This book is already dedicated to my parents. If “show, don’t tell” is a rule of writing, it’s one my parents perfected in real life. I can’t ever remember being told anything as clichéd as “We believe in you” or “We support you no matter what,” but I also can’t remember ever not knowing it.
I owe a debt to every person who has kept me sane as I moved from writer to author. The ways they helped me are mostly abstract, so I am reduced to having to thank them for the concrete things that came along with the moral support. So thank you to Rachel Rose Smith, for almond croissants, sleepovers on her floor, and just being one of the best people I know. Michella Domenici, for reading this book more than once through its changes and being an amazing sounding board and the first person to fangirl at me. Jon Andrews, for motivational pictures of Taylor Swift drawn on napkins. Amelia Hodgson, for spending an entire afternoon helping me brainstorm the middle. My little brother, Max, for putting up with me over Christmas while I tried to figure out that bomb thing, and for valiantly attempting to give me scientific advice that went over my head. Janet Hamilton-Davies, for engaging so naturally and completely with the fact that your niece had written a book in a way that only a teacher, who has spent a lifetime making sure young people around her are aware that they are capable, could. Nick Sims, for being amazingly understanding with a distracted employee trying to edit a book. Justine Caillaud, for making me WANTED posters and spending the last twenty-four years being creative with me. To the Sweet Sixteens, I’m only starting to understand what an amazing support network a debut group is and how much I need it. Thanks to everyone who is taking the trip into 2016 publication with me. And to all the amazing book bloggers for sharing the cover, for organizing chats, and just being so endlessly and tirelessly enthusiastic and positive about books on the internet and off. And thanks also to anyone who offered up any kind of support through this process, even if it seemed insignificant at the time—so for every time you told me I could do it when I wasn't sure, be it in the form of encouraging words, a silly text, or the gift of a notebook. Roisin Ellison, Tempe Nell, Catherine Parkes, Meredith Sykes, Olivia Bliss, Annik Vrana, Elisa Peccerillo, Anne Murphy, Sophie Cass, Heidi Heilig, Roshani Chokshi, Jessica Cluess, Harriet Reuter Hapgood, Kathryn Purdie, Stephanie Garber, Alexia Casale, and lots of other people I’m sure I’m omitting accidentally. Please pretend the music is playing me off as I scramble to remember everyone who has been there in this journey. But you know who you are, and I hope you know I am grateful.
The end of this book is about a girl finding her home and her place. And so finally, thank you to you, reader, for picking this book up and being the end of this book’s journey.