Not the Perfect Victim: A Memoir of Surviving Sexual Violence, a Late Autism Diagnosis, and the Fight for Justice

He stole my voice. This is what it took to get it back. At nineteen, Anna Kahill was raped. For over a decade she carried the trauma in silence, until the death of her mother during the pandemic — and a late diagnosis of autism and PTSD — forced the truth to the surface. Not the Perfect Victim is her raw and unflinching memoir of sexual violence, neurodivergence, and the fight for justice in Northern Ireland’s flawed legal system. Already praised by early readers as “truthful,” “raw,” and “a book that needed to be written,” this is more than a memoir of trauma. It is a deeply human story of survival, grief, and healing — a story that dismantles the myth of the “perfect victim” and speaks to anyone who has ever questioned their memory, their worth, or their right to speak. For readers of Know My Name by Chanel Miller, What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo, and The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk — this unforgettable memoir refuses silence and dares to tell the truth.

Anna Kahill’s story has been featured in the Belfast Telegraph, Women Writers, Women’s Books, Writing.ie, and Armagh I