ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS BOOK IS A LOVE LETTER TO MY FAVORITE BOOKS: thank you for your eternal friendship.

Thank you to my family: to my parents; to my brothers, Justin, Jason, and Jared; to my aunt and uncle, Robyn and Leslie. Your stories continue to inspire me. To Ben, whose love and support go beyond magic and have made this book and all else possible.

Thank you to my agent, Stephanie Delman. Where to begin? I am in awe of your patience, generosity, insight, and encouragement across multiple versions of this book over the years. You are a miracle worker, full of magic, and I feel so lucky to have found you. Thank you to Khalid McCalla, the Trellis team, and the Trellis writers. I am so grateful for this community. That I get to be in your brilliant company astounds me.

Thank you to Megha Majumdar for believing in me and my books. I will never run out of gratitude for your kindness and support. Thank you, Alicia Kroell, good witch extraordinaire, for your heroic and wise edits.

Thank you to the entire Catapult team: Megan Fishmann, Andrea Córdova, Vanessa Genao, Rachel Fershleiser, Laura Berry, Elizabeth Pankova, Wah-Ming Chang, Kira Weiner, Alyssa Lo, Dustin Kurtz, and Nicole Caputo. I’m again humbled by the care and attention that you put into making authors’ dreams come true. Catapult has let me be the writer I always wanted to be.

To friends, fellow writers, and early readers: Gillian Jones, Marie Masson, Sara Lieber Green, Krishna and Emma Andavolu, Iza Wojciechowska, Katie Bachner, Ross Simonini, James Yeh, Hilary Leichter, Leigh Black, Adam Vitcavage, Bruce Owens Grimm, Rebecca Rubenstein, Chelsea Hodson, and Vivian Lee.

Thank you to readers and to independent bookstores. Finally, thank you to Elvis, the very best good boy, and to Juno, very bestest good girl. When the world feels short on magic, I always find it in you. I promised you a walk and a treat. Let’s go.