Exit, Pursued by a Bear

High School Fiction

VG/A  Johnston, E.K.  Exit, Pursued by a Bear.  Dutton, 2016.  242p.  978-1-101-99458-0.  17.99

As a high school senior, this is Hermione’s last time at cheer camp and she couldn’t be more excited about it. Everything is going great, until the final weekend when Hermione wakes up in the hospital and finds out that she had been drugged, raped and left unconscious in the lake. She has no memory of the incident or who did it. Now she has to spend her senior year dealing with the fallout, both emotionally and physically, while trying to move on with her life. Author Johnston, doesn’t focus on the rape or Hermione as victim, but on Hermione as a survivor. The title, chapter headings and many of the characters names come from Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, although the connection between the book and the play are not clear. Regardless, this beautifully written book is sure to make many best of 2016 lists. Loren Spector, LAPL, Memorial Branch