Asking For It

The day after attending a party at the home of a friend the parents of 17 year old Emma find her semi-conscious on the front lawn. The next day in school all of her classmates, including her closest friends, refuse to let her sit with them and won't speak with her. Emma doesn't understand this behaviour until a teacher takes her to one side to speak with her about a video that has been posted on YouTube, showing an unconscious Emma being raped and sexually assaulted by a group of boys and young men. As the case is taken up by the media as an example of the failures of modern society and Emma and her parents are ostracised by people in their small Irish town her family starts to fall apart. It is made clear to Emma that she can 'make everything right' by saying that she consented to the activities shown in the video. In Emma the author has created a character who is unsympathetic to the reader, she manipulates her friends, and attended the party with the aim of having sex with a particular boy she knew would be there. It is because of the nature of Emma's character that the issues of consensual sex and the idea that some girls or women are asking for it, can be explored, and the story explores the issue well. The relationships between Emma and her friends and family are complex and the school pecking order and cliques are realistic. Emma doesn't remember the assault so the reader only sees it through her eyes on YouTube. The language used to describe it is hard hitting and the attack is vicious, degrading and shocking. 352 pages / Ages 14+ / Reviewed by Kathryn Flagner, librarian.

Suggested Reading Age 11+