Asking For It

The second work of Young Adult Fiction from Louise O’Neill, Asking For It is an uncomfortable but important read that shines a light on rape culture and victim blaming. It would have been an easier read if O’Neill had written it about a smart, sweet girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is not. It is about Emma O’Donovan, a nasty, shallow girl from a small Irish town who has in the past encouraged a friend not to bring rape charges to those who violated her. She is a girl who loves male attention, who is a bully and who lies and cheats. She is a girl who goes to a party, who dresses provocatively, who drinks too much and who takes drugs. And she is a girl who wakes up on her front porch the next day in extreme pain, stinging with severe sunburn, peppered with bruises and sticky with vomit. She been clearly abused, and there are photographs of it all over the Internet. But as social media shares her shame, Emma blames only herself – it’s not just society that thinks she was asking for it, she does too. This is a fearless novel about sexual consent, and its discomfort is in part due to the fact that the reader will, even if fleetingly, some point wonder whether Emma was indeed at fault.