Hiding Anna [rewritten]

AUTHOR'S NOTE - Please Read

If you are a new reader and are not familiar with the content of this book please note:

THIS CONTAINS EXTREMELY TRIGGERING CONTENT IN ALMOST EVERY CHAPTER

Sorry for the capitals but I want to make sure everyone sees and knows this.

The subjects in the book concern rape, physical violence, drug abuse, parental neglect, gang-culture, sexual exploitation etc etc.

I have put a trigger warning at the start of the chapter which I think has particularly explicit and triggering content, however these themes are contained within almost every chapter, so read at your discretion.

Equally, this time round I have also dabbled in (and I'm dying with embarrassment saying this) a little bit of the ole sex.

It made more sense given their ages and also I wanted to explore the difficulties inevitable within sexual relationships after sexual trauma.

So yes, this book is now MATURE.

So if you're twelve, maybe stop reading now.

...Not that that ever stopped me before....

If not, enjoy reading a yummy bit of steamy, smutty content towards the end.

** if you are a new reader please feel free to skip this next note, or come back to it once you've finished the book ;) **

Now for introductions.

Hello.

Here I am. Four years later. Back from the dead it seems.

Why did I decide to rewrite this juvenile, awful book might you ask?

Well, I've thought long and hard and come up with a million excuses but now I think I've finally realised why.

When I wrote the original Hiding Anna I think I had just turned 14. I am now almost 20, and I've been rewriting and editing the first draft for the past year.

At first, it was because I was discontent with some of the nonsensical plot holes and surrealism and just general inconsistencies in the book and I was planning to simply amend them. It was supposed to be a quick job.

Alas, I had tonnes of time during first year of uni and I thought it was better to do something creative and imaginative even if the product was trashy. (Trust me, I study literature and I know this is not a prosaic masterpiece).

So, the more I reread - which I hadn't done for years - the more I realised how problematic Hiding Anna was, which of course is inevitable when you write a book on Wattpad when you're 14 about themes you know nothing about... yet.

Despite how awful the first book is, people were still reading it everyday, I got the occasional comment and my read count had gone up to 90k, which seemed like an alarming number when so much of the content of the book is teaching teenage girls (because let's be honest that is the general audience age) terrible, terrible messages about life, love and mental illness.

So, I decided, with a more experienced (though undoubtedly not perfect) perspective about the world and how culture frames women, that I wanted to make Cassie and George's relationship more realistic, particularly with regards to their personalities, the dialogue etc. And this required a lot of work.

Because we all know in the real world outside of Wattpad physical attractiveness should not be the only reason someone falls in love with another person.

So I rewrote the whole book.

And the more I rewrote with this more moralistic outlook, the more I enjoyed the writing process. Quite possibly, more than when I wrote it the first time round.