Asking for it - Louise O'Neil
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Book review

TRIGGER WARNING -Rape.

This book had every emotion possible in one book tears, anger, sickness, revulsion and more anger.  A hugely sensitive topic that was talked about in a brutal honest way that it should be. 

I've struggled to review the book as the characters were hard to like even Emma the main character. She was unlikeable from the start but I felt the author wrote her this way to make a point that the title of the book wants to Portray that Emma was shallow and that she was asking for it with her behaviour and deserved what happened to her.

The consequences of that night and the effects on all involved was awful to read from Emma's denial that this could have happened, the victim blaming and slut shaming from her friends and even her parents wanting to keep up appearances in the village. The comment her mom made "Good boys don't Rape" made me want to physically pull this mother out the book so I could give her a piece of my mind. As a mother to a daughter of similar age I wanted to wrap Emma up and support her.

The book although hard to read I would still recommend. I felt all of Emma's Self hatred. It's raw its real and scarily happening still to women everyday.

My only flaw was the ending there was no happy ending, it was left with no real resolution. The author wrote the book so we talk about this subject and support the Emma's of the world but was the Emma in this book supported when there was no resolution. However, in real life do victims of sexual assault have happy endings or are they always questioning "Was I asking for it?"