Exit, Pursued by a Bear

One of the toughest books to read because of the subject matter: rape.
This book doesn't whisper that it's about rape. It tells you like it is, rape is a terrible crime and shouldn't be avoided in conversations.
People can't say the word rape when talking about it. Just say it and acknowledge that it happens.

The last 5 pages were my favorite! My heart hurts and yet is triumphant. Though I did skip through a lot of the mundane aspects of the story. Still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Liked Hermione's clear eyed pragmatism mixed with hopefulness. Very much liked that Johnston didn't have her waddling about her choice for abortion after her rape. Forced chooses aren't reflected enough in teen books. Loved normalized gay secondary characters. Canadian setting will be slightly unfamiliar to teens, but not jarringly so.

I loved this and couldn't put it down, which is a little strange since it's not exactly a page-turning mystery. (There is a slight mystery aspect, but that's not what kept me reading.) I've read reviews about how this isn't exactly realistic, and in the author's note Johnston herself notes that this is sadly a bit of a fantasy in that after Hermione is raped, she's met with near-universal belief and support from friends, family, school, police, etc and that sadly is not the norm. On some level it reminds me of [b:Boy Meets Boy 23228 Boy Meets Boy David Levithan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356335082s/23228.jpg 1118789] and how David Levitan wanted to write a super happy book where queer teens can be out and happy with no societal issue, even though that was deffo not the norm when it was written (and isn't now even though progress has been made). the ease with which Hermione gets an abortion is I think more Canadian than just fantasy life, but also, whew.So with that in mind I think this is a great book to exist and perhaps provide a model for how people should respond to rape victims rather than a brutally realistic read. (I think there's a place for brutally realistic survival stories too but that doesn't have to be every story.)That aside, I just loved Hermione's voice in this so much and I was really rooting for her. She has a really wry self-aware sense of humo(u)r (she's Canadian), and I love her friendships with Polly and the rest of her team too.