To my family—Mom, Dad, Jessica, and Nicholas—thanks for never tiring of my weird hypotheticals and for appreciating the way my brain works. Love you all so much. Ray, Sonya, Amy, and Jacob: you’ve been there from the beginning, and I can’t thank you enough for your eternal support.

To my friends who are like family: Bill Hanson, Winnie Kemp, Stephany Gabriner, Victoria Frank, Celeste Oberfest, Alexa Gerrity, Nidhi Mehta, Tammy Camp, Wayee Chu, Allison Manzari, Jackie Ankumah, Lyndsay Lyle, Lauren Belden, Caitlin Crawford and Andy Lurie, my JCC moms (you know who you are!), Live Oak moms (ditto!) and the HBS ladies (of course!)—thanks for years of pep talks, for buying books in bulk, for bolstering me, and for being the best friends anyone could ask for. Bill and Winnie, your critiques and feedback are literally what made this book what it is. Prolific-4-evah. And special thanks to my SMS classmates (go turkey), my Stanford friends and our community in SF: you’re all the best.

Laura King, you are family to me; no one else on the planet could do what you do for my kiddos, and I am so grateful.

Several of my author and writer friends have been lifelines to me through this journey: Danielle Paige, Jill Lorie Hurst, David Kreizman, Lillian Clark, Natasha Ngan, Yangsze Choo, and Allison Raskin, thanks for being my therapists and spirit animals.

And thank you to Kimberly Hamilton, Cody Harris, Sarah Lacy, and Alli Deeter for organizing book clubs and events, and for introducing The Similars to new readers—so appreciated!

To Ethan: because of you I can tell wild stories, and that is everything. Thanks for years (years!) of letting my mind wander to those worlds, and even being a little bit proud of it, and me. You are the best dad, friend, soul mate, and cofounder of the Kurz crew, and you make me laugh more than anyone—still! To Leo and Quincy: Yes! I get why Captain Underpants is so, so funny. Dav Pilkey is a genius, and reading is the best! I love you both so much, and no, I probably won’t stop writing, but I promise I’ll find a way to also pick you up from school (sometimes).

To every book blogger, BookTuber, bookstagrammer, reader, librarian, teacher, and bookseller who has read, reviewed, championed, or snapped a pic of this series: THANK YOU. And to every single reader who has reached out to me—you are what makes this all worthwhile.

About the Author

Photo by Jamie Grenough

Rebecca Hanover is a television writer, sandwich lover, and young adult author. She earned a bachelor of arts from Stanford University in English and drama and was awarded an Emmy for Best Writing as a staff writer on the CBS daytime drama Guiding Light. Rebecca lives in San Francisco with her husband, Ethan, and their two sons. Follow her online at rebeccahanover.com.

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