Lucy Cuthew

View more details of this book at www.walkerbooks.com.au

Blood Moon

Soha

Fantastic. My brain is still in semester break mode, need some time to organize my thoughts on this one.

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.

Absolutely loved this book. I like the verse form a lot; there were a couple of poems that conveyed Frankie's state better than prose ever could. The best part, for me, was definitely how Cuthew handled the discussion surrounding shame and disgust. She made it very clear how much of Frankie's shame was imposed from the outside, an effect of how other people reacted, rather than a genuine impulse from herself. When you have so many voices telling you you're gross and wrong, you start to believe it. It takes a lot of strength to remove yourself from that toxic mindset. Seeing Frankie step back and say, no, I'm not ashamed because I didn't do anything wrong was just wonderful. It's just blood. #NoShame

Sophia Hofmann 

Flavia Louise

Incredibly important book that got me really angry and sad.

Caroline Lewicki

I can’t believe I read this book in one day and I almost regret it - purely because I want to bask in the girl power of this longer. 

An absolutely incredible book about judgment, shame, and reclaiming your story. Friendships, relationships, betrayal. So much delivered in such a beautiful package. I couldn’t put it down and I see myself picking it up again. I couldn’t recommend this enough.

Tatiana Alvarez 

Another surprising read for me! I am not a fan of books written in verse; poetry just isn’t my thing! However, I wanted to give this book a chance, and I’m very glad I didn’t stop after the first 50 pages. I ended up devouring it at the end. 

I will say that there are cringy parts and lasts that are so very teen, but once I remembered that this book was written in the perspective of a teen, going through high school, experiencing her first sexual experience. So, yeah, some parts are a bit awkward. 

Frankie bring home a boy she likes for the first time and after a hot and heavy session, she realizes that she got her period and is embarrassed. Luckily her crush isn’t mortified and they laugh about it, not thinking anymore of it. 

However, the next day at school, every student is talking about the girl he “fingered on her period.” once word gets out it was Frankie, she loses her best friend, her crush starts distancing himself from her, she gets slut shamed online, threaten by rape and murder, and becomes completely isolated. 

This book definitely hits on some really tough subjects and shows the hypocrisy between a guys first sexual experience versus the shame and ridicule girls go through. 

I really enjoyed the ending where Frankie and many others reclaimed the power of their bullies. The author did a great job at showing a complex friendship and how it can heal at the end of the story as well. 

Highly recommend this book if you are comfortable with those topics.

Shannon Thomas

I read from page 52 right through to the end in one sitting. 
It became completely addictive. 
Blood Moon is a very powerful, prose story. It’s a story of friendship, love, loss, slut-shaming, sex and periods.
I found it really moving at times. Particularly the moment where going viral was impacting Frankie very negatively. Those scenes were absolutely heartbreaking.
Parts of this novel were definitely difficult to stomach. Largely because in this day and age, the events of the book happen all too frequently. Sex shaming, slut shaming and period shaming happen daily. I know on more than one occasion during high school it happened to me. Not to the extent of what Frankie goes through, but I remember being called a slut, a slag, frigid. Every name under the sun. At a young age it definitely has a lasting detrimental impact. 
Even now, as a 24 year old woman I feel embarrassed to talk about periods, because from a young age we’ve been taught that it’s not an acceptable topic of conversation.
But why isn’t it? As Frankie points out, it’s only blood.
This novel really got me thinking.
I sincerely hope others will read this, specifically people who have slut shamed or period shamed someone in the past for their own comedic purposes, and I hope this will have them second guessing their actions.
Beautifully written and fantastically executed.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this arc from the publisher! Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Blood Moon

Author: Lucy Cuthew

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 4/5

Recommended For...: contemporary, ya, bullying stories

Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 14+ (periods, period shaming, body shaming, mean girls, bullying TW)

Publisher: Walker Books US

Pages: 340

Synopsis: 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.

Review: Overall, this was a good book. I liked the character development and I felt the book did good to show body shaming, especially period shaming (I was never the victim of this because I’ve been cursed with the infrequent periods and can count on two hands how many periods I had through High School). I felt like the book had a good plot and it did well to keep my intrigued throughout the book. I’m also loving how more open YA is becoming on periods and the menstrual cycle! For years YA just pretended those didn’t exist and that’s so unrealistic for a lot of people.

However, I didn’t like how slow the first third of the book is and the pacing throughout the book is a bit wonky. The book also had a disappointing ending. There shouldn’t have been any reason the girls made in up in my opinion and I didn’t like how the victim in all of this (Frankie) apologized first… like… no. It was also a little cheesy.

Verdict: It’s a good book, just had some issues with me.

Manon van Heumen

This one was a big surprise for me, as I didn't expect to like this story at all. When I saw it was written in poetry-style, I was even more sceptic, but this book shows that you should not judge a story without actually giving it a chance. Due to the writing style, the pages flew through my hands. It was easy to follow, which made it more enjoyable for me. The story, however, exceeded all expectations. I absolutely loved it. It gave off such a powerful message, and towards the end I even got a bit teary-eyed. Can highly recommend this one!

Ocean

I loved the positive message of this book! Sometimes people are made to feel ashamed of things that are completely natural, and it's extremely unfair. People get periods, there's nothing shameful about that. The way Cuthew tackles the issues of online bullying going too far and being out of control is incredible. Not to mention the way the messy friendships were written and how it feels when you think there's no one on your side and you don't know who to trust. This was a very quick and easy read that covered some very important issues, which I enjoyed for the most part.

Blood Moon

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