FIRST, ALWAYS, THANKS GO TO NOAH. MY SHADOW may stay put, but my heart couldn’t help but jump to you. Thanks for treasuring it.
Elena, Jonah, and Ezra, you create magic simply by existing, and I’m so grateful to have you in my life.
Michelle Wolfson, there is no one I’d rather build a career with. Thanks for always being there for me.
Erica Sussman, you deserve endless credit for never knowing what I’m going to give you next, but always knowing just what to do with it.
Natalie Whipple and Stephanie Perkins, you always enable my cra
zy in the best possible ways. What would I do without you? (Don’t answer that. It’s a post-apocalyptic scenario and you know I don’t like those kinds of stories.)
The team at HarperTeen—Christina Colangelo, Casey McIntyre, Stephanie Stein, Michelle Taormina, Alison Donalty, Jessica Berg—you are all a joy to work with, and I’m so grateful for your collective talents.
Mom and Dad, thanks for giving me the books that supplied the magic junior high and high school were, shockingly enough, lacking.
Erin White Goodsell, without you my teenage years would have entirely missed an awareness of feminism and post-colonialism. And Lindsey White Bench, thank you for weirding out your husband by crushing so hard on Finn. It was the encouragement I needed. Lauren White Hansen and Matt White, guess you both should have done something more remarkable to make it into this acknowledgments section. (Wait, guess you did anyway.)
Special thanks to Jane Austen, Susanna Clarke, Diana Wynne Jones, and Hayao Miyazaki for telling stories that inspire me.
Finally, to my readers. You are exceptional. Never let anyone make you feel like you aren’t enough.