This book is very important to read. The author retells her rape account. This is a very honest and brave account. This book made me angry in how the authorities deal with these cases.

Emily's story is incredibly frustrating and the fact she got to the end of it still fighting her corner is frankly quite astonishing. I hope that there is genuine change in how rape survivors are treated now by the police and the CPS compared to her experiences in 2015. although equally it would not surprise me if it was still more of the same - despite all the right things being said by the police about improving rape reporting, arrest and conviction rates. It's just plain wrong that women who report a rape are treated as if they are a suspect of a crime before they are seen as a victim, that they are judged on whether or not they are a credible victim, basically whether or not they deserve justice. This is a great book to illustrate exactly what rape victims have to contend with in order to even attempt to get justice in a system that is bizarrely stacked against them.

Frustratingly, though, books like this are never read by the people who need to read them - the ones who think that there is a higher percentage of women who lie about being raped than there are men who commit rape, who think that rape and non-consensual sex somehow aren't the same thing, who think that the burden is on women to prevent themselves from being raped rather than on rapists to not rape. You can bet that almost everyone who chooses to pick up and read this book is already enraged by the way that rape victims are treated. So, however good this book is, however well researched, however honest, it's always going to be preaching to the choir.

This book was such a brilliant and insightful read. I appreciated the blend of personal experience and statistics. Every book like this I read leaves me with a little less faith in the police and CPS but a little more hope that activists like Emily Hunt can and are changing both the law and the world.

A full review will be posted on my Instagram page soon.

This book is so important. It infuriated me and educated me (as someone who thought they were pretty on the ball, to be honest!)

Emily Hunt retells her rape story and her fight to have her rapist charged and held accountable. Peppered with statistics, it is an eye-opening read about how rape cases are dealt with and I honestly found it shocking.

From how Emily's case was treated by the Crown Prosection Service to how the police gathered information in those early stages, I felt so angry but hers isn't an isolated case.

Emily fought and fought and I kind of went into a Google rabbit hole. What a woman. She now is an expert advisor to the government on rape, even giving talks to police on how to respond to rape reports.

"Rape is not a women's issue. It is a human issue."

Everyone needs to read this.

This is a tough subject matter, but so important to learn about and try to understand. Also, it is so hard to rate someone's personal (horrible) experience, in this case not only Emily Hunts rape, but the trauma that continued for years both from PTSD and from having to relive the experience multiple times while moving through the "system." I am not rating her story. I think it was powerful and needed to be told. Her story and her bravery for going through fighting for victims to be heard deserves 5stars+++.

I waivered between a 2 and 3 stars just for the editing and layout of everything. The information itself was intense and necessary. It needed to be in there. How it was laid out just made it confusing and a little hard to follow at times. The constant jumps between past and present and then facts, that again were great information and should be in there, but they cut away from her timeline in some places. At times I got lost in which trial was happening and which interaction was happening with police in the timeline. I went from feeling sick and sad for what Emily (and victims) went through, to being confused about where I was in the story.

Overall, thank you Emily for sharing your story and for fighting for all victims to be heard. This was a hard but fascinating read.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc.

Wow what a powerful book. It should be required reading for any law students.
This is a guide to anyone in the law profession to how not to do things, be that police, volunteers and cps staff.
What an inspiring person Emily is to open up about her trauma. Not only at the hands of her rapist's but the whole system that should of supported her.
All credit to her strength and honesty going forward to help make the vital changes needed to correct the very flawed system.
Painful reading at times as Emily's pain and despair comes through on the pages but ultimately worth reading on

I feel like "We Need to Talk" is one of those books that actually shouldn't be criticised as they are based on deeply personal and traumatising events, and therefore required a lot of bravery to be published. Though Emily Hunt acknowledges that many survivors of rape and sexual assault do not report or get justice, her story is an exception. Her determination led not only to conviction of the perpetrator but also to the change in the UK's law, which is admirable. But also very, very rare.

I wanted to look at this book as one that's supposed to give hope to the survivors, but the stats are not favorable. Quite frankly, I suspect that reading "We Need to Talk" may bring more frustration if read by a survivor. I also doubt that this book will motivate survivors to report, as ability to report depends on so many different factors, both external and internal. Therefore, I'm still not sure about the position of this book and who the target audience is.

Wow! What an honest, unflinching and devastating book. And such an important book - covering a topic and its outcomes like very few books, films or to series do. Whilst very hard to read in parts (i myself have PTSD and first hand experience of some of the elements of this book) i thought it was incredibly courageous and necessary for such a voice to be put to paper! I would recommend this book to everyone to read so that people may understand the continued failings of our culture’s approach to SA and similar crimes and devastating experiences.

A hard read full of trigger warnings for SA, an up close, and personal story, and the failings of the courts, CPS and the judicial system

So needed. Thank you Emily for this. Thank you for sharing your story and taking your energy and pain and educating. You’re a big building block in changing the world for sexual violence victims. I will be thinking about your words for years and years to come, and spreading your knowledge as frequently as I can

Gorgeous and sensitive. I felt seen in ways I never thought I could within literature, and it opened my eyes.

A first person account of the failures of the system and the myths surrounding sexual assaults and its reporting. The writing style is brilliant and it forces you to acknowledge the failures that lead to people getting away with rape.

Thank you NetGalley and Ad Lib publishers for this eArc in exchange of my honest opinion.

We Need to Talk is an impressive book about the fight Emily Hunt fought to get her right and her abuser convicted for what he has done to her.
After reading the blurb, I expected the book to talk more about her personal experiences and how she coped with the rape. Of course, the book did talk about this, but for me there was a lot of data shared on how often men rape women. At the times, the factual information slowed the book down.
In the end, it is an amazing story; that someone has to fight the systems so hard, to not be believed...

A very honest and compelling story of sexual violence and the effects such attacks have on the victim.

Emily explains to us how the failings of the police and the Crown Prosecution Service left her without justice. Emily talks us through a 5 year journey from the attack onwards, explaining very thoroughly the statistics of rapes reported and rapes that actually end up with a conviction. This was a stark wake up call for me and I'm sure will be every other reader.
When describing and explaining the flaws in the investigation from the time or Emily reporting the attack a clear picture is a painted of 1) The importance of the proper steps being taken when they matter - ie straight away! (with regards to examination, toxicology) 2) The importance of information being shared (between not only the diff government departments, but also with the victim. 3) How victims are deemed credible by the police before even looking at a suspect.

The two things that shocked me most about this story was the police's attitude to the victims in sexual violence cases, and the rape myths explained - detailing how human nature make's people immediately judge the circumstances of the victim - especially seeing as the % of rape allegations being false are less than 2%.

The second thing is how open and forthcoming the attacker was with admitting the things he had done and it still wasn't enough for the CPS and the police to hold him accountable properly.

I have the utmost respect for the author and thank her for bringing awareness to me and all her other readers. I am also sorry for everything you have had to go through but also wanted to say that you are an absolute inspiration to your daughter.

The book was filled with facts and links to cases and reports and articles. The only reason for a 4 instead of 5 star review is no reflection on the story. The layout and links when reading on a Kindle made it sometimes a little confusing as to where the story started and stopped and I found sometimes the jumps around in the timeline a little hard to follow.

Emily finds herself waking up, naked, in a strange hotel room, next to a man she does not know. Who is this stranger and how did she get there. Emily slowly and hazily comes too and remembers the last thing she did before she woke up was having lunch with her father in a restaurant. Emily spots her phone on the floor and grabs it and to her horror five hours have passed. Something is terribly wrong as Emily looks at this man next to her on the bed and realises, she has never met him before and suspects that she had been drugged and raped by him.
What happened to Emily that night could have happened to anyone. This book is the story of how we as a society, think it is okay to do things like stalking, filming women without their consent and if they are intoxicated it is ok to have sex with them as you do not need consent.
Emily finds out that she had been drugged raped and filmed without her consent. Emily should never have had to go through the ordeal that she did. Emily reports the crime to police who immediately treat her terribly as they are prejudice, and do not believe Emily’s story. The police also fail to communicate with the hospital staff and miss judge the time for a drug test for GHB, and basically, they do not see Emily as the right kind of victim.
Emily suffers from PTSD and is not supported by the legal system or the police. Emily then takes up the fight for five years to change the laws and public perceptions and she battles to get justice for the rape committed by her rapist. Eventually a few people listen to Emily’s story and help her bring her perpetrator to justice.
Emily tells you in her own words how the rape affects her physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. How the legal system lets women down and the journey of how she helps change the laws to help other women never have to go through what she did without the proper help and support.
The abuse of women suffered at the hands rapists where the victim is not believed happens far too often, so please read this book if you work with the victims to help you understand them.
This is a very informative book from a very brave women and I highly recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers of this book for giving me a free advance copy of the book to preview and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

It never feels right rating or reviewing books of such a personal nature - but this was a phenomenal read. A SA survivor sharing her story of what happened to her - and the continuous failure by the police, CPS and wider society to take rape victims seriously. Important lessons to be learned by the authorities are contained.

Obvious TWS for sexual assault PTSD etc

This book was a shocking and somewhat disturbing but at the same time a great and necessary read. The title expresses really well what the book wants to convey: "We Really Need to Talk" about rape and everything connected to it, starting from how justice works when it comes to this specific crime. Most of us do not even realize that bias dominates our way of reacting to the idea of sexual assaults (I really appreciated how the author explained what rape myths are and how we can fight them).

Wow what a book! We Need To Talk looks at how rape is a mainstream, everyday problem deeply damaging victims, their families, their workplaces and the economy.

Whether I read rape cases in my country or Chanel Miller's Know My Name or this book, the similarities are surprising - police inaction, delay in courts and victim blaming. Is there a secret pact of police officers world over to fail their duty in cases of sexual assault?

The story, as the author says, is not about her personal vendetta against one man. It is about how she fought for five years to change a faulty law amidst an oppressive system.

The author was raped and filmed naked when she was heavily intoxicated. Now, both of these could be proven as not guilty using the loopholes in the law of her country. The story is of how the author fought to criminalise filming women without their consent. It is also about how we, as a society, think it is okay to do things like stalking and filming women without consent. These don't qualify as crimes for us. Through social research and surveys, the author states how majority don't understand consent.

I find it similar to the horrific Nirbhaya case in India. Though Nirbhaya was brutally murdered, her fight brought amendments to the definition of consent in the Indian law. Not only were her criminals hanged to death but her case brought discussions at every level about women's safety.

The author's fight wasn't for herself. It was for the thousands of women whose videos were taken, whose rapists were never prosecuted, who couldn't fight year after year. It is for those women whose stories are labelled as false. It is for our sisters and daughters who deserve a safer and better world.

The writing is brilliant and on-point. I finished the book in one go and I think everybody should.

I received a review copy and I am posting my review voluntarily.

This was phenomenally powerful, well-researched, well-written and absolutely brutal to read at times. Emily Hunt's struggle against the justice system to acknowledge that what happened to her was a crime, the systemic dismissal of violence against women, the diminishing of the impact of rape, sexual assault, and invasion of bodily integrity - Hunt writes with a humane and very real, painful voice that this awful thing happened to her, but this book is more than a gratuitous account of violence. Quite the opposite. This is a powerful polemic, an important read, and a truly stunning piece of work. I'll definitely be getting a hard copy when it's published, and recommend you read this, too.