After I studied His & Hers (2026), I searched for the differences between the #1 Netflix series and the Best of #BookTok novel, and the results were, in hindsight, shockingly understated, because it was not until I compared the two did I learn the scandalous differences.
Here’s the publisher’s (understated) synopsis for Alice Feeney’s His & Hers: A Novel (Flatiron Books, 2020):
When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.
When Anna matriculated at St. Hilary’s High School for Girls, 15-year-old Rachel took her “under her wings”. Rachel, who was described as “slim, [and] pretty” with “pretty blue eyes”, “pretty feet”, “beautiful blond hair”, and “snow white skin”, taught Anna how to apply makeup, and Rachel got Anna “little presents all the time”, like, “lip gloss [...] tops and skirts that were a tad too tight”, and for “an early birthday present”, “a small bottle of [diet] pills”.
Rachel didn’t understand why Anna wanted to invite Catherine, whom was described as a “lonely-looking girl, with hair and eyebrows so blond, they were almost white”, to join their table at lunch. After Rachel said, “You know, being too nice is a sign of weakness,” she “picked up her can of Coke and left the cafeteria. “Rachel returned a few minutes later” and encouraged Anna to invite Catherine to their table. After Catherine arrived, Rachel apologized for any past indiscretions, and she offered Catherine her Coke.
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| His & Hers (2026): Rachel's "Piss" |
“Five excruciating minutes later”, Catherine “[...] tilted her head right back, and took several gulps before realizing that something was wrong.”
“You just drank my piss!” said Rachel, an enormous smile on her face once more.
Before it happened, Rachel, who was apparently into (teen) urophilia, had written a note to Anna:
I pissed in the Coke can. If you tell her before she drinks it, then you’ll be the one sitting alone at lunch tomorrow.
Unsurprisingly, Anna narrated, in reference to Anna: “[...] below the beautiful exterior, she had an ugly streak.” “Doing something wrong was often the only thing that made her feel right.”
In episode 3 of the series, Anna asked, in reference to Catherine, “Maybe we should invite her over?” Rachel replied, “Bring her to our table. I’m gonna go get another Coke.” Catherine reluctantly joined Anna, Helen, and Zoe. When Rachel returned, she accidentally knocked over Catherine’s beverage, and she insisted that Catherine drink her beverage. After taking two sips of Rachel’s beverage, Catherine said, “Tastes like something’s in it.” Rachel said, “There is. Piss,” and Rachel announced to other schoolgirls in the cafeteria, “She just drank my piss!”
Thus, in the novel, Catherine consumed “several gulps” of Rachel’s urine, but in the series, streamers watched Catherine take two sips.
A week later in the novel, Rachel, surprisingly “the most popular” girl in Anna’s class, arrived at Anna’s house for a surprise sleepover.
“I thought we’d have a sleepover; both our mums said it was okay!” Rachel said, running up the front path holding an overnight bag.
After dinner, in Anna’s room, Rachel asked, “It’s warm tonight, isn’t it?” And then Rachel: "[...] unbuttoned her shirt, letting it fall to the floor, before reaching behind her back to unhook her bra.”
Before Anna could fully change into her “PJs”, Rachel requested to take Anna’s photo. After Rachel took several photos of half-dressed Anna, Rachel “removed the rest of her clothes”, perused Anna’s posters and books, and climbed into bed beside Anna “still naked, and turned off the light.”
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| His & Hers (2026): Teen Anna (Kristen Maxwell) |
Moments later, Rachel “slipped” her hand inside of Anna’s pyjama bottoms and kissed Anna. After Rachel was finished, she “slid her wet fingers” across Anna’s tummy and whispered, “That was nice, wasn’t it?” Anna narrated:
Then Rachel slipped her hand inside my pyjama bottoms, and I almost forgot how to breathe altogether.
‘Shh,’ she said, before kissing me on the cheek.
I didn’t move and I didn’t say anything. I just lay there, and let her touch me in a place that I had never been touched before. When she was finished, she slid her wet fingers across my tummy and wrapped her arm around my waist. She squeezed me tight, as though I were a favourite doll, then whispered something in my ear before falling asleep.
“After a couple of months”, Rachel aggressively asked Helen, with her “Cleopatra-style black hair” and “check-bones so defined”, to write Rachel’s and Anna’s “English essays for Monday”, because they needed an A. Otherwise: “Anna won’t be allowed to have her birthday party next weekend.”
On Monday, after they turned in their essays to Mr. Richardson, the English teacher and an aspiring writer, Rachel “dragged” Anna into a bathroom cubicle, closed the door, and demanded, “Take your shirt off.” (Rachel made Catherine guard St. Hilary’s bathroom door, otherwise Rachel threatened to make Catherine do something worse than, “[...] drink piss out of a Coke can.”)
After Rachel unclasped Anna’s bra, Rachel gifted Anna, à la (teen) Paris Hilton, a Wonderbra.
“It’s a Wonderbra! I never wear anything else now; you’re going to love it,” said Rachel
“Look how much bigger they are now!” Rachel said [...]
Next, Rachel “slowly applied” “strawberry-flavoured lip balm” “with her fingertip” to Anna’s lips. Then Rachel kissed Anna while Catherine watched as Anna “pushed her tongue inside” of Anna's mouth. Anna narrated:
She took a tiny tin of strawberry-flavoured lip balm out of her bag, and slowly applied some to my lips with her fingertip [...] and kissed me.
[...] Catherine [...] stared at us the entire time Rachel’s lips were on mine. I stood as still as a statue while she pushed her tongue inside my mouth, fully aware that someone was watching.
[...] when Rachel kissed me again, I closed my eyes and kissed her back.
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| His & Hers (2026): Wonderbra |
In episode 4 of the series, in Anna’s bedroom, Anna modeled a new pink Juicy Couture velour tracksuit for Rachel, but she told Rachel that she couldn’t wear the pants outside unless she “cover[ed] the part that says ‘Juicy’.” And Anna she asked Rachel, “What do you think?” As Rachel rubbed the skin between Anna’s top and bottom, Rachel replied, “I think it’s super cute.” Then Rachel said, “I got something [for you] too. You can wear it to your [sweet sixteen] party next week. It’s a Wonderbra.”
Rachel urged Anna to try on the Wonderbra immediately to “see if it works”, which it apparently did, because Rachel opined that Anna looked “amazing” and “so fuckin’ hot” in the Wonderbra.
Anna, “Thanks Rach.”
Rachel, “Try it on.”
Anna, “Right now?”
Rachel, “Well, don’t you wanna see if it works? I won’t look.”
Rachel, “Your tits look amazing! You’re so fuckin’ hot.”
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| His & Hers (2026): Anna Models for Rachel |
Subsequently, Zoe, Helen, and Catherine arrived. Zoe brought a bottle of vodka, and Helen complemented Anna, “Shit. You look hot.” As Zoe poured drinks, Rachel said, “Let’s get some pics.”
Anna protested, “Wait, let me put my top back on.”
Rachel protested, “Come on, pose. Like a model.”
Anna acquiesced and posed like a teen bra model in her new Wonderbra for Rachel’s Polaroids.
Thus, in the novel, Rachel gifted Anna the Wonderbra in St. Hilary’s bathroom, where they shared a girl-on-girl kiss while Catherine watched and guarded the door, but in the series, Anna received the Wonderbra in her bedroom, where she modeled it for Rachel’s camera.
In the novel, Rachel and Anna, in their field hockey kilts, were “pulled out of gym class”, because they had been “caught cheating” by Mr. Richardson. Anna was distraught, but Rachel told Anna, “Try not to worry,” Rachel promised Anna that “everything will be okay,” and she told Anna to “meet me in our secret place”.
Shortly thereafter, Rachel returned “with a big smile on her face”, asked for gum, informed Anna that she needed to brush her teeth, and told Anna that they both got A grades on their English essays.
“Ten minutes later, she appeared in the clearing with a big smile on her face.
‘Don’t suppose you’ve got a mint or some chewing gum?’ she asked.
I shook my head.
‘Don’t worry, I’ll get some later. Need to brush my teeth too.’
‘Why?’
‘Never mind,’ she said, then hugged me. ‘Everything is OK again, you don’t need to worry. We’ll both get A grades for those essays we just handed in [...] .’
Somehow, Anna didn’t conceptualize that Rachel had performed oral sex on Mr. Richardson for two As. Thus, after Rachel dismissed more of Anna’s inquiries, she slid her hand up Anna’s kilt and pushed Anna’s “knickers to one side”. Once Anna’s “knees started to shake”, Rachel let her “lie down on the forest floor”, where she let Rachel “do whatever she wanted.”
“I don’t understand. How did you get Mr Richardson to change his mind?”
“Doesn’t matter,”’ she whispered, then slid her free hand up my hockey skirt.
Her fingers pushed my knickers to one side [...] When my knees started to shake, she let me lie down on the forest floor, and, as usual, I let her do whatever she wanted.
“Feel better?” she asked afterwards.
“[...] we should head back to the changing rooms,” Rachel said. “Do you have any chewing gum in your bag when we get there?”
Due to Rachel’s need for a mint, chewing gum, and the urgency to brush her teeth, readers can safely infer that she finished her English teacher orally.
At Anna’s 16th birthday party, Rachel made tequila slammers, which made Anna feel “pretty drunk.” After more drinks, Rachel, Helen, Zoe, Anna, and Catherine “all did one another’s hair and makeup.” Zoe, with her “strawberry blond hair” and “pierced belly button”, brought some “skimpy dresses, low-cut tops, and skirts so short they looked like belts”. Interestingly, since Zoe was known at St. Hilary’s to be good with a sewing machine, à la Gwyneth Paltrow, “half the school[girls] had paid her to take up the hems of their skirts.” Eventually, Rachel directed everyone to the woods for “a big surprise”.
As they approached the wooded area, Anna noticed “four men sitting on makeshift log benches”. The men were “much older” than the sweet sixteen party girls, but that didn’t stop Rachel, Helen, and Zoe from sitting on the men’s laps before Rachel commenced an outdoor age-gap orgy.
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| His & Hers (2026): Teen Helen (Tiffany Ho) |
Rachel led Anna “to the nearest man” whom rubbed Anna’s bare leg. The men took out their wallets and handed Rachel a “handful of notes”. Thereby, revealing that Rachel, Helen, and Zoe were teen prostitutes. After Rachel gave Anna a little white pill, she “stuck her tongue deep inside” Anna’s mouth. Consequently: “The men clapped and cheered while they watched.” Then Rachel pulled the top of Anna’s dress down and the bottom of Anna’s dress up, which prompted Rachel’s disposable camera to cheer: “Clickety-click. Clickety-click. Clickety-click.”
As Rachel kissed and stroked Anna, Helen was “on her knees in front of one of the men. He had a fistful of her shiny black hair.” Zoe was topless while a “man had his hand up Zoe’s skirt”. And Catherine was: “[...] completely naked and facedown in the dirt. One man was on top of her, and another appeared to be waiting.”
Rachel slid her fingers between Anna’s legs, which Anna narrated “felt so nice” but that was only until one of the men squeezed Anna’s breast while he masturbated. Anna narrated:
“Come on, don’t be a cock tease, at least suck it or something,’ said the man who was touching me. ‘We’ve all paid good money to celebrate your birthday with you. Be a good girl [...]”
After Anna protested, Rachel informed Anna that having age-gap sex for money was par for the course for her, Helen, and Zoe. As Rachel held Anna down, Rachel told Anna to “grow up”, because it’s “just sex” and that it only hurts the first time; thus, Anna should, “Try to relax.”
“Get off me,’ I [Anna] whispered.
‘You wanted to be part of our gang, well, this is what our gang does,’ Rachel said, trying to hold me down. ‘How do you think I paid for your new clothes and the highlights in your hair? Grow up, Anna. It’s just sex. It will hurt the first time, but then you’ll be fine, I promise. Try to relax.”
Anna escaped, but before she covered her naked body and “ran all the way home in bare feet without looking back”, she “watched in horror for a little while” as Rachel took photos of the men having their way with Catherine.
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| His & Hers (2026): Anna's Sweet Sixteen |
In episode 6 of the series, Anna rescued Catherine from the men whom were attempting to force Catherine into an orgy. Subsequently, Catherine watched in horror as the men began to have their way with a screaming Anna. As Rachel, Zoe, and Helen watched approvingly, one of the four men said in reference to Anna, “I’m gonna give this bitch a birthday present she’ll never fucking forget.” And as one of the men took a crying Anna from behind, Rachel, Zoe, and Helen lovingly sang “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Anna. Happy Birthday to you.”
In the novel, readers learned that, despite only being 15, Rachel got what she desired via sex. If her own sexuality wasn’t enough, Rachel sold semi-nudes of other schoolgirls to men. She sold the photographs from the orgies, too. After the schoolgirls were “willing to take off all their clothes, and let her take pictures of them knowingly”, Rachel photographed classmates with their “[e]yes half closed but legs wide open” with the men “sticking themselves inside things they shouldn’t.” Consequently, Rachel earned a lot of money. Anna’s mother narrated:
Rachel Hopkins used sex to get what she wanted. When that wasn’t enough, she used other people. It started with her grooming school friends, taking semi-naked pictures of them, and selling the results to men at the local pub [...] She earned good money [...] When the men got bored of one girl, so did she, and moved her attention and affection to another.
Her photography started to get a little more inventive and adventurous too. Teenage girls were filled with alcohol and drugs, until they were willing to take off all their clothes, and let her take pictures of them knowingly. Eyes half closed but legs wide open. [The men] sticking themselves inside things they shouldn’t.
Rachel’s age-gap relations went beyond her teen years. For example, when she was in her “late thirties”, her husband was 82 (i.e., “[more than] old enough to be her father”).
In the end, Anna’s mother described Rachel in the novel as a “two-faced slut” and a “selfish Barbie doll, who stole [...] men from their wives.”
Unsurprisingly, His & Hers was a Best of #BookTok and #1 Netflix series.
































