I am hugely grateful to the whole wonderful publishing team at Sourcebooks. Huge thanks to Steve Geck, my wonderfully supportive and meticulous editor, and to Lynne Hartzer, Alison Cherry, and Thea Voutiritsas for their forensic and eagle-eyed copy editing. Thank you to the fabulous design team for the evocative cover and to the marketing and publicity teams, especially Beth Oleniczak, for being the real-life kick-ass cheerleading team making sure this book reaches its readers!
I’m so lucky to work with the incomparable Abi Bergstrom at Bergstrom Studios, the most hardworking, compassionate, and understanding agent a writer could have, and Sarah Williams and Stevie Grace at Independent, who work so skillfully to help my ideas come to life beyond the pages of my books.
I am indebted to a number of experts who helped me with questions about the climate, flora, and fauna of the Gulf of Mexico. They include David Williams and Duncan Allen, who furnished me with fascinating facts on everything from birdsong to pygmy raccoons, and the compulsively watchable Emmy Cho of Emmymade for her very detailed descriptions of the flavors and textures of obscure tropical fruits. Special thanks to Harry Kiely for his encyclopedic knowledge of all things related to aviation and plane crashes.
Thank you to Aileen, Emma, Lucy, Eily, and Hayley for being such kind and enthusiastic early readers, and to Nick and my family for your incredible ongoing support.
Most of all, I am very grateful to every single young person I have worked with in the past decade at schools and universities and the tens of thousands from around the world, including so many young people in the United States, who have shared their stories with me via my Everyday Sexism Project. Your voices and stories matter enormously, and I feel very privileged that you have entrusted me with them. Your courage, your hope, and your spirit of resistance inspires me every day. I promise you that you are not alone, no matter how much it might sometimes feel that way. And I promise you that we will keep fighting together to make things better.