Short Synopsis
Louise O'Neill's Asking For It is a powerful novel about the devastating effects of rape and public shaming, told through the awful experience of a young woman whose life is changed forever by an act of violence. Contains mature themes.

Full Synopsis
Emma O'Donovan is eighteen, beautiful, and fearless. It's the beginning of summer in a quiet Irish town and tonight she and her friends have dressed to impress. Everyone is at the party, and all eyes are on Emma.

The next morning Emma's parents discover her collapsed on the doorstop of their home, unconscious. She is disheveled, bleeding, and disoriented, looking as if she had been dumped there.

To her distress, Emma can't remember what happened the night before. All she knows is that none of her friends will respond to her texts. At school, people turn away from her and whisper under their breath. Her mind may be a blank as far as the events of the previous evening, but someone has posted photos of it on Facebook under a fake account, "Easy Emma"—photos she will never be able to forget.

As the photos go viral and a criminal investigation is launched, the community is thrown into tumult. The media descends, neighbors choose sides, and people from all over the world want to talk about her story. Everyone has something to say about Emma.

Contains mature themes.

"O'Neill's powerful novel digs into deep questions about rape culture that are difficult to read but essential to consider." ---School Library Journal Starred Review

"A powerful cautionary tale that will appeal to older teens as well as to adult readers." ---Booklist

"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." ---Publishers Weekly

"Vital reading for people everywhere . . . it's clear that O'Neill is blazing her own path in literature." ---Guardian

"[Aoife McMahon] did a great job. I really was in Emma's head. . . . She made it real." ---Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell

School Library Journal Review