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This powerful, timely novel in verse exposes provocative truths about periods, sex, shame, and going viral for all the wrong reasons.
After school one day, Frankie, a lover of physics and astronomy, has her first sexual experience with quiet and gorgeous Benjamin—and gets her period. It's only blood, they agree. But soon a gruesome meme goes viral, turning an intimate, affectionate afternoon into something sordid, mortifying, and damaging. In the time it takes to swipe a screen, Frankie's universe implodes. Who can she trust? Not Harriet, her suddenly cruel best friend, and certainly not Benjamin, the only one who knows about the incident. As the online shaming takes on a horrifying life of its own, Frankie begins to wonder: is her real life over?
Author Lucy Cuthew vividly portrays what it is to be a teen today with this fearless and ultimately uplifting novel in verse. Brimming with emotion, the story captures the intensity of friendships, first love, and female desire, while unflinchingly exploring the culture of online and menstrual shaming. Sure to be a conversation starter, Blood Moon is the unforgettable portrait of one girl's fight to reclaim her reputation and to stand up against a culture that says periods are dirty.
"This beautifully written novel in verse is equal parts tender and tough, covering a broad swath of adolescent concerns...A powerful, fiercely feminist novel that normalizes menstruation and confronts destructive cyberculture." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"An excellent examination of young women's friendships and desires set against the misogyny of their society. A great first purchase." - School Library Journal (starred review)
"Frankie's story is piercing, raw, and true—not to mention relentlessly gripping. It's also suffused with the sweetness and joy of being young and soaking up the marvels of our wondrous universe. This is female adolescence, crystallized. And it's astounding." - Lauren Myracle, New York Times best-selling author
"With every verse of her debut, Cuthew shouts down the shame, chips away at the period taboo, and firmly establishes herself as a bold and vital new voice in feminist literature." - Samantha Shannon, author of The Bone Season
This information about Blood Moon was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lucy Cuthew has published more than thirty children's books, including picture books, educational titles, and nonfiction, and she regularly speaks on the subject of children's books for the BBC. She was a children's editor for more than ten years and recently graduated with a master's in writing for young people from Bath Spa University. Lucy Cuthew lives in Cardiff, Wales, with her husband and young twins.
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