Blood Moon

by Lucy Cuthew

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536225785
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	1,125,227
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.05(d)
Lexile:	HL620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

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.

Read an Excerpt

SATURDAY

A Slice of Night

 
I perch on the bench in the planetarium staff room and take out my phone,
with its smooth black-and-gold star-spangled case, and read all the messages from today while I wait listening to the silent room,
checking it’s empty before I get changed.
 
There’s a message from Dad and a ton in the chat with the girls called
PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY
(the only thing any of us can make).
 
Dad
I will be the one in the white ford behind the trees at five past zero hundred hours. D x
 
I think he’s being funny,
but I don’t get it.
 
He’s on another planet.
At least he’s agreed to pick me and Harriet up out back,
and not INSIDE
the ice rink,
like he wanted to.
 
I open PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY.
 
Harriet
Just getting ready!!
 
Bethany
Remind me why we’re going to an *ICE-RINK* birthday party.
Are we ten again?
 
Leylah
Apparently it’s free cuz
Jackson’s on the ice hockey team,
but it’s totally so he can show off to everybody.
 
Harriet
He can show off to me.
Apparently he’s amazing.
 
Bethany
I thought you liked Lee?
 
Harriet
I can multitask.
 
Bethany
Ha.
I’m secretly into it.
 
Marie
I’m openly into it.
It’ll be fun.
 
Harriet
What you all wearing?
 
Leylah
Shorts and a crop top . . .
And a giant hoodie,
to get past the parental police.
 
Marie
Erm . . . Ley, *ICE* skating . . .
I’m wearing two pairs of leggings and three shirts under my sweater.
 
Leylah
Ugh. Changing now.
Warm clothes are so unflattering on me.
At least I’ll be allowed out.
 
Harriet
You always look lovely.
Has anyone heard from Frankie today?
 
Me
I’m here!
Just finishing work.
Tell me when you’re there. XX
 
I finish typing,
then take off my uniform and let my dress slink down over my not-completely-flat
(but also not-yet-
satisfactory) chest.
 
A dab of concealer,
a pump of face mist:
I’m good to go.

Jackson Twigger’s
Sweet Sixteenth
at the ice rink.
 
(Although . . .
Jackson Twigger.
Sweet?
LOL.)
 
While I wait for the girls,
I scroll through my phone.
Harriet’s posted a photo of herself in our tree house.
#GettingReady #InstaMakeup
 
#Starlight #StarGazing #NightsOut
She looks really pretty,
her eyes all smoky,
but I know the photo is from ages ago.
 
It shouldn’t annoy me,
but we’re not getting ready in our tree house tonight,
and I hate when she’s being fake.
 
Under the photo
Jackson’s replied,
“ur hot.”
 
Harriet’s written
“thanks babe” and added a winky face.
 
(Does she actually like him or does she just like flirting?)
 
Harriet
We’re here!
Bring it, beeatch.
 
I pull on my sneakers,
then open the door to the atrium,
 
where Vidhi is putting away a wooden box of sparkling meteor rocks.
 
I wish I’d waited here talking to her about astronomy instead of looking at what Harriet’s posting.
 
“Have a good time,”
Vidhi says.
“You were great today.
You’re clearly really into this.”
 
“Thanks,” I say,
her compliment blazing inside me incandescently.
 
“Don’t forget to send me your application for the summer program.
Or you can just bring it next Saturday.
I’ll make sure
Elaine gets it.”
 
“I won’t forget,” I say,
a flutter of nerves at the thought of her
 
and the director of this whole place reading my essay.
“Thanks, Vidhi,
see you Saturday.”
 
“I’ll be rooting for you!”
she says,
                                which means
                                the world to me.
 
(Vidhi did the exact same summer program when she was sixteen,
and now she’s got a
PhD in Astronomy.
#LifeGoals)
 
I push open the double doors and breathe in the streetlight night.
Over the buildings,
the crescent moon is a sharp, bright slice of otherworldly light.
 
I snap a quick picture.
The moon comes out tiny,
all of its majesty lost by my phone’s complete inability to take a picture of something
 
so far from me.
I know Harriet will find it funny.
 
Me
Took this and thought of you.
#ShitPicturesOfTheMoon
 
Harriet
LOL. Get your ass in here.
Skating’s starting soon.
 


Sweet Sixteen
 
 
“Frankie!” Harriet screams,
waving at me,
bracelets jangling,
as I walk into the chilly and unnecessarily brightly lit room.
 
The music is loud,
and our crowd spills out of a booth near the rental skates.
I climb over the back of the seats and slide in between Harriet and Marie.
 
Jackson is already strutting in front of the group,
talking loudly,
as though we’re his own personal audience.
 
There’s Bethany,
                                Leylah,
                                  Marie,
                                  Me,
                                  Harriet (laughing loudly),
                                Dev,
                          Lee,
and Charlie.       
 
Jackson is telling everyone how last weekend he got a new mountain bike on his actual birthday.
 
Then went out riding and met two girls who were all over him because
            babes love bikes.
 
Then he tells us how he ended up banging them both as a birthday present.
 
(Yeah, right.)
 
He shows us all a picture of him straddling his bike,
with two girls kissing him,
one on each cheek.
 
“How long do we have to listen to this?”
I mutter to Harriet,

but she doesn’t answer me,
 
and Jackson is still going,
gesticulating grotesquely with his overmobile groin.
 
Harriet grins at me and fans her crotch,
then rolls her eyes like she’s about to faint.
 
I whisper to Marie,
“Is it just me,
or is Jackson disgusting?”
 
but Marie’s not listening.
 
Then Jackson looks at me,
scathingly.
Maybe he heard me.
I hope he did.
I don’t care if he hates me.
 
Harriet’s eyes stay fixed on him.
Then she laughs at something he says,
and throws back her head,
like a wolf howling at the moon.
 
As she does,
her tilted-up chin leaves a gap and
I notice someone I hadn’t previously seen:
                Benjamin Jones.
 
He’s sitting between
Dev and Lee
 
in a leather jacket,
looking explosively hot.
          
                He turns his eyes to me,
                and right then
                                something physical
                                                happens
                                                                down below.
 
He’s so good-looking
I can feel the photons bouncing off him and colliding with me.
#InstantCrush

Editorial Reviews

08/24/2020

Though Frankie and Harriet have been best friends forever, Frankie feels like they’re growing apart. Frankie loves astronomy, but all Harriet seems to care about is boys (“Does she actually like him/ or does she just like flirting?”), while Harriet thinks Frankie “can be/ such a nun.” By the time Frankie gets together with fellow science lover Benjamin Jones, she and Harriet aren’t speaking. When someone creates a meme about Frankie getting her period during a moment of intimacy with Benjamin, it’s easy for Frankie to blame Harriet—and Benjamin, of course, since he is the only one who knew that it happened. Feeling betrayed and utterly alone, Frankie must find a way to persevere as the internet piles on to shame her. In her debut novel, Cuthew flips a horror story about toxic masculinity and internet-enabled misogyny into a tale of empowerment as Frankie begins to see she’s not in the wrong, and she and her friends reclaim each other and the narrative. The plot holds few surprises, especially around the meme maker’s identity, but Cuthew’s verse is sensitively written, enlivened by hashtags and typographical flourishes that successfully convey Frankie’s feelings. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rachel Mann, Jo Unwin Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

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

From the Publisher

★ 07/01/2020

Gr 9 Up—Harriet and Frankie have been best friends forever. They share a tree house, along with a passion for astronomy and photography. After Harriet sends a racy photo to their physics teacher, the girls fight and break off their friendship. Life goes from bad to worse when Frankie's period starts during an intimate moment with Benjamin, her maybe-boyfriend. She is horrified when the incident is spread around their high school, then turned into an internet meme which leads to harassing messages and the potential loss of an internship. Frankie suspects Harriet or Benjamin might be the ones behind the meme. Terrified by the viral meme, and isolated and shamed by fellow students, Frankie isn't sure who to trust and is too mortified to tell her parents. Slowly, the truth is revealed, and Frankie comes up with a #MeToo plan to reclaim her power, even if it means being expelled. Written in verse with bits of concrete poetry, this book captures the joy of a crush, the despair of a lost friend, and the humiliation of being "that girl" on the internet. The need to normalize young women's body functions and desires is woven throughout. VERDICT An excellent examination of young women's friendships and desires set against the misogyny of their society. A great first purchase.—Tamara Saarinen, Pierce County Lib., WA

School Library Journal

★ 2020-06-15
Frankie struggles with the fallout after a meme about her awkward first sexual experience goes viral.

Frankie and Harriet have been best friends forever. They share a treehouse with a telescope and a passion for astronomy and photography. But Frankie becomes annoyed as Harriet becomes more boy-obsessed, and Harriet thinks Frankie is prudish and judgmental. But there is a boy Frankie secretly likes—in sweet Benjamin, she finds her science geek equal. After Frankie and Harriet have a blowup, Frankie and Benjamin share a sexual experience, her first, during which she gets her period. Initially, the couple are able to move past the awkwardness good-naturedly. But the next day at school, everyone’s buzzing about what happened, and a nasty meme about it goes viral. As the online response to the meme grows increasingly violent and terrifying, Frankie’s fear and shame are compounded by the seeming betrayal of people she trusted. This beautifully written novel in verse is equal parts tender and tough, covering a broad swath of adolescent concerns, from orgasms to the dark side of the internet. Cuthew’s depiction of online bullying and harassment is graphic and spot-on; funny dialogue helps to lighten the intensity. All characters seem to be white.

A powerful, fiercely feminist novel that normalizes menstruation and confronts destructive cyberculture. (Verse novel. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews