For her encouragement and astute reading of the first draft of this novel, my heartfelt thanks go to my wonderful agent, Holly McGhee. For the look of the book, I owe a huge debt to the talented Greg Stadnyk, and of course to Gabriel Evans, who miraculously channeled these New York/New Jersey critters from his home on the other side of the world. As for my brilliant editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy—she not only helped shape this book in countless ways, she bestowed its title. Finally, I’d like to acknowledge my deep gratitude to the late Gregory Falls, who instilled in me a love of storytelling before I could even read.