EXIT, Pursued by a bear Review
Trigger warning: Mentions of sexual assault, Teenage pregnancy and PTSD
EXIT, Pursued by a Bear By: E.K Johnston
What’s this book about?
Hermione Winters is the captain of the cheer leading team in a town where cheer leading is the main sport. When she and the rest of her cheer squad attend the annual cheer camp at the end of the summer, Hermione expects to work hard and cheer her heart out, but one night someone slips her a roofie and the next thing she knows, she’s waking up in the hospital with no memories of the night. Hermione then tries to get her life back to normal, while struggling to understand how to live her life after this traumatic event.
First things first….
Wow. When I had glanced over the back of this book, what caught my eye was that this story was going to cover the topic of rape and the resulting pregnancy. I fully expected to have to read the main character, Hermione, go through ostracization by her small town and high school. So many books that have these themes also have the heroine fight alone, or with very few supporting people. I will gladly say that my first assumptions of the book were wildly wrong. So without further ado, let’s get into “EXIT, Pursued by a Bear”
Round of applause:
The best thing about this book was that the author made decisions that me, as a reader, didn’t expect. Like I said before, I thought this book would deal with a pregnant teen forced into isolation after a traumatic rape. While Hermione did have to deal with becoming pregnant, she immediately decided to have an abortion, which surprised me. A lot of YA authors dare not to touch abortion as a subject. The author also creates a loving and supporting group of people for Hermione within the small town. There’s only one person who isn’t completely there for Hermione, and even he eventually comes around. One of my biggest pet peeves in novels is the “Best-friend dissertation” trope after a traumatic experience.
Another thing that I really enjoyed about the book was the way they handled the identity of the rapist. While, in the end, we did find out who it was, the author did a great job at keeping Hermione’s voice present, so that readers found out the identity right alongside Hermione. As a reader, I found myself questioning everybody’s innocence. Leo’s, Dion’s, everyone’s. It was good writing on the author’s part.
One last thing I loved was the characters. They acted like normal high schoolers! That’s an achievement in itself. But all the characters were memorable (For the most part), and I felt myself connecting with them. I’ve (thankfully) never been in Hermione’s situation, but I felt sympathetic to her plight, and I felt that I really got to understand her. Hermione is the heroine I’ve been waiting for in this kind of story. She not frightened of living. She’s so well written, I almost expected the author to tell us that this was autobiographical.
Nit-Picks corner:
I honestly don’t have a lot to nit-pick this time around. Most of my negativity comes from a personal standpoint of how I would have wanted the story to go. Like, for instance, I felt that while it was nice to get a little bit of closure on the rapist, it would have been emotionally richer to leave it out of the story. It came at the last possible second and came across as something added in last minute, instead of something intentionally left in. E.K Johnston had set up a great ending to the subplot of the rapist’s identity, having it not be confirmed. It had a sense of realism to it that the book had been pretty on point about. But by adding that last smack in the face, the readers are now left with a whole new influx of questions.
The devil’s in the details:
-The characters names: Most of them are taken from the OG, William Shakespeare's “A winter’s Tale”
- The response to victim blaming: Polly and Hermione’s utter shutdown of the reporter’s rather rude question of how girls can help prevent themselves from getting raped
- Dion: He kinda came out of the blue as a love interest, but he’s a pretty good guy
-Polly: Bad-ass lesbian, need I say more?
-Bitch slapping Leo: God Tier
Final Thoughts:
What a great start to this years YRCA! It has some very important messages for readers, male, female, or other, that I think some could really use. While the author states in their author’s note that the help and support that Hermione receives is not standard procedure, I hope that with the help of this book, and books like it, one day it can be.
Next up: YRCA 2019 Part 2: Heartless by Marissa Meyer