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

TW: Rape

Read: February 26

Rating: ★★★★☆

Summary:

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.

In every class, there’s a star cheerleader and a pariah pregnant girl. They’re never supposed to be the same person. Hermione struggles to regain the control she’s always had and faces a wrenching decision about how to move on. The assault wasn’t the beginning of Hermione Winter’s story and she’s not going to let it be the end. She won’t be anyone’s cautionary tale. (via Goodreads)

Review:

This is an important book, but it also isn’t a very realistic book, and the author herself notes that. It was written in response to a law, and it shows what should happen when someone has been raped. Hermione has a great support system: she has an awesome best friend, her cheerleading squad rallies around her, her parents are supportive, she gets a good therapist, the police do everything they can to ensure that her rapist is caught. It should be the common procedure, but it’s not realistic.

It should be realistic.

This was a good book. Things were dealt with well, although I think there wasn’t enough focus on the pregnancy and subsequent termination, and I think Leo got off too easily. Hermione was a good representation of the things rape victim’s should believe about themselves: she constantly repeats that it’s not her fault, her friend Polly tells her that she’s allowed to be selfish, any slutshaming or victim blaming is shut down and shown clearly to be wrong. In a perfect world there would be no rape victims, but in a less perfect world, this should be the reaction. Support, and acceptance, and the knowledge that it wasn’t your fault. I’m glad this book was written. I wish it didn’t have to be.

tl;dr: important important important. Unabashedly Canadian. Please read this if you can.