Published in 2020
340 pages
Lucy Cuthew has an MA in writing for young people from Bath Spa University. Her published works include picture books, stories, and poetry. The manuscript for Blood Moon, her first novel, was short-listed for the Bath Children’s Novel Award. Lucy Cuthew lives in Cardiff, Wales, with her family.
What is this book about?
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.
