Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew

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Walker Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781406393446.
(Age: Teenagers) Highly recommended. This novel looks at some hard topics that teenagers deal with including their first sexual experience, periods, the internet, the importance of friendship and having someone to talk to.
Frankie thinks she is just an ordinary high school student, until things take a dramatic change for her. She has her first sexual experience with Benjamin, which she is excited about until someone turns it into a horrible meme that starts to affect her whole life, on top of this she has a huge fight with her best friend leaving her with no one to talk to and she finds herself dealing with all of these horrible things alone.
Frankie doesn't want to talk to her mum as she is worried what she will think of her, she longs to be able to talk to her best friend but that is just not going to happen.
As things continue to get worse Frankie confronts Benjamin and he explains what happened and that he is trying to help, he also showed her that her best friend was not involved in all the horrible things like Frankie had thought.
Frankie becomes overwhelmed by everything and tells her mum about everything that has been going on. Her parents leap into action to try and help her.
Frankie is finally aware that her best friend did not have anything to do with the horrible meme, and they talk. They come up with a plan to stand up for themselves at the school assembly in front of everyone.
This is a great novel that all teenagers should have the opportunity to read.
As a teaching text this novel confronts some serious issues in a way that can open up discussion and look at how something that someone thinks is just a bit of fun can get out of hand and have a huge impact on someone else's life. Also the importance of having someone you trust that you can talk to when horrible things happen is emphasised. Teacher's notes are available.
The format in which the book is written adds another layer to the story.
I highly recommend this book for teenagers.
Karen Colliver

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