Exit, Pursued by a Bear

[Audiobook]
By: E.K. Johnston
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Dates Listened: February 21-22
Length: 6 hrs 27 mins
Source: Overdrive App

Why did I read it?
Again, monotonous work at work.  I picked it because it was available, had an odd title, and I won't lie I like a good cheerleading story. 

According to the internet Exit, Pursued by a Bear in inspired by Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale.  I've never read A Winter's Tale so it doesn't help with the plot at all, but it's where the title comes from.  

In this book Hermione attends a cheer camp the summer before her senior year.  She is co-captain and this camp serves as a sort of training camp before her last year of cheerleading and nationals.  One the last night of camp she is drugged and raped and she doesn't know by who.  We follow her in the investigation, how she deals with her forgotten trauma, and the road to cheerleading nationals.  

This book explores some heavy topics as Hermione has to make some difficult decisions after her rape.  While the topics are heavy, it is not graphic. It is an important book for the YA Fiction world.  It brings some important topics to light for a younger audience and would serve well as a first dip for teens into some of these topics.  

One of my favourite parts of this book is that it takes place in Ontario.  Hermione lives about an hour away from my hometown.  They make jokes about places in Southern Ontario and choose between Ontarian colleges and universities and it made me feel like I was home.  E.K. Johnston is an Ontarian author and she used what she knows!  

I will also say that I didn't love the narrator.  It is hard to describe what it was.  It wasn't a lisp but she talked real slow and there was just something about it that made me glad it was only 6.5 hrs of listening. 
 
Rating: 4/5
Honestly, the end pulls me from a 5 star.  They added a bow to tie it up and they really didn't need it.  Kind of bugged me.  
 
Recommendation: I would recommend this book to pretty well anyone.  There are some who may find it triggering, but it is a book worth reading to help open some of those doors to what is happening in the world.