Asking For It

Asking For It was a modern tale of a young woman being taken advantage of. Women are often seen as the cause for rape, but the reality is rape is not caused by her environment, a woman's clothes, or her alcohol consumption. Rape is caused by rapists. I found this novel to be both enlightening and depressing. The character is essentially an antihero, she does not do well in school, stays up too late, drinks too much. but yet you still root for her because she is the protagonist. I always loved watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit but wanted to know what it was like from the victim's point of view. In the novel, Louise O'Neill does a great job of keeping the story realistic- there is no speedy trial, her story is not glamorous, and the end result isn't what you would expect. O'Neill describes the sadness, shame, and separation she feels from society. It made me mindful of the way I treat my peers and the way they treat others.