Monday 20 March 2017

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

by E. K. Johnston

Exit, Pursued by a Bear is a worthy successor to Laurie Halse Anderson's seminal novel Speak.  In Speak, Melinda Sordino was so traumatised by her assault that she was unable to even say the words "I was raped," to herself, much less out loud for months afterwards.  Hermione Winters, the protagonist of Exit, Pursued by a Bear, is everything Melinda was not: popular, confident, unwilling to cower in the aftermath of her rape, with the bonus of super-supportive parents and a steadfast best friend.

Hermione is the co-captain of the award-winning cheerleading team at Palermo Heights High School in the small town of Palermo Heights, Ontario.  On the first night of an annual summer cheer camp, every school talks about their inner collective demons: fear of heights, plagues of self-doubt.  Hermione, though, describes PHHS as a cursed school where, "every single class... since 2006 has lost a student to a drunk driver... [and] every year one of the girls in PHHS gets pregnant."  The cheerleading squad's challenge is to break the curse.  Hermione's class may have lost a student years ago to a drunk driver, but they are determined that there will not be a pregnant girl at PHHS this year.

The cheerleading team is no laughing matter, and in fact they are the pride of Palermo Heights.  In Palermo Heights, the sports teams play second fiddle to the cheerleaders. PHHS's cheerleading team is also unusually tightly-knit, which is a factor in their ongoing success.  This camaraderie is threatened during cheer camp.  One minute Hermione is dancing at the end-of-camp dance, and the next thing she remembers is waking up in a hospital, where her best friend, Polly, informs Hermione she's been raped.

Hermione refuses to let one single event define her, but it proves difficult in a small town with a small high school.  The whispers, stares, and rumours follow Hermione as she tries to move on from the rape, enlisting the help of once-a-week sessions with a psychologist, and throwing herself back into cheerleading.

Johnston handles several sensitive issues -- rape, pregnancy, abortion, sexuality --  in Hermione's matter-of-fact voice.  It serves to put things into perspective.  Yes, Hermione's rape is traumatic, and she experiences flashbacks, often at inopportune times, but to Hermione the actual event matters less than how she decides to handle it.  I think that is what makes this book stand out in a crowded YA shelf: Hermione decides who is going to tell her story.  It's on her terms and no one else's.  It also passes the infamous "Bechdel test," in which two women discuss anything other than a boy.

If the title rings a bell, congratulations!  You are officially a Shakespeare nerd.  "Exit, pursued by a bear..." is one of the more bewildering stage directions in Shakespeare, from his play A Winter's Tale.  To this day nobody knows if Shakespeare intended to use a real bear or an actor in a bear costume.  The novel, though, is much less circumspect.  The bear that pursues Hermione are the myriad slings and arrows from the aftermath of the rape.  The novel is a cleverly drawn parallel between Shakespeare's play of a falsely accused queen named Hermione.  So, Exit, Pursued by a Bear, is in fact, a Winters' tale, because it is the tale of Hermione Winters.  In the play, King Leontes accuses Queen Hermione of having an affair.  In the novel, Hermione's boyfriend Leo, doesn't really believe she was raped.  The play has a character called Polixenes who proclaims Hermione's innocence, and the novel has Hermione's bestie Polly, who will defend Hermione until she no longer has breath.

If you enjoy books with strong female leads, and read a realistic story where girls can talk about more than their respective love lives, you'll enjoy this book.  I know I did.

For read-alikes, try Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick; The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and of course, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.



Monday 6 March 2017

Finding Audrey

 Sophie Kinsella, of the Shopaholic series fame, brings us this account of Audrey, a teen suffering from anxiety as the result of some sort of traumatic event (we don't know what) that has sent her into darkness and despair. She is unable to leave her house, or go to school, or talk to anyone, or to remove her dark sunglasses. 

The story is told from inside Audrey's head, so we have a first hand account of where she is at in her recovery and demonstrates Audrey's lack of awareness of the effect of her illness on the other members of her family. It takes some time for Audrey to realize how wrapped up in herself she has been, not being aware of anything outside of herself and her feelings.

Audrey's family is a bit quirky, Mum reads the Daily Mail and allows the crazy stories in there to influence her parenting, Dad tries to support Mum, sometimes having trouble keeping up, brother Frank is a frustrated teen (see Mum's attempts at parenting), and Audrey's anxiety keeps her hidden from the world. 

Audrey sees Dr. Sarah, who helps Audrey make progress in her recovery by trying to get her to take some steps outside of her comfort zone. One day her comfort zone is invaded by Linus, a friend of Frank, who actually seems to understand Audrey and is able to support her steps to recovery. 

This book is an honest look at Audrey's anxiety and the difficulty she faces as she tries to emerge from the darkness, written with humour and respect.

 

Thursday 2 March 2017

Book of the Month: March- Bone Gap




Gossip reigns high in the small farm town of Bone Gap, USA. In a town where everyone knows everyone else's business (or at least thinks they do), Finn is laden with guilt over the misconceptions of his peers. Roza, a beautiful Polish woman who recently appeared in Bone Gap under mysterious circumstances was kidnapped and he was the last person to see her. No one believes it was a kidnapping, not the police, not the townsfolk, not even Finn’s older brother Sean. Determined to set things straight, Finn sets out to find Roza, no matter the cost. Jumping from past to present, the stories of Finn, Roza, and the people of Bone Gap are woven together in a beautiful, heartbreaking tale.  

This book was particularly interesting because it was hard to tell if it was a piece of true life fiction or a supernatural tale: you're left guessing until the very end.  I found that factor gave the story a compelling edge.  Finn and Roza are both well written characters with a lot of realistic characteristics. Roza, a recent immigrant to the USA, suffers untold horrors as a beautiful young woman far from the protection of her home and family. The flash backs outlining her circumstances are both enthralling and poignant. These well developed characters and their engaging backstory make for a complex and slightly eerie read!

Warning:  For older teens due to sexual content and instances of domestic abuse.

Other Similar Books on Social Injustice: How it Went Down , The Alex Crow, Out of Darkness