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| Perma-Bound from Publisher's Hardcover ©2020 | -- |
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Mature Content 
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)
Starred Review ALA Booklist (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)Starred Review Frankie is a bright, friendly physics aficionada who is obsessed with astronomy the way her girlfriends are with boys. Her best friend, Harriet (Harry) loves to tease Frankie's lack of interest in romance by calling her a nun, which their other friends laugh off. When Frankie takes up with Benjamin, engages in her first sexual experience, and discovers her menstrual blood on his fingers, she is embarrassed despite Benjamin taking it in stride. Then memes about Frankie, sex, and her period go viral, making her the victim of slut shaming. She can only imagine Benjamin is the culprit, because no one else knows what happened. Frankie's life goes to hell, and only after she gathers the courage to talk with her parents about the incident does she reclaim power over it, propelling her to discover who was behind the memes, fight back, and regain her good name. Many important issues are addressed in this novel-in-verse, and each is tackled with honesty and without sensationalism: the complexities of friendships, maturity, and solid parental support; the painful toxicity of cyberbullying and slut shaming; the thrill of one's first boyfriend and first sexual experience. This is, at its core, a must-read novel of empowerment that attempts to normalize periods and offer strength to the innocent who find themselves the center of viral humiliation.
Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)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)
Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review ALA Booklist (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
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
Excerpted from Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
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.