Beautiful and popular Emma O’Donovan possesses that typical teenage mix of vanity and insecurity, meaning she isn’t initially the most likeable narrator. When she is discovered unconscious on her doorstep the night after a party with no recollection of how she got there, everything changes.
The follow-up to multi award-winning Only Ever Yours – a haunting Hunger Games meets America’s Next Top Model tale – is equally arresting. But whereas O’Neill’s debut read like science fiction, Asking For It is all too realistic. The riveting narrative draws from real life rape cases and the aftermath that is increasingly played out online. And while the inclusion of iPhones, Twitter and Snapchat in literature is often a dead give away for an adult trying desperately to grasp youth culture, that’s never the case for O’Neill.
Her refreshingly empathetic voice shines through despite the abuse her protagonist receives. A timely, gripping and vital novel.
