ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Lana Popovic, my agent and queen, for answering every insecure text and email and for making each book better.

Thanks to Jordan Brown, my genius editor at Balzer + Bray, for believing in me and in Vanni and in millennial anxiety.

Thanks to the team at HarperCollins and Balzer + Bray, including Alessandra Balzer and Donna Bray, Kate Jackson, Viana Siniscalchi, Alison Donalty, Stephanie Hoover, Bess Braswell and Tyler Breitfeller, Bethany Reis, Caitlin Garing, and Oriana Siska—you guys make everything possible.

Thanks to Xaviera López for her gorgeous cover illustration, and to Sarah Kaufman, who designed the cover. You both captured the heart of the book, and every time I look at it I fall in love.

Thanks eternally to Rachael, Ashley, Kristian, Noemi, and Vee for making sure that Like Water is respectful to all its readers.

And from the bottom of my heart, thank you to LGBTQIA+ readers everywhere; you matter, and you are loved.