Skip to main content

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

If you look back to posts from earlier this year, Exit Pursued By a Bear is on the one of 2016 releases I was most anticipating. I pre-ordered it because it is E.K. Johnston. I pre-ordered it from my local bookstore so I could pick it up on its release day. Why is it a whole month later that the review is finally up? Because for a long time all I could do was look at it and long to read it. I knew that it was a story about a girl who was raped, and that's one of a few subjects I almost never pick up books about. I couldn't not read this book though. It's a reworking of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. I read enough of Johnston's press surrounding the release to also know that is is about friendship and choice and life. I have come to expect excellent and thoughtfulness from Johnston's writing, and she delivered with both of those again.

Hermione Winters attends her last cheer camp excited about the year to come. She is a captain. She is flyer. Her team is solid and this year has so much potential, not just for her cheer team, but for life. But at the end of camp party, her year takes a horrific turn. She wakes up in the hospital the next morning to discover she was drugged, raped, and left in the lake. She has to navigate the last year of high school with labels she never thought to wear. She has to make decisions she never anticipated. Some things in her life remain constant. Her parents love her. Her team has her back. And most important, she is Polly Olivier's best friend.

I read this book in one sitting, stopping only once to make my son a sandwich. (It was dinner time. I get it.) The whole time I was in a state of near tears. I'm the same way while typing this. I just felt so much for Hermione. Johnston is a top-notch storyteller. She has proven that in her three previous books. What amazes me is how deft she is at altering her style and cadence to adapt to her story and setting. In this she tells a very straight forward story in the first person about a girl. And that's what this. It's no't a book about rape. It's not a book about abortion. It's not even a book about cheerleading. Most especially, it is not a cautionary tale. It is the story of one girl who suffers a terrible violation and her personal journey afterward.

Hermione's reaction to her rape is not dramatic. She is not forever traumatized. She needs therapy, and it helps her out, but she isn't a basket case. This is important because this is the way a lot of women would deal with what happened to her. She wants things as normal as possible. She continues to cheer. She applies to college. She wants to hang out with her friends. Some of that is harder to get back than others. Hermione does have the occasional panic attack and has to learn to deal with the triggers she will now always have, but I really appreciated this look at a person who reacts with thoughts rather than emotions. Not that one way is better than the other, but because this is how I would respond to something like this. It's the way my daughter would too, and that thought is why I spent the majority of this book on the verge of tears and wanting to hug Hermione's mom as well as Hermione.

The book is packed with amazing secondary characters too, but none quite so amazing as Polly Olivier, Hermione's best friend. She is fierce. She is loyal. She is understanding. She takes no crap from anyone. When Hermione is too consumed by what's going on to realize Polly has fallen for a girl they met at camp, she manages to understand, forgive, and also prod Hermione into the world a little more all at once. Their friendship is one of those friendships girls dream of having with someone at some point in their lives. No time more than high school. How Johnston handled their growth and the typical senior year pulling apart and saying good bye on top of everything else was truly beautiful. Hermione also has Mallory, who is not as bold and brash as Polly, but is as amazing in her own quiet way. The rest of the cheerleading team (save for the boy Hermione was dating at the time of the rape) are really supportive too. As is every adult in the book. They are all amazing. Parents. Therapist. Police. Coach. All of them. And it is exactly what is supposed to happen when something like this happens to a girl. Johnston has said this is the most fantasy she'll write despite it's contemporary realistic genre placement. I can see why she would say that, it is a lot of how life should be but far too often isn't. Except there is a boy who thinks his desires are more important than a girl's consent, will, or life and that is all too real.

As much as I don't like to read books that have rape, I think they are incredibly important and there is no such thing as having too many of them. Rape victims all respond in different ways to what happen to them. So whether you are reading Speak, All the Rage, Exit Pursued by a Bear, or any of the other books that have been written or will be on the subject, they all have something to offer. And I hope people keep writing them until they're not needed anymore. As a mom, this is one I definitely want both my daughter and my son to read.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Serafina and the Black Cloak

Serafina and the Black Cloak  by Robert Beatty is a thrilling tale of mystery and adventure set at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC in 1899. Having lived in Asheville and visited the house several times, there was no way I was going to pass up a chance to read this. (Also it's MG fantasy, always a bonus for me.) Serafina lives in secret in the basement of the Vanderbilt's spacious vacation home. She has lived there most of her life. Her father worked on the house as it was being built and is the mechanic who runs the massive generator and keeps the electricity going. Serafina is the chief rat catcher, slipping through the halls of her massive home secretly and quietly. She is light on her feet, sees well in the dark, and is quick enough to catch the vermin and keep them out. Serafina knows she if different and strange. Her father insists she stay hidden. But all that changes when one night Serafina witnesses a horrible crime. A little girl, a guest in the house, is fleein

Shorter Musings MG Fantasy

Here are some shorter musings on recent MG fantasy reads. Anya and the Dragon   by Sofiya Pasternack This book is fun. It is a book full of adventure, an obvious bad guy, some more complicated morally gray area characters, and a strong, brave heroine. It is also a book about friendships, community, and fighting for what is right. All things that usually work for me really well. While I enjoyed this, I did feel it was a little overlong and there were certain plot points at the end I didn't love. However, there were things I thought were done really well, such as Anya's Jewish faith and the idea that power needs to be challenged. In the end it was a middle of the road read for me, but it is one I will certainly be recommending to dragon and fantasy adventure lovers I know! R is for Rebel   by J. Anderson Coats This is tough because I usually really like Coats's books. I had such a hard time with this one though on so many levels. It's difficult to get into because t

Favorite Kissing Scenes

When thinking of a favorite things post I could do for February I decided it would have to be kissing. I've already done couples and I was feeling in the mood to do something fluffy and Valentine's related. So kisses it is. I read more MG than YA, and the YA I read tends to not focus on romance so this was actually harder than I expected it to be though a few jumped into my head right away. (And one of my choices does actually come from a MG book. One is adult. Gasp!) The actual scene from the book is quoted followed by my thoughts. The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and a groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the hollow of the queen's shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day . - The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner Turner doesn't write the

Shadowshaper

Shadowshaper  by Daniel José Older is everywhere. Best of lists. Award buzz. Blogs everywhere. It's one of those books everyone is reading and talking about. I had it on my TBR but decided I definitely needed to read it before the year was out just so I could weigh in on one of the most talked about books of 2015 if asked. It is deserving of every good thing said about it. Every. One. Sierra was looking forward to a relaxing summer break. Her plans involved hanging out with her friends and painting. They did not involve being chased by zombie like creatures and threatened by a magical power connected to her family's heritage she has never heard of. When murals begin fading all over her Brooklyn neighborhood, Sierra is perplexed. When her grandfather, who had a stroke, begins to apologize and starts repeating strange phases and insisting Sierra get the help of a boy she barely knows to help her finish her mural, Sierra is concerned but mostly about her grandfather. Then at a

The Field Guide to the North American Teeanager

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe is a book I picked up on a whim at the bookstore when it first came out. I liked the cover. I thought it had an engaging premise. I went into it with a healthy does of trepidation because the execution could have gone so terribly wrong. Fortunately, Philippe is an excellent character writer, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent reading about Norris's adventures in Texas and high school. High school junior Norris Kaplan's life is ruined by his mother when she takes a job that requires them to leave the only home he has ever known in Montreal, Quebec. Moving is always hard, but Norris knows for him it will be harder than it's ever been for anyone else. Norris is moving to Texas. He will be a Canadian living in Texas. Not just a Canadian. A French Canadian who speaks fluent French. And not just your average run-of-the-mill French Canadian. A black son of Haitian immigrant parents French Canadian. If Norris has