Thank you to Pitch Wars for giving me the opportunity to learn from Lindsey Frydman and Katie Beers. Lindsey and Katie, you gave me your time, care, wisdom, and support, and in the process made me a much better writer.
To Lisa Siraganian, my dissertation chair: I can’t tell you the impact you’ve had on my brain. You’ve made me a better thinker and writer, and you will forever be the person I look up to most. To Katharine Boswell: You are a stunning writer and scholar, and becoming friends with you changed not just my work but me, for the better. All my books are for you.
To Ashley O’Brien, Madeleine Hook, Maggie Winterfeldt Clark, Sarah Parker, and Anastasia Pawlicki, thank you for being my best friends and supporting my writing dreams, even when young me forced you to stop doing cooler things to listen to my terrible short stories. So much of who I am was shaped by you.
Thank you to my brilliant colleagues. The fact that you’ve always supported my writing is a gift, and I’m grateful to call you friends as well as co-workers: Hannah Sawyer, Helen Spencer, Leila Walsh, Stephanie Getman, David Hebert, Evan Mintz, Rhiannon Collette, Jennifer Sizemore, Jennifer Reyes, Adrienne Faraci, James Cadogan, Stephanie Akhter, Amy Solomon, Jeremy Travis, Sebastian Johnson, Julie James, Asheley Van Ness, and Catie Bialick （shout-out, Winsteadies!）。
To my amazing siblings: I’m so grateful to have had you as built-in best friends my whole life. Thank you for bearing the brunt of my imagination growing up. Despite my interference, you grew into people I am so proud of. Mallory Winstead, you are my ride-or-die and the artist I admire most. Ryan Winstead, you are a wonderful brother and friend; the moment you told me you liked this book was the moment I thought it could be something. Taylor Winstead, text me back. Just kidding. You have always been the cool one; I cherish the fact that underneath that coolness is a boy who geeked out over fantasy novels with me growing up. I love you all.
To my uncle Russell Graves, who has had such a loving and important influence on my life: You were the first person to tell me I was an artist. Thank you for seeing and loving me. The feeling is mutual.
Melissa and Ron Winstead—Mom and Dad—thank you for a lifetime of love and support. There’s not enough space to detail how wonderful it is to belong to you or how lucky I feel. Thank you for being on this journey with me and for being my biggest champions. Also, I did it! So it turns out you were right.
To my grandma Marsha Rodman: I wish you could have read this. I know we could have talked books together. I’ll love you forever.
Last, thanks to my husband, Alex Sobey. This book would not exist without you. I would not exist without you, at least the person I am today. You and I grew up together, and our roots are tangled. No matter how many books I’m lucky enough to write, our love story will always be my magnum opus.