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Tag: Sexual Assault (Page 2 of 2)

Book Review: Exit, Pursued By A Bear

May 24, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Exit, Pursued By A Bear – E.K Johnston – Dutton Books for Young Readers – Published 15 March 2016

♥♥♥♥♥

Synopsis

Hermione Winters has been a flyer. She’s been captain of her cheerleading team. The envied girlfriend and the undisputed queen of her school. Now it’s her last year and those days and those labels are fading fast. In a few months she’ll be a different person. She thinks she’s ready for whatever comes next.

But then someone puts something in her drink at a party, and in an instant she finds herself wearing new labels, ones she never imagined:

Victim. Survivor. That raped girl.

Even though this was never the future she imagined, one essential thing remains unchanged: Hermione can still call herself Polly Olivier’s best friend, and that may be the truest label of all.

My thoughts

A beautiful, poignant and powerful story about a girl’s journey through the aftermath of sexual assault, and the way in which a community gathers around her with support and love. I have called other heroines strong, but none of them compare to Hermione. She is one amazing young lady. I love how she thinks, how she is logical and brave. She knows she needs the support of everyone around her and she isn’t afraid to lean upon them.

Exit, Pursued By A Bear starts by setting the scene after Hermione’s attack and then moves back to the time at Cheerleading Camp before it. It is both scary and dramatic watching the lead up, knowing something of what is about to unfold, trying to watch for clues and ultimately hurting for this vibrant young girl.       Continue reading

Book Review: The Stars at Oktober Bend

April 25, 2016 / / 0 Comments

The Stars at Oktober Bend

The Stars at Oktober Bend – Glenda Millard – Allen & Unwin – Published 1 February 2016

♥♥♥♥

Synopsis

A powerful, captivating story about Alice, who is reaching out to express herself through her beautiful-broken words, and Manny who is running to escape his past. When they meet they find the tender beginnings of love and healing.

Alice is fifteen, with hair as red as fire and skin as pale as bone, but something inside her is broken. She has acquired brain injury, the result of an assault, and her words come out slow and slurred. But when she writes, heartwords fly from her pen. She writes poems to express the words she can’t say and leaves them in unexpected places around the town.

Manny was once a child soldier. He is sixteen and has lost all his family. He appears to be adapting to his new life in this country, where there is comfort and safety, but at night he runs, barefoot, to escape the memory of his past. When he first sees Alice, she is sitting on the rusty roof of her river-house, looking like a carving on an old-fashioned ship sailing through the stars.

My thoughts

Sometimes a book will just sweep you away with its light and beauty. Stars at Oktober Bend was a dream to read, surprising, ethereal and consuming, yet grounded in the muddy fields and gum trees of country Australia. Where family and love combine in a story of one girl’s bravery.

This book was suggested to me by a colleague, written by an Australian set in Australia, and promised to be both heartfelt and moving, everything that would draw me to a book. And yet I was surprised by how much I fell in love with this book. It started off slowly, until the pieces of this tale started falling into place and I found myself swept up in this delightful story.

Alice lives with her brother Joey and her Gram in a little stilted house on Oktober Bend. She is a poet and a dreamer. She cannot clearly remember what happened to make her forever twelve or her electrics go crazy. Writing is easier than trying to make her words work and it is much better to stay far away from the people in town who judge and point and do not care to understand. Stars at Oktober Bend is the story of Alice learning to feel fifteen, of Alice meeting Manny, the boy who reads her poetry, and of Alice remembering what happened that night under the Stars at Oktober Bend.      Continue reading

Book List: Sexual Assault in Young Adult Fiction

February 22, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Sexual Assault in Young Adult Fiction

Sexual assault is a heart-wrenching topic, but it is an important topic to raise with teens, bringing awareness and understanding. Here is an updated list (June 2019) of recent and important young adult novels that feature characters who are survivors of sexual assault.

The Leading Edge of Now – Marci Lyn Curtis – Kids Can Press – Published 4 September 2018

Grace’s life has been thrown into chaos – but she’s been living that reality for two years. Since her father died, Grace has been living in foster care, waiting for her uncle to finally claim her and bring her home to the town of New Harbor. But returning to the house that has so many fond memories of summers spent with her dad also brings back memories of the night that changed everything for Grace. Forced to confront the people and memories of that night, Grace starts to uncover the details of what happened -but the truth is something she never expected.

Vigilante Vigilante – Kady Cross – Harlequin Teen – Published 28 March 2017

Hadley’s best friend Magda was raped by four classmates. A few months later, Magda is dead, having taken her own life. Hadley is left with a drowning sense of grief and guilt. She has to see the four boys in her classroom everyday as the four of them were never charged. When a sudden opportunity arises, Hadley decides to create some of her own justice and plans to go after each of the boys who hurt her friend.

Female of the SpeciesThe Female of the Species – Mindy McGinnis – Katherine Tegen Books – Published 20 September 2016

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence.

While her crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people, even in her small hometown. She relegates herself to the shadows, a girl who goes unseen in plain sight, unremarkable in the high school hallways.

The Way I Used To Be The Way I Used To Be – Amber Smith – M.K. McElderry Books – Published 22 March 2016

Eden was always good at being good. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Exit, Pursued by a BearExit, Pursued by a Bear – E.K. Johnston – Dutton Books – Published 15 March 2016

Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team.  But during a cheerleading camp party, someone slips something in her drink. And it all goes black.

In every class, there’s a star cheerleader and pariah pregnant girl. They’re never supposed to be the same person. Hermione struggles to regain the control she’s always had and faces a wrenching decision about how to move on. The assault wasn’t the beginning of Hermione Winter’s story and she’s not going to let it be the end. She won’t be anyone’s cautionary tale.

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