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• 1. Sandra  |  July 15th, 2006 at 7:48 am

  Hey if you find out what happened will you please please email me back at tell me!? Its killing me, I’m looking at everything i can get my hands on to find out what happened to Anna.
  Thanks Sandra

• 2. Gregg - Sequoya  |  July 18th, 2006 at 8:12 am

  Hey Sandra, I know just how you feel! If I ever do figure it out, I will let you know. The theories that I’m going on right now (and this is just from what I’ve found surfing the net) is that Anna was a ghost of some sort; there are some hints that maybe she died when she was driving the main goth guys car. The other one I keep coming back to is that the narrator’s friend who is into selling drugs is somehow involved. Ultimately I don’t think the author intended this book to have a neat and tidy solution, but if I find anything of substance, I’ll post it here.

• 3. Ashley  |  August 10th, 2006 at 11:17 am

  Sandra i feel the same way. The thing is that i know there must be a good ending to this as the hunt for the answer to where anna is was so elaborate. I really got into finding out where Anna is, since it was almost half the book. i have been searchign online ofr an answer but it has seemed hopeless. i also tried to decode the page of ” quick answer be pray” and all the other words, but it seems the houdini code online is slightly diffferent then the one he uses, making it useless. he also mentions that code in the book, though i dont know why he uses a different one than the one i have found many times online. this book really intrigued me and im really hoping that somewhere online is the answer, as the hint that i was given from the book’s homepage, didnt help whatsoever.

• 4. Anonymous  |  August 19th, 2006 at 5:18 pm

  maybe it has to do with why Anna calls herself ‘Anastasia’

• 5. Ashley  |  August 29th, 2006 at 5:54 pm

  what does anastasia refer to?

• 6. Gregg  |  August 29th, 2006 at 6:50 pm

  Most likely refers to the Daughter of Tsar Nicholas who also disappeared (most likely killed) under a cloud of mystery. A good background page is here
  http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/Russia/Anastasia.html
  This page also talks about Anna Anderson, a person who some thought was the real Anastasia.

• 7. Alexandria  |  September 19th, 2006 at 4:31 pm

  I’ve gotten two clues so far, via email:

  Forever breathes the lonely word

  That came with a picture of the album cover with Martin Duffy on it. (It’s the 6th album released by the british rock band Felt)

  And the most recent:

  nycs

  The picture won’t download for me. : /

  I’m so lost.

• 8. Colleen  |  September 19th, 2006 at 5:29 pm

  Me too. However, I am pretty sure the narrator’s name is Gergory Galloway. That makes sense. As for Anna’s disappearence? No clue.

• 9. Gwen  |  September 25th, 2006 at 9:37 am

  The code (now tell answer answer-be, etc) is different from houdini’s code in a few ways, but using the clue Anna gave in the book (Believe = answer tell pray-answer look tell answer-answer tell), it is possible to break the code yourself. My best friend and I spent about two hours pouring over it, but we solved it.

  However, it doesn’t seem to have much relevance to the mystery of Anna. As the title of the riddle would suggest, it is just the author’s thanks.

• 10. Ashley  |  September 28th, 2006 at 3:02 pm

  yeah i tried to copy it down and only used the letters ‘B’ ‘E’ ‘L’ ‘I’ and ‘V’ but it dosent get you much to any where. you’d think he’d use the same one.

  I have, now, 6 hints. all that make no sense.

  one has the subject name ” gadabout” with the messege:
  Pull the curtains to the sill,
  Darken the rooms, cut all the wires.
  Crush the embers as they fall
  From the dying fires:
  Things are not going well.

  another one shows a page in a diary about her tring to make a coil machine or something. i dont get any of the pictures.

  finding the ending of this book gives me headaches

• 11. Clair  |  October 17th, 2006 at 8:16 pm

  This book was crazy great! I could not put it down. as for solving it I have yet to do so, and the emials aren’t helping, but Gregory Galloway SAID that in order to solve it one must listen to the music from the mix cd’s Anna gave the narrator, and links to the lyrics and pictures of the cd covers can be found on simpleassnow.com along with links to the people she talks about which I found to be somewhat helpful. The ghost thing makes some sence, but I stilll don’t get it. I especially dont get the part about mumler, since Mumler was a famous photographer known for the first “Spirit Photos”. and why was the dad’s phone there? I think that oculd be a connection to Carl, not his father, and it could also be a setup by anna. Also, the condom wrapper vexes me. He was sure he disposed of it, but why would she go through the trouble of planting it if it wernt important? It’s really driving me crazy not knowing the ending tho!!!!!!

• 12. Barb Goosman  |  October 18th, 2006 at 1:55 pm

  I keep reading that there is a book trailer on the website, but where is it? I want to use it in a book talk next week. thanks.

• 13. Jane  |  October 18th, 2006 at 2:00 pm

  When I look at the website I get a Windows Media box over on the lower left hand of the screen. I’m assuming that that is where the trailer would be. My computer can’t download the Media software, but if you do so, you might be able to see the trailer?

• 14. Debra  |  October 20th, 2006 at 7:45 pm

  I think the art teacher is involved. He calls her Anastasia on page 244 (paperback). Only people who cared about her called her Anastasia, and supposedly, he didn’t know her. Also, there is the fact of the Gorky book in his office, the same one Anna told the narrator about (Halloween Chapter).

• 15. Anonymous  |  October 21st, 2006 at 10:40 am

  The author also has a myspace page

• 16. Melissa  |  October 22nd, 2006 at 5:39 pm

  you guys, okay right at the end when he reads his obituary it basically sums it up. he went there in hopes to find her. his obituary was her way of telling her where she was and that someday, maybe in a long time but still someday they would be togethher again. At least thats how i saw it. But i really hope it is, and i want him to make a sequel so badly. but i have a question, does anyone remember when he was listening to that song that he said was like a ‘gothic anthem’? well does anyone know if he mentioned the name of that song? because i’ve been scanning the book and can’t seem to find anything. but i downloaded all of the songs that she burned for him into my itunes and i really want to know the name of that song! if anyone could post a comment about it, it would be greatly appreciated! THANKSS.

• 17. Gregg - Sequoya  |  October 23rd, 2006 at 7:25 am

  Combining a few of these comments, the myspace page for the author http://www.myspace.com/gregorygalloway has the trailer for the book that a previous commenter was looking for.

• 18. Melissa  |  October 23rd, 2006 at 1:24 pm

  okay does anyone get the acknowledegement page? oh yeah and has anyone found the relevance of the songs?

• 19. Anonymous  |  November 10th, 2006 at 10:33 pm

  I think that the town that this was set in was supposed to be like Mumler. The Cayne’s are like the Mumler family because after they moved to town, strange things started happening. Also, it was after the first incident (Anna’s disappearance) that the other events occured. Maybe this was planned by Anna before she moved into their town.

• 20. Ashley  |  November 22nd, 2006 at 8:14 pm

  i think there should be a sequal.

  that would solve my problems.

• 21. Hannah  |  December 31st, 2006 at 12:41 pm

  Did anyone feel like Anna is real after you read the book?It made me want to go outside and search for her.

• 22. Eric  |  March 5th, 2007 at 5:53 pm

  Okay, some things

  1) The art teacher Mr. Devon calls Anna Anastasia once. Anastasia says only people who love her call her Anastasia
  2) Anastasia (real Russian princess) and book Ana have parents with the same names and siblings that have their names starting with the same letters.
  3) The song titles and lyrics (haven’t finished that one)
  4) Mr. Devon and Alaska, didn’t Anna go or want to go to Alaska? I think…

  5) I got an email: subject was 91664. The attatchment was a picture I haven’t figured out and an excerpt from a conclusion about John Speke’s journey to fing the mouth of the Nile.

• 23. Melodi  |  March 16th, 2007 at 7:16 am

  I just finished reading the book last week and am in the process of doing a project on it for English. I have done nothing but search the net for ANYTHING having to do with this book. Also, for the person looking for the trailer, an additional site you can go to is Google Videos or YouTube to find it (just type “As Simple As Snow” and it comes right up). I do have a question, though. Does anyone know what the number 4 had to do with anything? I mean, was it just a random number Anna picked?? I was just wondering.

• 24. Gregg  |  March 16th, 2007 at 8:50 am

  Hey Melodi, Refresh my memory on that part, when did she choose the number 4?

• 25. Molly  |  March 26th, 2007 at 10:44 pm

  Hey guys, to save you all the trouble, the code in the back under acknowledgments, is actually the author’s acknowledgements. It was a code that houdini used to communicate to his wife, bess, during his magic acts.

  His acknowledgements translate to:

  DEBT GRATITUDE AFFECTION

  LOVE TO THE FOLLOWING:

  AIMEE, ANNA, DAVID, AND THE ROBIN’S OFFICE GINA

  THANKS TO BMW AND THE DRIVE BACK AND FORTH TO CORNWALL

• 26. lauren  |  March 31st, 2007 at 9:50 pm

  Alexandria - the clue you had sent to you “nycs” - I think means new your correspondence school, which is in the letter the narrator finds in mr. devon’s office - anna had written “the new your correspondence school is not dead” - whatever that means!

• 27. Matt  |  April 3rd, 2007 at 11:37 pm

  Or it could just be that this book was never meant to be solved completely. Also, Colleen, I never thought that the author was the narrator. That kind of adds a new twist to the book. Plus I am so glad that other people have read this book and found it as intriguing and compelling as I did.

• 28. joe  |  April 7th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

  i loveed that book sooo much!!does anyone else think that she ran away to another town to write more obitchoaries and that the dress was pointed in the direction of where she went so he could find her?

• 29. joie  |  April 15th, 2007 at 1:08 pm

  Melodi
  the number 4 is like a synonym for death in chinese…if that helps.

• 30. Katie  |  April 16th, 2007 at 5:01 am

  i agree with Matt. I think the autor might be playing with our minds, trying to see what we come up with.

  Has anyone been able to get all of the songs?

• 31. Roslind  |  April 30th, 2007 at 7:11 pm

  I read this book sometime last year and I still haven’t been able to find out anything and it is bugging me soo bad. I really just want to know what happened the book was too good to be true and yet I felt like Anna was a real person. If anyone knows anything I hope they would tell me.

• 32. Samantha  |  May 2nd, 2007 at 4:27 pm

  ok….i read some of the comments left before by many others and let me say that i too am still trying to figure out what happened…its mind boggling. I saw some people refer to Anna’s name…The meaning of the name means Grace and Honor….but the name she wants to go by Anastasia means Ressurrection. I think that Ressurrection ties in a lot with the book, some people talk about other people being ressurrected (now i dont think that can actually happen) and i think that Anna may have been ressurrected maybe not in the physical sense as in she died once than came back (although that may be possible) but that she came back through the narrator in the end of the book. (But im not ruling anything out at this point. What i mean by the whole ressurection thing is that at the end the narrator talks about a lot of the things that Anna told him about in the beginning.

• 33. TJ  |  May 2nd, 2007 at 7:33 pm

  I have to say, this mystery thing is becoming really tired. Everything is just going in circles, both with the lyrics and the clues. It’s like “I get it, these are all the things Anna felt during their relationship”, but it’s not telling us anything we already know.

  Plus the fact Anna is an unreliable source, as said by her father. So anything she has said can be deemed unreliable.

  I think Mr. Galloway is just pulling our leg, honestly. Getting a good laugh out of making kids solve some clue that’s not really that important to the world.

• 34. Tristine  |  June 2nd, 2007 at 8:24 pm

  on page 49 the narriatot says that Anna is constantly changing her name on the internet. He gives a list “A.B.C (Anna Belle Cayne), E.A.P (Edgar Allan Poe), J.T.R (Jack the Ripper), E.M.H (Ernest Miller Hemingway), A.A.F (Abigail Anne Folger), G.A.H (Gary Allen Hinman)

  But Then it says

  “E.W.H (?)”

  What does that mean?

• 35. michelle  |  June 28th, 2007 at 6:21 am

  okay, i was just looking threw this web sight [[http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2303&dept_id=478844&newsid=14556922&P]]
  and i found out that there is NOT going to be a sequal to As Simple As Snow… :[ what does this mean about the text and how the code kept comeing back to the main charicter?? well here’s the quote from the websight.
  “As “As Simple As Snow,” sells briskly, Mr. Galloway is in the middle stages of an as-yet-unnamed second novel. It won’t be a sequel to his first, and its main characters won’t be teenagers.”
  ugh…. at first when i finished the book i hated it becuase of the ending left all the questions unanswered, but now i’m just compeled to figure it out.
  but i am still super bummed that he’s not make a sequal….

• 36. JiK  |  September 1st, 2007 at 7:26 pm

  Stated above, there is no solution. The book was concluded, and wonderfully so. The narrator was trying to solve a mystery, find the answers, because he needed to solve the mystery and find answers. Psychological, emotional need for closure or ending. It was driving him nearly crazy, until he decided to ‘get out’. The author did a great job making you sympathetic to his plight. How many of you would, in the real world, take pity on a case like his, and try to urge him to move on, put it behind him, etc. Through the book, the author helped you feel his need. And many of you still feel it. But, like the real world, it’s not a canned mystery, there is no simple solution. There is to be no solution. The author has not planned on providing a big reveal for dedicated readers. He is just providing a mechanism for you to continue with the emotions and needs you developed while reading the story. Well done, Galloway. Well done. I bet he never actually settled on an explanation for what happeend, even in his own mind. It’s like quantum mechanics: all possibilites currently exist, because none has ever been decided on by anyone, even the author.

  Personally, I think Bryce had an ongoing on/off relationship with Anna, came over that night, left the wrapper, and for some reason Anna ran off after that, framing the scene as a suicide. The girl that died in the teacher’s fire was somehow related to anna, and she hated him for it. that’s a stretch, but I’ll fan the flames for entertainment’s sake.

• 37. Laura  |  October 13th, 2007 at 6:15 pm

  also, when the narrator used a map to point the direction of the dress that anastasia left behind, he said it ended up somewhere in alaska, where the art teacher was headed. there must be some connection between them since he did call her anastasia and she had been giving him clues jsut the same as she had been giving clues to the narrator. anna somehow knew about the reason why the art teacher moved there but in his obituary he was the one that died in the fire and not his girlfriend. can anyone make sense of all of this? and what about the bruises all over her? where did she get those?

• 38. Jenna  |  October 28th, 2007 at 9:26 pm

  Does any one else think that the narrator, th main character, is Gregory Galloway? I can give you reasons why if you are interested.

• 39. Rob  |  October 29th, 2007 at 6:53 pm

  There’s no need for a sequel. The story is over. Everything that needed to happen has happened.

  Don’t keep looking at/for Anna. Anna isn’t the main character in the story, and what happens to her isn’t the point of the story. The story is about the narrator and the changes he goes through as a result of his relationship with Anna and what happens afterwards.

  Look at how he is at the beginning: he’s nothing. He gets good grades but isn’t really interested in anything and not particularly good at anything. He has no direction and his only friend is the guy who’s friends with everyone (Carl). His parents are blanks and he’s disconnected from his brother.

  Then look at him at the end. He’s completely different. He’s got a life. He’s gone to places in his mind that he’s never gone to before. He escapes from the town and his parents and gets a new start, and you can be sure his life moving forward won’t be anything like what it had been before.

  One of the big themes is that of the people who come into our lives and change them. Many of them are young women, for some reason (how many dead or missing girls are there in the book? I think there are four total, counting Anna). They all left their marks on the people near them (in one case literally, the burn scar on the art teacher’s leg). Anna arrived, changed everything, and left. It’s what she was there to do. She even sent him a message at one point that he wasn’t trying hard enough. He needed to put more effort in. He hadn’t changed enough.

  Go back and read it again, and this time, stop looking at Anna. It’s a very different story that way.

• 40. rourke  |  November 1st, 2007 at 5:44 pm

  the fact that you guys really don’t get it is overly hysterical. don’t think too hard about it. it’s right there. literally.

• 41. MelCarver  |  February 19th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

  Near the end there’s a scene between the narrator and the teacher where he finds the paper from Anna saying “How to draw a Bunny. The New York Correspondance School did not die.” Then June 5th, 1973 is crossed out, January 13, 1995 is under neath. Then he says the drawing looked nothing like a bunny. This is all about an artist named Ray Johnson. There was an award winning documentary about him called “How to draw a bunny”. This very weird artist was into codes, games and sending unusual art in the mail to friends. His bunny drawing looked nothing like a bunny.

  His death/suicide was thought to be his final work of performance art because he left codes behind. On January 13, 1995, was found floating under the Sag Harbor Bridge on Long Island. On this Friday the 13th the body was found near pier 13, Johnson was 67 at his death- add the digits, his motel room was 247- add again, and so on.

  http://www.rayjohnsonestate.com/biography.php

• 42. Claire  |  February 21st, 2008 at 11:58 am

  I read the book a year a go or so got it from the library, and meddled about it the clues and such. I eventually just lost interest but then came back to it. I purchased the book in order to have unlimited access to the information it provided, to lend it to all those I thought should read it, and just because I wanted to own one of my favourite books.

  I’ve decided that I don’t have time to dwell on it, and that I should just enjoy it for what it is. A good fiction. I think perhaps Mr. Devon and Anna were related in some way, maybe. Or somehow she new him from somewhere. Also, I was wondering what the reverence was to the valentines card? It also included “NYCS”. Later Mr. Devon says he put it G. G.’s locker on Valentines day. I think it was actually went for Mr. Devon… That bit confused me.

  Please write some sort of feed back? Would be appreciated. I think this is one of the most responsive, on going conversations about the book on the web. At least, that I could find.

  Cheers

• 43. T.J.  |  April 10th, 2008 at 7:05 pm

  Hey ya’ll, Gregory Galloway came to our school today. We asked a couple questions, and most of the stuff was really cryptic, but I got a few answers. First of all, yes the narrarator’s name really was Gregory Galloway, but the publishers and him had an argument and in the semi-compromise they had, the writer decided just to leave the narrorator’s name out, rather that name him another double-dactyl (one the publishers suggested was Oliver Toliver, which he claimed was the stupidest name ever). Second, the CDs really mean something, and he spent a LONG time deciding, and the lyrics, band, and CD jackets really mean something. He said to remember that the narrarator didn’t know everything, and sometimes his perspective was off, just enough to see things a little skewed. He also said Anna jokes a lot, and some things are not to be taken seriously. Finally, he said there was an actual answer, but the reason it isn’t closed is so that everyone can come to their own opinions if they want to. He was really nice, and seemed really smart. I hope I can meet him again, someday. So, there you go. More answers, and more complications. Still more mysteries. EWH? Also, to Samatha, he said someone e-mailed him about if the meaning of Anna and Anastastia, and if that had anything to do with why the narrorator called her Anna. He said he wished he had thought of that, and it was an absoultely brilliant idea. He said that’s what his answer was now. So, Congrats.

• 44. Jessica  |  July 20th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

  Alright, so I finished the book and haven’t gotten an email yet. But I was on his site (assimpleassnow.com) and I was looking at the cover art for the third CD “You Stay Dug” and there’s a word search on the back. Does this mean anything? I’ve started it, but I haven’t found anything that seemed important. Anyone help?

• 45. Anonymous  |  July 21st, 2008 at 8:55 am

  look up the russian family with anastasia in it (they were royalty) anna disapered in tha tfamily to. it all matches up

• 46. Margaret  |  July 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 pm

  I thought it was simple. In the back of my copy of the book, it asks:
  “What do you think actually happened to Anna? Interpret the evidence she left behind– does it support the idea that she killed herself, was murdered, or the theory that she ran away? What scenario does what she wrote in the narrator’s obituary suggest?”

  Taking that, I’m ready to say that she is in Baton Rouge.

  But the more hints I find online, the more complicated it seems. But which is right? The hints supplied within the books itself? Or what lies beyond?

• 47. Anonymous  |  December 8th, 2008 at 12:34 am

  anyone else think of that Yith comic book? How the main character controlled everyone’s minds even after he left. He had people doing things and acting strangely even after he was gone. Same with Anna, who gets ppl to mail and try to find out what happened to her. And if u really want to stretch it, think of the author and how he has ALL OF US looking for an answer that probably does not exist….

• 48. showy  |  December 16th, 2008 at 10:58 am

  I did read the book it realy is good and stuff but! i agree with some of you i do kind of think the book is supposed to end like it did. but i realy think there is more to the ending and that anna and the narrator is supposed to meat when he is i think 18 yrs old.

• 49. TL  |  January 10th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

  Just finished the book, great insite from everyone, i dont think they meet when they are 18 though, i think they are ment to meet later on…it says that many years passed he meets up with an old highschool friend 2 years isnt really “many”. I think they, if its how its written in her obituery, that she meets back up with him after he writes the novels and series “all before he is forty” thing. But yeah i dont think anyone will ever find the answer, who knows maybe when it comes time for Mr. Galloway himself to leave us, clues will come about, through the mail perhaps?

  Thatd be interesting, doubt it though, oh well wont put to much thought into it seeing as like TJ said, there is a solution but it was left up in the air so we could all interperate in a way that we would like. Those that want Anna back and with the narrator will believe they meet up later on in Baton Rouge, while other more pessimist might believe she actually did kill herself or just run off to another town for more of her obituaries and such.

  Thats just my opinion though, not really any insight that anyone else hasnt “uncovered” im sure ill be back to see further posts and will definitly be looking into this “other book”.

• 50. Anita  |  January 16th, 2009 at 2:35 pm

  T.J= Well, since Galloway said we can have our own opinions to solve the book here’s my solutions.

  I agree with a lot of you.
  As for Anna’s name, Anastasia, the Russian princess that disappeared, maybe this is true. Maybe she was born unique and she goes to different lives and after a while disappear. When she met G. I guess she knew what was going to happen so that’s why she made a code for them.

  She could be somewhere, maybe at home, laughing at everyone. She liked her game and she probably rather send clues to people than to go to school.

  I think her obituary could be right, maybe she just ran away and her and G will cross paths again and they will marry and have Bess, Erich(or was is Enrich?).

  I think if someone else was involved it was Bryce or Mr.Devon. You all know about the whole Alaska thing. But there could be something missing and Bryce could have hurt her, remember the time when she has the bruise but she said he was actually helping her. Unless she did it to herself.

• 51. d.  |  February 10th, 2009 at 10:29 am

  in mr. devons obituary…it said that he would be killed in a fire while he was living with a student from the school. and one of the clues on a comment from above states:
  Pull the curtains to the sill,
  Darken the rooms, cut all the wires.
  Crush the embers as they fall
  From the dying fires:
  Things are not going well.

  this seems to relate to the subject of a fire. maybe (and this is just brainstorming) she was somehow connected to the person who mr. devon was with who got killed in the fire on the couch. maybe anna is like getting him back or something. because she aviosly made a connection with him with the letter the G. found in mr. devons classroom and there was some hints that she was going to alaska, and he was going to alaska. maybe she had to do that before she got back with G. our something.

  and did anyone ever think about how mr. devon sent G. to go to the library to meet girls. then anna shows up. and they have the same book. i don’t know. just something to think about.

• 52. Lexis  |  February 23rd, 2009 at 10:05 am

  My opinion?

  Anna planned it all. From the moment she arrived at school, she thought of a plan to seem myserious, and she really wanted to change a life. She chose Bryce first, but then gave it up, because she thought he wasn’t the right person for it. That’s why he’s got all the postcards and boxes full of stuff, just like the narrarator does. So she moved on to someone who seemed like a clean canvas- Gregory Galloway. At the beginning of the book he asks, “What is it that attracts you to me?”, and she replies with, “You seemed like you need a little weirdness in your life.” The plan backfired though, and she felt herself changing according to him, not him changing to her. That’s probably why on New Year’s, she comes to the door looking normal, and not goth. She got scared, and ran. She ran to a place where she knew he would go soon, Baton Rouge. Also, she says a couple of times, “I’ll give you a ghost story to write about.” This kind of proves that the thing was planned. It’s just how Anna’s mind works. And yes, the reason she wanted to be called Anastasia is because of the russian princess. The book has a ton of symbolism, and little details like that aren’t meant to go on unnoticed. Just like the CD Songs, and the Yith comic book, and more. The reason at the end of his obituary that it says, “G___ called her Anna,” was because he was the only one she would ever stay for.

  That’s just my opinion, though.

  As for the weird bruises, and Mr. Devon, god, i’ve got no idea what to think of it. I haven’t thought about that part too much. I’ll get there though.

  And no, a sequal isn’t needed. He ended the book on purpose like this, Mr. Galloway loves to make people think. That was the purpose of the whole book, to think and keep on wondering, long after it’s read.

• 53. Taryn  |  April 12th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

  The thing that keeps sticking in my mind is Mr. Devon. I think he was a huge part of what made her run off, or commit sucide, or whatever she did. Remember she said she hated him, she wouldn’t let him drive her home after dropping G. off at home that one time, she got out with G. instead. She said that he would be at the top of her list for running people over with a car. I think - this might be a stretch - that they were in an abusive realationship, and that’s where the other condom wrapper came from, he came in afterwards, then she ran.

  Also, another thing I thought of is the art museum thing, the disturbing pictures with a women’s burn marks on her shoulders. Didn’t his girlfriend supposedly die in a fire? Fire = burn marks.

  I don’t know. I’m just expressing my thoughts and that’s how I interpreted the book.

• 54. Danni  |  April 16th, 2009 at 10:21 am

  For some odd reason I suddenly had an Idea reading over the comments

  This is completely crazy and just a huge guess but

  what if Anna IS Annastasia from the royal family.
  she does tell him she will supply a ghost(her)
  and to have all her family member either have the same name or similar has to be something
  and to connect to other peoples theories about how she was changing the main character.
  Maybe she left once she knew he had changed?

  Not sure just a thought

• 55. Angela  |  April 30th, 2009 at 4:24 pm

  Call me crazy, but… Maybe this is a riddle that wasn’t meant to be solved. Maybe we’re intended to spend hours and hours pouring over the problem but never find the actual solution. Anastasia’s gone. I doubt that any of us will ever find her. It seems as though that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We aren’t meant to find her. If the person who may have known her best couldn’t figure it out, then we certainly can’t.

• 56. Jane  |  May 1st, 2009 at 9:54 am

  I think you’re right Angela. I think the author deliberately left clues that contradict themselves and allow the reader to come up with their own supposition about what happened.

• 57. ...  |  May 6th, 2009 at 10:08 pm

  Guess what I think Anna was eaten by a Polar Bears

• 58. Cassie  |  May 24th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

  on page 49 the narriatot says that Anna is constantly changing her name on the internet. He gives a list “A.B.C (Anna Belle Cayne), E.A.P (Edgar Allan Poe), J.T.R (Jack the Ripper), E.M.H (Ernest Miller Hemingway), A.A.F (Abigail Anne Folger), G.A.H (Gary Allen Hinman)

  But Then it says

  “E.W.H (?)”

  It stands for Ehrich Weiss Houdini
  That was Houdinis Birth name from Germany before he changed it too Harry Houdini.

• 59. Lee  |  May 30th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

  While I keep coming back to the theory of Anna being in Alaska, I’m not sure I really believe it. Sure, there were a lot of mentions of Alaska, but the relationship between Mr. Devon and Anna is a little more complicated. I definitely think they have some sort of connection that dates back to before maybe she even moved there. The fire that Mr. Devon’s girlfriend dies in that also shows up in his obituary as responsible for his demise definitely can’t be ignored, but what significance does it have? I thought maybe one of Anna’s missing sisters was his girlfriend, and maybe she blames him for her death? (But I don’t know how the NYCS/bunny note fits into their relationship, it seemed friend-ish…also, does the bullet in his neck mean anything…?) I don’t know that Mr. Devon is directly responsible for the disappearance (and there are probably at least a dozen other little connections and/or coincidences that fit in somehow that need to be discussed), but I think he is definitely, definitely an important link.

  Now, if I had to come up with an answer to where Anna actually is, I think I have to say that she (maybe?) went to Baton Rouge. Cassandra, the phone psychic, said that she saw someplace warm and sunny and by the ocean where there are tigers and people that are going to love him and take care of him. Louisiana is right on the Gulf of Mexico, and it’s in the South, so it’s warm, and LSU is in Baton Rouge and the LSU mascot is a Tiger. We know that his brother is the only family member he really cares about and he said that he could come down any time to stay with him. Claire had said that Anna was from down south somewhere, so is it possible that one or all of her sisters live there and once she realized that they both had loved ones there, and that they could both get out from under their suffocating families and town, she went there to wait for him? The obit said they lived to old age in Baton Rouge. Maybe, unconsciously, Anna’s game had worked, and had led G to her, even though he didn’t know it, and the book (and G’s search) ended there because he had got to the end and finished. (Maybe she disappeared so she could become the ghost that she said she would provide for his story, and she wanted him to present it to her there? Also, all the songs on the You Stay Dug mix are about people running away and waiting for or wanting a loved one to follow them so I think we have to rule out her being dead by murder or suicide, unless she is dead and the idea is for G to join her in death, which would be a dark theme to pursue.)

  As I sit here and think about it, there are dozens of other theories that branch off in all directions using hundreds of bits and pieces of information that may or may not be clues (and even though Galloway said that not every little thing is a clue, it’s hard not to try to get meaning out of every, little detail, right?). It is clear that she changed G’s life, and I think that was definitely a goal of hers and from a logical (although, boring) standpoint, I guess that was the point of the book; the growth and preparation for G to enter the real world outside of his poisonous small town family life (which is ultimately what Anna got away from, too). Anna still haunts me, and I can talk about it all day, but I’m still no closer to finding out what happened.

• 60. Lee  |  May 30th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

  I also liked what Lexis wrote about how her goal was to introduce change and excitement into his life, but she probably felt herself changing more according to him. I think her plan worked and when she realized they had both become better people because they took a little bit of each other, she realized that they could start a new life as new people somewhere else and she left him with one last puzzle to solve and learn from (with the answer/lesson being that life is full of pain, mystery and complications but also full of love, ease, and answers when you figure it all out and make it work for yourself). Just another thought…

• 61. houdini  |  June 3rd, 2009 at 3:27 pm

  seeing as most of how I think the book ended has been said, I think the book was very well written I enjoyed it very much and I can not wait for the next book gregory galloway comes up with wether it be a sequel or not

• 62. AtimesA  |  June 8th, 2009 at 10:53 pm

  First off let me just tell you I loved this book. As soon as I picked it up I was hooked. Personally I think the whole novel is basically the shortwave radio station. For example:
  “”Don’t you want to find out what they mean, or where they come from,why we’re hearing them?”
  “It’s almost more fun not knowing,” she said. “If you knew what it all meant, then it might not be as interesting or compelling. That’s probably half the fun, not knowing. Sometimes there’s more fun in the mystery of things than anything else.” We listened for a while longer, and then she whispered in my ear, “Let’s make a code.”" (pages 75-76 paperback)
  I mean look at us all this page was created July 10, 2006 and it is now June 9, 2009 and this page is still going strong. The book is one big code that isn’t meant to be solved it can be interpuretted but never solved or thier would be no more fun in it.

• 63. Ashley  |  June 15th, 2009 at 11:49 pm

  Wow. You don’t know how relieved i am to see that people are still talking about this book. I just finished it and am so saddened and curious and perplexed and sad and hopeful and happy and sad again! I just read over most of the comments above from 2006 to now and i just got on to the assimpleassnow website for some solace. I’m looking forward to digging through Anna’s clues and perhaps discovering something. What makes me hopeful that there is an answer is T.J.’s blog made in 2008 after Gregory Galloway visited his school, which said that the author stated that “there was an actual answer, but the reason it isn’t closed is so that everyone can come to their own opinions if they want to.” It would be quite ironic if these clues only led more unexplanable theories and questions. However, if G.G. said there is an actual answer, i’ll take his word for it. Here’s to happy hunting!

• 64. Mona  |  July 4th, 2009 at 3:23 am

  Desappeared girls:
  Denise, Mr. Devon’s girlfriend, Joan, Anna’s sister, and Anna herself

• 65. Emily  |  July 6th, 2009 at 6:54 am

  I check back at this page every now and again although I read this book over a year ago. I personally think Anna just made a sneaky elaborate plan so nobody but G could find her. Maybe this would be easier to solve, as someone said before, if we stopped looking for Anna if we read this book again…but that may be next to impossible after looking at these posts…hehe. They’re very unique and different.

• 66. Kelsey  |  July 27th, 2009 at 11:16 am

  Mr. Devon in his obituary written by anna died in a fire which is how is girlfriend died..

  i have nothing. and it will but me until the end of time!

• 67. Christie  |  August 15th, 2009 at 8:14 am

  I have been looking at every comment and reference anna made in the book and a lot of it doesnt fit but they kind of explain other things, like Ethan Frome, the first and last chapters were written from an unnamed character and the story is about towns people getting murdered, like anna did with her obituaries

• 68. kiri  |  October 4th, 2009 at 3:59 pm

  I read ASAS last night for the first time and like many others before me, I have become intrigued and eager to break the mystery.

  Galloway said, “You really have to listen to the music in the book to understand what happens.”

  There must be some significance to the CD mixes. Why else would the author take the time to carefully assemble and include them? Other than to be a huge red herring. And why are the song titles all always in lowercase?

  I was studying the lists themselves when I realized that if you were to read all the song titles together, it reflects the story and how the characters feel:

  disc one:
  i will dare / freak scene / everything flows / shadow of a doubt / let’s get lost / cast a shadow / never to be forgotten / ride a white swan / beware of darkness / talk of the town / daisy glaze / mean old world / death to everyone / i put a spell on you / song to the siren / airscape / a forest / awake and under / ghost of a shark / bela lugosi’s dead

  disc two:
  a marshmallow world / frozen lake / you trip me up / iceblink luck / snowstorm / ghost in the snow / under ice / at the first fall of snow / snowy morning blues / dirty snow for the broken ground / silver leaf and snowy tears / walking on thin ice / i’ve got my love to keep me warm / cold, cold, cold / snowflakes / footprints in the snow / snowy in f# minor / winter song / snow crush killing song / the fox in the snow / angel in the snow / winter is gone

  disc three:
  violently happy / valentine / when you sleep / hep cat’s love song / from four till late / western zephyr / one hundred years from now / i know we could be so happy baby (if we wanted to be) / the walk / all the people i like are those that are dead / my funny valentine / softer, softest / whispering pines / a perfect sonnet / houdini / valentine / blackjack davey / meet me by the moonlight / asleep / keeper of the mountain / don’t be scared / be still

  I think Anna knew that she and the narrator are soulmates, but that they couldn’t survive at the rate they were going. The town, the high school, and everyone around them- including themselves wouldn’t be able to keep their relationship healthy and good. The times they were in was too temporary and transitory. They needed time apart to grow and stand on their own to keep their relationship strong. She didn’t want to engulf him or vice versa. To make their relationship last forever, even if she lied to the narrator, she had to give him some hope to keep moving on. To keep growing and experiencing. And maybe even move on if they couldn’t keep the promise of forever and together with each other.

  Maybe Anna knew that she needed to leave for other reasons too. After all there’s never really one reason to do anything when you’re a teenager. There’s a multitude of layers and reasons why. It’s somewhat indicated that her father was abusive, so Anna might have wanted to runaway. Maybe that condom the father found, wasn’t the narrator’s, maybe it was his but he couldn’t admit it. And if he was a predator like that, Anna could have seen similarities between him and Mr. Devon -thus her disliking him.

  Don’t really know still. But just wanted to put some more thoughts out there. I do think the songs and the lyrics are a big key though. I’ll have to look more into them.

• 69. Callen  |  October 22nd, 2009 at 10:01 am

  I am in agreement with Lee, #59, in that Anna is in Baton Rouge. Though admittadly, i haven’t read the book in about three years now, and only recieved three clues, so i am basing this off of the sturdiness of this evidence.

  If anyone else has a theory that contradicts this, please post it. It’s been driving me insane for three years now!

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