Ideally in these pages I would acknowledge pretty much everyone I spoke to over the past couple of years, including my hairdresser and strangers who were unlucky enough to wind up next to me by the cheese platter at a party. There was nobody whom I was too proud or too shy to ask for advice on this book, and unfortunately I can’t get all their names in here (especially some of those cheese platter companions, whose names I may never have known), but here’s an abbreviated overview:
Thanks to Joy Peskin and Stephen Barbara for believing that I had something important to say here, and for their patient wisdom as I tried to figure out what my something important was.
Thanks to everyone who brainstormed with me, and who kept being friends with me even when I had no topics of conversation other than this book, including but not limited to Clare Hawthorne, Emily Haydock, Emily Heddleson, Kendra Levin, Brian Pennington, Alix Piorun, Allison Smith, the Type A Retreat writers (Lexa Hillyer, Lauren Oliver, Jess Rothenberg, Rebecca Serle, and Courtney Sheinmel), and Camp Emerson’s Bunk I from the summer of 2015.
Thanks to Naeem King, Candace McManus, and Joseph Visaggi for their insightful feedback on my early drafts.
Thanks to the Scripps National Spelling Bee for letting me watch some of the competitions (and for some of Winter’s words!).
Thanks to Simon Boughton, Elizabeth H. Clark, Lucy Del Priore, Molly Brouillette Ellis, Nicholas Henderson, Kathryn Little, Venetia Gosling, Bea Clark, Heidi Gall, Michelle Weiner, Claire Draper, Jennifer Sale, and everyone else at my publishers and agencies who work so hard to make my writing career what it is. Thanks also to Kate Hurley for her always wise copyedits.
Thanks to the writers, YouTubers, and podcasters who informed the ideas that appear in this novel, especially Jon Ronson—without his book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, I would not have written this one.
I’d like to acknowledge the countless people out there who have had experiences similar to Winter’s, some of whom I know personally, most of whom I don’t. I won’t list their names here, because they are too vast in number and because many of them I’m sure would rather be forgotten; however, I would be remiss not to acknowledge the particular inspiration that I derived from Monica Lewinsky’s life. Furthermore, I acknowledge that issues of privilege, microaggressions, and culpability are nuanced and complicated, and that I did not get everything right.
I want to thank the teachers, librarians, and booksellers who have helped get my books into readers’ hands, and of course I want to thank my readers themselves: you guys are the best.
Finally, thank you to my parents for their boundless love and belief in me.