secret Series and Bad Books. Most recently, Raphael published The Anti-Book, the first book to appear under his own name. Don’t Tell Me What Happens is his debut YA novel and first collaboration with his husband, Phillip De León.
About Phillip De Leon
Phillip De León designs textiles by day, sings in jazz clubs by night, and has been drawing men in some way or other since he was fifteen. He is also the creator and illustrator of the darkly fabulous Ghastlies, an ongoing series of print stories for Alexander Henry Fabrics. Don’t Tell me What Happens is his debut YA novel and first collaboration with his husband, Raphael Simon.