Exit, Pursued by a Bear

5/20/2018

Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston

Blurb:

Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team, and in tiny Palermo Heights, this doesn't mean what you think it means. At PHHS, the cheerleaders don't cheer for the sports teams; they are the sports team – the pride and joy of a tiny town. The team's summer training camp is Hermione's last and marks the beginning of the end of … she's not sure what. She does know this season could make her a legend. But during a camp party, someone slips something in her drink. And it all goes black.

Review:

I didn't used to overthink my choice quite so much. Then someone made what I've always been told is a very important choice for me, and now I tend to overthink everything else.

In a central plot point Exit, Pursued by a Bear is similar to What We Saw (both are about rape) but, when it comes down to it, both books are completely different. What We Saw treated rape from an outsider's perspective, here we follow the victim, What We Saw dealt with people denying what had happened, in this story there's no looking past it (even though some people try to). Moreover, this book is actually, dare I say it, a happy book.

Maybe 'happy' isn't quite the right word but it's certainly optimistic because there is a life after disaster and Hermione (with the eager help of Polly, her parents, and many more) is learning to live that life. Virtually every person this book deals with directly (as in: Hermione has a conversation with) is compassionate, kind, and understanding or at least tries their best to be. And honestly? What a great thing to read about. Disaster has struck but you learn to deal with it, not on your own and with lots of (professional) help but you learn to deal with it and then everything turns out good (not perfect because nothing is ever perfect but good).

Moreover, almost everyone in this book is really open-minded and mature which is very refreshing to read. There are so many characters in YA books that sound a lot younger than they are but in this book, if anything, Hermione and Polly sounded older than they are. There was not one problem I thought would have been avoidable had people just communicated / thought a little longer / any other stupid reason people in books tend to make stupid decisions for.

Frankly, this is a strong book. I can't claim that everyone will find it the best book ever or that there won't be people that will read it and just not find it that interesting because there is hardly any drama but I liked it precisely because of that reason (obviously, there is drama but not more than "just" this one item of drama). And if you think this might be a book you could get behind I say: absolutely go for it.