Thank you to my sister, Milla, who had to put up with my writing and talk of it pretty much from the moment she was born. Thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do, from taking my author photo and putting together my wardrobe to campaigning for the book on social media. You are the best sister in the world, and you have always been my biggest cheerleader—and I am yours. Thank you for everything, and I can’t wait to see where your journey takes you. I’ll be by your side every step of the way.

Thank you to the Conigliari family, especially for hosting us when I was in the trenches with this manuscript, and for their endless kindness and support over the years. Your generosity and warmth truly mean the world. Thank you to Paul, Sandy, Jonathan, Chris, Jason, Rachel, Anna, and Marco.

Special and heartfelt thanks to my friends Curtis, Joe, Allison, Christian, Leila, Jack, Conner, and Micah for your incredible support and friendship over the years, even when you had to endure vague descriptions of “tongueless insanity” and scientific inaccuracy and all the things that came with the making of this novel. Your encouragement and love has meant the world. I truly treasure you all, and I am so happy to finally share this story with the greatest friends I could have dreamed of. If we were on a spaceship, I’d want you as my crew.

And finally, thank you to my partner Jeremy Conigliari, this book’s first and closest reader, its earliest champion, and my greatest source of inspiration. You’ve always had unwavering faith in this story’s success and destination: I’ll never forget your joy and utter unsurprise when we found out that it was going to be published. How you said to me that you’d always known it was going to happen—that it was just a matter of time. You’ve been my rock, but that feels too mundane, too Earth-bound—maybe I should say you’ve been my comet, ferrying me to places I never dreamed I could go. Thank you for the countless sacrifices, for the many nights addressing tears and doubts, for the rallying pep talks and loving words, and for the several epiphanies in mid-conversation that made this book so much better than it was. Your belief beckoned this story into reality. You never gave up, even when I wanted to. None of this would have happened without you, and this book is as much yours as it is mine. You have been by my side every step of the way, and you have made every moment worth it. Thank you for your faith, your pride, your love, your support, and everything else that you’ve done and are. You are my hero, and I love you more than I can say. To the moon and back, perhaps, or to Eos and back.