This story captivates E. K. Johnston’s style and talent as a writer of realistic and honest stories. Johnston demonstrates, through her incredible cast of characters, various reactions to difficult, scary, and hard situations without ever making any situation larger than real life. Because every hardship is realistic, even sad scary moments never leave the reader in a state of panic. The situations are always able to be faced as a reader, even the situations no one would ever choose. This story has many good, happy, and funny moments too. In keeping with her realistic writing style, some of the best moments are simple victories. When Polly rolls onto a bag of chips making a royal mess of Hermione’s bed. Or the moment Mallory takes one for the team by dancing with Leo. The afternoon the senior girls get together to fill out each others resident applications for university. These simply real wonderful memories perfectly balance this story. Congratulations to E. K. Johnston, for another story worth savoring!
Jorjeana Marie’s narration of “Exit, Pursed by a Bear” is elegantly emotional and equally controlled. Her voice for Hermione fluctuations gracefully between emotional moments and moments of pure golden bear strength. Marie flawlessly convinces her audience that they are listening in on the real life of Hermione Winters. Excellent work, Jorjeana Marie!
Hermione Winters: high school senior, cheer team captain, the girl who can fly, friend to many, and family to more.
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Hermione Winters: victim of rape, the broken girl, the girl that got grabbed, the one with a personal therapist, and the class check mark.
Which labels become Hermione Winters? She decides in her story: “Exit, Pursued by a Bear”.