Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew
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