It might be 2020, but the double standard is alive and strong! Sixteen year-old Frankie is a quiet, nerdy girl, who usually flies under the radar. She meets the equally quiet but extremely cute Benjamin and ends up having a spontaneous sexual experience with him.
It’s consensual, exciting and satisfying - but during their intimate moment, her period starts. He’s okay with it – after all, he wants to become a doctor. And Frankie assumes this to be the start of something beautiful.
Well, it’s the start of something! The next day, this private and otherwise loving situation suddenly bursts into everybody’s awareness via social media.
A meme that shows her face and makes her out to have disgusting sexual appetites circulates and gathers momentum. Frankie is being slut shamed.
As she had not told any of her friends about Benjamin, she has no idea how the story got out in the first place. Ben swears that he told nobody. But now that her meme is viral, everybody has an opinion about it.
Frankie turns to her friends. As it happens, she had been in the middle of a fight with her best friend Harriet when the meme went viral. A few days earlier, Harriet had made a poor decision to send a bra shot of herself to a teacher, and when the consequences of this hit, Frankie had been judgemental rather than supportive.
Is this Harriet’s revenge? After all, the meme first appeared on her page. Harriet protests her innocence, but Frankie is not convinced, and more concerned with saving her reputation, and keeping her parents oblivious to worry about that.
But as the trolls circle and she is threatened with rape by total strangers, Frankie must take drastic action to reclaim control of the narrative and to solve the mystery about the breach of her privacy.
Told in verse, this is a compelling story about how easily a cyberbully can ruin lives – and about turning a story of shaming around. Beautifully written with an exquisite use of sparse language, this powerful story is a must-read for every teen, and every parent of a teen.
Title: Blood Moon
Author: Lucy CuthewPublisher: Walker Books Australia, $18.99
Publication Date: 1 July 2020
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781406393446
For ages: 14+
Type: Young Adult Fiction