Asking For It
AN POST TOP 20 IRISH BOOKS FROM THE PAST TWO DECADES
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4.5 • 194 Ratings
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- €4.49
Publisher Description
AN POST TOP 20 IRISH BOOKS OF THE PAST TWENTY YEARS (2026)
BOOK OF THE YEAR at the Irish Book Awards 2015
'A soul-shattering novel that will leave your emotions raw. This story will haunt me forever. Everyone should read it' Guardian
'Riveting and essential' New York Times
'Brilliant, harrowing' Observer
'A confronting and vital read' Elle
In a small town where everyone knows everyone, Emma O'Donovan is different. She is the special one - beautiful, popular, powerful. And she works hard to keep it that way.
Until that night . . .
Now, she's an embarrassment. Now, she's just a slut. Now, she is nothing.
And those pictures - those pictures that everyone has seen - mean she can never forget.
For fans of Caitlin Moran, Marian Keyes and Jodi Picoult.
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
'Brutal. Unflinching. Very, very good' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'This book is a must-read for everyone, young or old' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Easily one of the most gut-wrenching books I've ever read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'An important book' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Once we started reading this heart-stopping drama, we couldn’t stop. Small-town beauty Emma O’Donovan is far from a sympathetic heroine—she’s an angry and petty teenager who puts down her friends and exploits her looks to always be the centre of attention. But when Emma comes to on her front porch after a party—with no recollection of how she got there—her world starts to fall apart. Asking for It is a compelling, hard-hitting story about the devastation of sexual violence and the role of social media in shaping and skewing the narratives of victims and perpetrators alike. It’s a novel that’s sure to spark conversation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
O'Neill (Only Ever Yours) again examines the ways in which society devalues the bodies and lives of girls, this time taking on the subject of sexual assault. Emma O'Donovan, 18, has always been praised for her beauty, and she walks a line between cruelty and kindness to bend everyone to her whims. One night Emma parties too hard, drinking and taking drugs until she passes out. The next day she learns that she was the victim of a Steubenville-like gang rape, and the boys involved have plastered horrific and explicit photos of the assault online. Soon everyone in Emma's tightknit Irish community has taken sides mostly against her and as a trial nears and the world watches, even Emma's family abandons her. O'Neill's treatment of how communities mishandle sexual assault and victimize its victims is unforgiving, and readers will despair to see Emma helpless in the face of injustice. It's a brutal, hard-to-forget portrait of human cruelty that makes disturbingly clear the way women and girls internalize sexist societal attitudes and unwarranted guilt. Ages 12 up.
Customer Reviews
Captivating
Could not put the book down, powerful and current writing. Thank you for writing about such a taboo subject that really needs to be spoken about! Well done and looking forward to the next book!
Terrifically terrifying
Polarising look at small town Ireland
Highly recommend
Very good book with an amazing storyline but a very anti climatic ending!