Book Review: Exit, Pursued by a Bear

                                                                 BOOK INFORMATION:                                                                  

Veronica Mars meets William Shakespeare in E.K. Johnston’s latest brave and unforgettable heroine. 
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.

                                                  MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK                                                              

TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE

This is a different book from other Shakespare retellings. 

Exit, Pursued by a Bear is a short book about a senior co-captain of her school's cheerleading squad, and how she deals with the aftermath of being sexually assaulted at a summer camp. It was competely suprising to me that rape was in this book because I went into it blind.

This book gets a lot of hate due to the rape issue, this isn't your typical highschool or rape story. This isnt the story of a girl who doesn't pick her self up from the incident, she gets up and moves on. So I think people really dislike that part. I am not seeing either is better but this one is just different.  An example of this can be seen in the quote: 

“I am constantly surprised, these days, at the creative ways by which people will avoid saying “you were raped.” Everyone’s broken where that word is concerned.”

I also loved that everyone believed her. I mean everyone believes her. Her friends believe her. Her parents believe her. Her teachers and cheerleading coaches believe her. The police believe her, and work to find the guy who raped her. 

I am glad I picked this book up from the library.