The Eminence , without a doubt, is my favorite thing I’ve ever written. I think it’s my best work to date technically, and its plot is probably the most solidified. I have a better grasp of my characters, and I have better and less trite vocabulary. But it isn’t just that. The Eminence was extracted straight out of my soul. The Knowers —maybe because it was my first piece of fiction I knew people would read—is kind of a watered-down Nina. But The Eminence isn’t. I don’t sugarcoat anything. I try not to shy away from awkwardness. I had a story and I told it and I tried not to put anything between me and my words. After reading some of it, my dad pointed out that The Eminence was a kind of therapy for me. Because the majority of it was written during my junior year and the summer following, a lot of the stuff I was dealing with comes out over the course of the book. I was in AP Chemistry, so you’ll see a lot of chemistry references. I was starting to love architecture, so yo