Not the Perfect Victim
A Memoir of Surviving Sexual Violence, a Late Autism Diagnosis, and the Fight for Justice
“I didn’t know the moment my voice was stolen.
But I remember the first time I tried to scream
and nothing came out.”
At nineteen, Anna Kahill was raped. She didn’t call it that for a very long time.For over a decade, she carried the trauma in silence — across countries, through university, motherhood, and grief. When her mother died and a late diagnosis of autism and PTSD reframed everything she thought she knew about herself, the truth finally surfaced.Told with unflinching honesty and compassion, Not the Perfect Victim dismantles the myth of the “ideal survivor” and reveals what happens when a neurodivergent woman dares to speak out in Northern Ireland’s deeply flawed justice system — and beyond.This is not a story of justice as it should be.
It is the story of reclaiming voice, naming truth, and finding power on her own terms.
📖 ABOUT THE BOOK
Not The Perfect Victim is a raw, poetic, and unflinching memoir about surviving sexual violence, navigating a late autism diagnosis, and seeking justice in a system designed to fail victims.Through fragments of memory, therapeutic insight, and powerful storytelling, Anna Kahill exposes the emotional, legal, and societal cost of surviving — while challenging the myth of the “perfect victim.”
This is not just a memoir.
It is a reclamation — and a confrontation with silence, shame, and the systems that uphold them.
---⭐ PRAISE & MEDIA COVERAGE- Goodreads – Early PraisePublished Features
- Armagh I – Interview feature, July 2025
- Women Writers, Women’s Books – Book extract, Aug 2025
- Writing.ie – Author essay, Sept 2025
- Belfast Telegraph – Contributed essay, Sept 2025Confirmed
- Local Women Magazine – Interview feature, Nov 2025- Newry Democrat – Interview feature, Nov 2025Under Consideration
- Ongoing media outreach---
In September 2025, Anna Kahill was invited as a VIP delegate and attended the Action Trauma Conference on Neurodiversity in Belfast, where her writings and experience in neurodivergence and criminal justice system drew interest from professionals across fields.
🎯 WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?
- Survivors of sexual violence
- Late-diagnosed autistic & neurodivergent adults
- Therapists, social workers & trauma-informed professionals
- Psychologists, social & political scientists
- Journalists, lawyers, justice reform advocates & politicians
- Anyone questioning their own unprocessed trauma
- Readers who never saw their story represented — until now💬 KEY THEMES
- Surviving and living with complex PTSD
- Intersection between trauma, neurodivergence and justice
- Critique of the criminal justice system
- The invisibility of autistic women in trauma narratives
- How the legal system fails neurodivergent survivors
- Motherhood, grief, recovery, and radical honesty
- Reclaiming the narrative from shame and silence
- Mental and Physical health
- Impact of traumatic events
- Intergenerational trauma
- Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 80s & 90s
- Social, Political & religious divides