Exit, Pursued by a Bear

For such a short book, Exit, Pursued By a Bear packs a powerful punch.

Hermione Winters is a senior and a competitive cheerleader. This year is the last cheerleading camp she’ll go to – she’s determined to make it her best. And it’s all going pretty well, until she’s drugged at a party and raped. The story subsequently follows with her trying to come to terms with this new version of herself and trying to catch the rapist.

Exit, Pursued By a Bear is brings in strong themes of friendship, support, and healing. Hermione’s journey is fairly clean (though I wouldn’t say easy, because recovering from that kind of trauma is never easy). She has an excellent support system – friends who have her back, parents who care about her, show more professionals who listen and help. In an afterword, Johnson relays why she chose to give Hermione such a strong support system and that very few victims of sexual assault are so lucky (there’s also information about resources for survivors in Canada and the US).

Much of Hermione’s story is told through her cheerleading, and it’s done respectfully. There are stereotypes around cheerleaders and I feel like Johnson avoided them all. She talks about their athleticism and coordination and strength. Not once is Hermione or any of her teammates sexualized, which in a book with this theme I think is really important. There is almost no discussion about their bodies, not superfluous language at all. Hermione, Polly, Mallory, and the others are all described as powerful, driven women and I thought it was both wonderful and important to the story.

This is not an easy read. Exit, Pursued By a Bear is written very directly and there’s no language softening the themes. This book is a bit of a smack across the face to the fact that similar situations to this happen to women all the time. I highly recommend caution in picking this one up if you have triggers. While there are not a lot of specific details, there are scenes that are difficult to read, and the book is entirely based around the incident. If you think you can read it, though, it is a strong story about a young woman overcoming a heinous crime and regaining control over her life. show less

Damn. I've been reading a lot of books lately where men do horrible things to women. It's upsetting, and I hate it. Reading this book was hard, because I pretty much immediately loved Hermione and her snarky, sarcastic wit, and her dedicated athleticism, and her superlative friends. And you know, if you've read anything ahead of time, that something horrible is going to happen to her. I almost couldn't get through it, because I so badly did not want anything horrible to happen. And yet. I would have missed the strength of the message, and the extraordinary strength of the girl had I not continued. It's beautiful.

This is one of those transformative books. The ones that don't bullshit you or weasel their way into weak language. If you show more fail to get the message that rape is not the victim's fault and that recovery will always be on a person's own terms, then you haven't read this book yet. You should.

Also, if I'd realized this was the same author as the Owen series, I would have picked it up even faster. National treasure you've got there, Canada. show less

The premise of this book is rape. I'm going to be upfront about that - the main character is drugged and raped, and the book is about her coming to terms with this, and her healing.

That said, I really loved this book. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop because the characters are so completely compelling. Johnston gives Herimone an incredibly strong support network, from her best friend Polly, to her parents, her therapist, and the rest of her cheerleading team. I love the the author showed the power of friends and and how your friends can be your strength and can build you up. I'm seeing more YA books show really good, strong friendships and I love that.

There's a lot of really good, positive messages in this book. It touches on show more consent, victim-blaming (and why it's not okay), rape culture, sexuality (one of the secondary characters comes out during the course of the book), and probably a slew of other stuff I can't remember right now. There's also an extremely accurate depiction of PTSD and what triggers attacks.

Unfortunately, Hermione's story is the ideal -- as if there could be an ideal for a rape. She had a support network of both peers and adults. She had a law enforcement officer who was on her side and went above and beyond. She had supportive parents. She had a healthcare system that worked and access to therapy and abortion services. Many aren't so lucky. show less

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I found Hermione too "together" for lack of a better word - the author tells us that she can't sleep/stares at the ceiling but doesn't show us anything other than Hermione conquering challenge after challenge. It was so unbelievable that not only would Hermione find a psychiatrist right away in small town Ontario (when most of us have to wait six months or more) but she finds one that will come to her house!?! Insane.

And what was up with the interaction with the church pastor? Again, Johnston tells us previously that Hermione attends church with her father but we never see her at a service or explore what role spirituality has in show more her life. The one conversation between Hermione and Pastor Rob seemed phony. All Hermione's interactions with adults (the interview with a reporter was the lone exception) showed how awesome adults were. Maybe we need a book that shows teenagers and young adults that reporting an assault can be a positive step in healing... but how realistic is it? show less

This is a loose retelling of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. Hermione Winters, co-captain of her small-town high school cheerleading team, is convinced that this final year is going to be the best one ever. And then she's drugged and raped at summer cheer camp.

This sounded like the sort of story I'd prefer to avoid, but it showed up in my recommendations and I was curious, so I read a sample online... and then I had to keep reading.

For a book about a traumatic event and its aftermath, Exit, Pursued by a Bear is realistically hopeful. Hermione's family, friends and teachers are (with a couple of exceptions) incredibly supportive, and she has access to the services she needs. As the author acknowledges at the end, this is not a common show more experience. But Hermione's support network is plausible, not some unbelievable perfect fantasy, and they cannot magically solve all her problems. Given that there are many darker books about coping with trauma without the kind of support Hermione has, it was refreshing to read something which suggests that lacking support isn't inevitable.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear explores the idea that there isn't one set way of being a victim. And it doesn't suggest this is a simply matter of choice. Hermione does choose to carry on as planned with her cheerleading, but she's aware that had her experience been a bit different, she'd probably be choosing to never leave her bedroom instead, and it is her support network which makes her cheerleading ambitions achievable.

My favourite part about this book is Hermione's long-standing friendship with her co-captain, Polly. I also really liked how the title ended up fitting the story.

“Girls,” I say, like I’m telling them the secrets of the universe, “this is going to be the best cheer year ever.”
“Go Bears!” shouts Polly, flinging her perfectly manicured hands in the air and shaking pom-poms she doesn’t have. The boys are stomping along in back. Even the bus driver is in her spell, and I catch him looking back and smiling in his mirror. I’m the only one who knows her well enough to know that she is being excruciatingly sarcastic. That is Polly’s superpower. She’s a cheerleader for want of another choice, and while she looks like the perfect model, underneath the plastic veneer is a capacity for scorn and contempt I’m glad is on my side. Whatever the odds, if Polly is cheering for you, you are a force to be reckoned with. show less

Hermione Winters knows that her life is going to change. It's the summer before her last year of high school, and the beginning of her last ever cheerleading camp. Cheerleading is everything to her and her best friend Polly - spirit, friendship, trust, adrenaline - but this will be the last year. She expects that. What she doesn't expect is drugs in her drink at the end-of-camp dance, and a boy leading her outside, and waking up the next day in the hospital. Now she'll spend her last year of high school waiting - waiting to see if she's pregnant, waiting for DNA tests to come back, waiting for people to treat her normally again, waiting to feel normal again.

This book is inspired by Shakespeare's [The Winter's Tale], but not really an show more adaptation or retelling. For a book about such serious problems, it's actually pretty positive. It's much more focused on friendship than romance. Hermione has a good relationship with her family and supportive friends, so this isn't the most realistic story. But this isn't really a cautionary tale or melodrama, it's a story about the process of recovery and friendship. It's very emotional but quite cathartic and I liked the characters and enjoyed reading it. The book is specifically Canadian and I spent a lot of time Googling locations, but I enjoy that kind of thing so I didn't mind at all. Highly recommended if you're looking for a positive book about rape recovery, or if you like YA friendship. show less

Hermione, captain of her school's cheerleading team, is excited about the beginning of her upcoming senior year. Prior to the beginning of school, she, along with her team, attends cheerleading camp (as she does every year) but while there, the unthinkable occurs. Someone slips something into her drink and she awakens to find that she has been the victim of sexual assault. But because of the drug, she has virtually no memory of anything that happened.

On the surface, this sounds like a run-of-the-mill YA story with a side plot of sexual assault thrown in. While teen rape should not of course be taken lightly, it's a story that's been done before. However. This book had been on my radar after reading some really good reviews and I had it show more added to my wishlist without even really paying much attention to the book description. It recently made it to the top of my reading queue and then I wasn't sure if it was actually going to hold my attention. But it did.

It may seem odd to describe a book with such disturbing subject matter refreshing, but that's what comes to mind after having finished this. I enjoyed it a lot. Hermione is portrayed not as your typical rape victim who becomes consumed by her situation, but one who has grit and is determined to move beyond and not be defined by what happened to her. While some readers may be put off by this, as I said above, I found it refreshing to read about a character who takes it the other way and becomes a role model, determined to get her life back in order.

Despite a plot description and title that may not grab a reader right off, I thought this was a very well written story, appealing not to just younger readers but older adults as well, and I'm sure my review has not done it justice. If possible, read this one on audio. The reader (Jorjeana Marie) is fantastic. This is probably one of my favorites so far this year. Recommend! show less