The Shrinking Girl: Hanna

Slave Girls #2

by Louise Allen

Slave Girls, a new series by bestselling author Louise Allen, reveals a shocking modern-day scandal of County Lines - the single most dangerous form of systematic child abuse prevalent today.

This is the second installment in the brand new series.

Hanna - The Shrinking Girl - has always struggled to fit in. The eldest of five kids, her homelife is complicated and poor, and her single mum, Eva, can barely keep their heads above water.

Bullied at school for her obvious signs of poverty, she is happy and relieved when a cool girl makes a move to be her new friend. But this friendship carries a terrible cost. She is thrown into a dark world of drugs, gangs, sex and a controlling 'boyfriend'.

Repeatedly raped and addicted to drugs herself, a desperate Hanna starts to self-harm and develops an eating disorder.

Totally controlled by a gang that uses her as a commodity, is there any way she can be pulled from their grip and reunited with her family?

303 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 28, 2025

About the author

From an early age, Louise was adopted into a family who, from the beginning, said they didn’t want her. Her first book, Thrown Away Child, reveals the abuse and neglect she and a fellow adopted child suffered at the hands of their adopted mother, Barbara. Ten years ago, Louise and her family became a fostering family. They have looked after over twenty children, some have stayed long term. This led to the bestselling series, Thrown Away Children, where Louise is inspired by the stories of children in the care system. Within days, the book became a bestseller.

Louise now draws on her experience to write a new series of ‘How to’ books about adoption, fostering and parenting. How to Adopt a Child is the unvarnished truth about adoption. Louise is well known for “saying it as it is,” so not only is it witty and engaging, it also empowers adopters to feel confident and in control and to know where to turn to for help.

Reviews

[Ⓢ Ⓨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When student numbers at the local secondary school run into the thousands, local policing resources have been cut to the core, and councillors and other people with political influence ignore the problem, or feel that they can’t do anything about it, permission is granted to gangs to run riot with families and communities- harvesting their lives for crime and profit”

The Slave Girls: The Shrinking Girl is the second in the series, exploring County Lines drug gangs and how they coerce teenage girls into “working” for them.

This book follows Hanna and her mother, Eva, and their experiences as a family caught up in such a web.

The book highlights how Eva and her daughter were systematically failed by the police, the school and social services after Hanna was coerced, deceived and exploited at just 14 years old. It describes the knock on effect that being involved in gang crime has on the rest of the family, their peers and the difficulties of raising SEN children in poverty with a lack of support from the LA.

This book is harrowing, emotive and raw. Child sexual abuse features heavily and is utterly shocking in places. It’s absolutely abhorrent this happens at all, let alone how frequently.

There needs to be more charities like Break Loose. This book demonstrates the need, and the importance of such organisations. This book truly opened my eyes, and, as the parent of two teenage daughters, utterly petrified me.

“Hanna is not a criminal, she’s being forced to do criminal things”

Many thanks to NetGalley and Mirror Books for my advanced copy.

[Charlotte Towle · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐ Rating: 5/5
📚 Title: The Shrinking Girl
✍️ Author: Louise Allen

I absolutely flew through this book — I read it in just two days, which says everything about how gripping it is.

Hanna’s story is so different to Charlotte’s in Louise’s previous book (the cutting girl). She comes from a poor background and is pulled into a dangerous situation with an older boy far too quickly. Before she can catch her breath, she’s being blackmailed. Her vulnerability felt painfully real, and I found myself constantly asking why no one stepped in to help her. I hated that her mum could whisk her away and don’t understand why she didn't go into care with her brothers.

Louise Allen has a way of writing these real-life stories with such honesty and sensitivity. She doesn’t sugar-coat anything, and that’s exactly what makes the book so powerful. It’s uncomfortable at times, but it should be. These things really happen.

An emotional, powerful and unputdownable read. Highly recommend to anyone who reads care memoirs or true stories.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up early this morning before sunrise thanks to chronic illness!
Sometimes illness drags you down and sometimes it gives you an excuse to slow right down, stay wrapped up in PJs and a duvet, and just ground yourself with the dog by your side.

Today I picked up The Shrinking Girl from the Slave Girl series by Louise Allen. It’s not a light or “enjoyable” read in the usual sense, it’s tough, gripping, and raw. But it’s one of those books that I feel we all need to read, because its purpose is to educate, to open our eyes, and to make us think.

Sometimes stories aren’t there to comfort us, but to challenge us. And that’s just as important!

📚 Join our group @ fostering, memoirs, and fiction book club.

🔗 https://amzn.eu/d/57dCn9W

🚨 Out now on kindle and paper

🔈 Pre-order avaliable for audible version on 20th November

📕 Book overview
Slave Girls, a new series by bestselling author Louise Allen, reveals a shocking modern-day scandal of County Lines - the single most dangerous form of systematic child abuse prevalent today.

This is the second installment in the brand new series.

Hanna - The Shrinking Girl - has always struggled to fit in. The eldest of five kids, her homelife is complicated and poor, and her single mum, Eva, can barely keep their heads above water.

Bullied at school for her obvious signs of poverty, she is happy and relieved when a cool girl makes a move to be her new friend. But this friendship carries a terrible cost. She is thrown into a dark world of drugs, gangs, sex and a controlling 'boyfriend'.

Repeatedly raped and addicted to drugs herself, a desperate Hanna starts to self-harm and develops an eating disorder.

Totally controlled by a gang that uses her as a commodity, is there any way she can be pulled from their grip and reunited with her family?

[Sarah Higginbottom · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Content Warnings**
This book contains themes and depictions that may be distressing for some readers, including: child abuse, child pregnancy, pregnancy loss, sexual slavery/exploitation, sexual coercion (implied), physical and psychological abuse, violence, captivity/imprisonment, dehumanization, and body horror (shrinking and transformation imagery).****

I picked this book up not quite knowing what to expect, and it turned out to be a wild and unsettling ride.The writing style is raw and vivid—sometimes almost too vivid—but it definitely leaves an impression. At its core, the book is about Hanna’s struggle against forces that literally and figuratively diminish her. The shrinking motif is clever—it works as a physical horror element, but also as a metaphor for what happens when agency, autonomy, and selfhood are stripped away. Watching Hanna navigate that erosion is uncomfortable but undeniably thought-provoking
It highlights some serious issues young people are facing everyday and anyone with children should read this.
What struck me most is how Hanna’s story mirrors the world we live in today. Her shrinking feels like a metaphor for the way vulnerable people are silenced, diminished, or exploited in systems of power that thrive on control. The book pushes us to think about human trafficking, gender inequality, and the ways cruelty is often normalized or overlooked in real life.
If you like a book that pushes boundaries and lingers in your mind after you put it down, this one is worth checking out. But fair warning: it’s intense, and not for the faint of heart.

📚I was able to read an advanced copy of title thanks to NetGalley, Louise Allen and Mirror Books📚
📚All reviews and opinions are entirely my own📚

[Rebecca Fowkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

What another fantastic book from Louise Allen. This is the second book in the Slave Girls series and if you enjoyed Louise Allen's Thrown Away Child series, I definitely recommend reading this series. This book does contain graphic descriptions of child abuse, rape and pregnancy loss and might cause some triggers for some people.

I felt so sorry for what Hanna went through especially with the rapes. I had a few tears in my eyes and just wanted to reach out to Hanna and give her a hug.

SPOILERS:

I was so pleased that Hanna's Mum was able to get Hanna out of the Country Lines with the help from Adam and Kerry from Break Loose. I really hope that Hanna, her Mum and Brothers go on to have a wonderful life especially Hanna. Thank you Louise Allen for telling us Hanna's story.

[Julie Haigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sad, shocking tale, and a fast-moving page turner.

This latest book in Louise Allen's new series tells Hanna's story.  She's just 13 years old at the start of the book.  The family have hard times; poverty.

The book was awful, upsetting, yet gripping at the same time. Such a hard subject to deal with, but Louise Allen writes about it so well.

Things aren't what they seem.  What you think is happening isn't...or is it?  But what you think isn't happening probably is. A very good book.  I liked this even better than the previous in the series. 

Builds to dark and brutal circumstances.  A very good, but very difficult read.

[Julie Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enlightening book. Not a book I can say I enjoyed reading in the usual sense, but a very important story to teach people what is going on in society and the problems that prevent it from being stamped out. Very graphic descriptions of child abuse and rape which made for difficult reading. It is a story that will stay with me for some time, especially knowing it’s based on true events. I woke in the night and couldn’t stop thinking of it. It breaks my heart to think of children being exploited in this way. Well done Louise Allen for shining a light on this topic, I’m sure she must have found it very difficult to write.

[Kathleen Riggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shrinking Girl is a haunting and emotional story that explores identity, fear, and the feeling of taking up too little space in the world. The writing is atmospheric and unsettling, drawing you into the main character’s growing isolation as her reality begins to change. Thought-provoking and quietly powerful, this book stays with you long after the final page. Thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers of this book for giving me a free advance copy of the book to preview and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Gail murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read parents with children should read this book it's an eye opener to what goes on in the real world. This book is well written

[Carey Kairine · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a fantastic read about a young child who gets groomed into county lines. so we'll written