It’s taken five years and so many people to get Caitlin, Tom, Lina and The Morbids out of my head and into the world—a very different world from the one they were imagined in. First and foremost, I’d like to thank my amazing agent Grace Heifetz from Left Bank Literary for finding The Morbids in the slush pile and taking a chance on me when I was sure nobody ever would. You have made this dream come true, and done it while keeping me grounded and sane and well fed. I will be indebted to you forever. Secondly, a huge, endless thanks to my publisher Kelly Fagan, who has been a force of positivity and light since the first time our paths crossed. The love and care you have shown this story, even in difficult times, has been overwhelming. I’m so grateful to have you both in my corner, and to be able to call you my friends.

To my editors, Ali Lavau and Tom Bailey-Smith, thank you for your wisdom and insight and putting up with all my writerly tics, and saying so many lovely things about my work. I’ve been so lucky to have you for this process. And to the whole team at Allen & Unwin, my dream publisher from the very beginning, the unwavering enthusiasm from every single one of you has often brought tears to my eyes. I’m so fucking lucky.

Thanks also to Laura Thomas for the most beautiful, most perfect cover. If someone had told me a year ago my book would have a pink glittery cover, I would never have believed them, but now I can’t imagine it being anything else.

For reasons I can’t explain, this book wouldn’t exist without the National Young Writers Festival, and in particular I owe an immeasurable debt to Alex Neill, for getting me writing fiction again after decades of being too scared to try, and then for convincing me that The Morbids was too important to give up on, when I was on the verge of doing just that. And for the postcards—always for the postcards. You’re an absolute angel.

It wouldn’t exist without Sheree Kable and Stephanie Holm, who read the opening scene when it was just a snippet of nothing and insisted I turn it into something—and then got stuck having to read the whole thing, multiple times. It wouldn’t exist without the feedback and encouragement of my insightful and honest early readers: Beck Perrin, Laura Townson, Phoebe Fayolle, Adeline Teoh, Anamarija Regler and Belinda Cashel. It wouldn’t be called The Morbids without Lex Hirst, who insisted that it was the only possible title. Thank you. Thank you.