Eighteen-year-old Emma is beautiful. Her appearance is central to all her relationships as well as to the power she wields as a popular girl in her school. She is also thoroughly unlikable, manipulating everyone around her and projecting a sense of entitlement. Her life changes dramatically after one night of partying. The next day an online video surfaces of several boys sexually assaulting unconscious Emma. As she scrambles to take control of the fallout, Emma finds people are not eager to come to her defense. Eventually she reports the rape and her story becomes a media hot topic. She rarely leaves her house and can’t escape knowing everyone has seen the video, and most think she is to blame. But rape is a matter of consent and Emma never gave it to those boys. Her drinking and drug use, her sexy clothing, her flirting, her history of manipulation—none of that should matter. But in the court of public opinion they do and Emma—who thought she had so much power—is now powerless. In a book that exposes many of the contradictions young women face daily, the author’s dedication to leaving an untidy and unsatisfying ending makes this a raw and realistic read. (Age 14 and older)

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 chose sides, and people from all over the world want to talk about her story. Everyone has something to say about Emma.
Asking For It is a powerful story 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.