Review: Asking for it by Louise O'Neill

Goodreads rating: 4.01/5

My rating: 2.9/5

Asking for it by Louise O'Neill is a story about a beautiful and popular girl named Emma whose popularity turns awry after a Saturday night involving lots of alcohol, drugs, sexual hormones and a lapse in judgement.

One thing you should know about me, I tend to only read books that rate at least 3.9 or higher on Goodreads. It's one of the reasons I decided to pick up this book and I don't understand how it could rate so high. I expected to cry but the story did not even jerk my tear ducts one bit. It's a disgrace to rape victims, the most it could have probably done is made it's readers cautious of how to avoid getting in situations that could lead to non-consensual sex.

After the Saturday night incident, which happens within the first quarter of the book, the rest of the story is just about how Emma wallows in her misery and isolates herself at home. Sure, I could relate to the depression that followed, the wishing that it was time to take the sleeping pill to end the night early, the family tip-toeing around and making sure meals were eaten and medicine were taken at the right time, and the suicidal thoughts but that's all there was to it. There was no justice served and I can't even tell you why without spoiling the story for you - not that I would ever recommend you read this book. This book was honestly a waste of my time.

Have you read '13 reasons why' by Jay Asher? That's a damn good story about rape. It wasn't realistic because who records tapes for every person that has hurt them and leaves them before committing suicide? Heck, what teenager in this age and time knows what a tape cassette is? That aside though, everything else that happened - the bullying, the social statuses and the rape culture, is reality.

I'm sorry, I know I'm ranting rather than actually writing a review. 'Asking for it' is about rape culture, that's all. There was nothing about how it was tackled, what was done to help the victim, nothing. Even O'Neill's writing style was confusing, she kept jumping from one flash back to another with scenes constantly changing, the lack of cohesion made it so difficult to keep up with. The author tried to explain why she ended the story the way she did at the end of the book. She mentioned how she kept getting messaged while writing the story by various females about incidences that they experienced and how 1 out of 20 reported it and that those who didn't report the mishap, didn't because they did not have proof. Her character, however, did have evidence so it does not justify the way she went about her story. O'Neill claimed to have tried to keep it closer to reality but I highly doubt that it would have ended that way in real life.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, I'm not just disappointed with how it turned out, I'm mad.