A review by regal_leaves
Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’d expected the narrative to focus solely on Frankie’s story but was pleasantly surprised to find a more in depth look at feminism and shaming with a scandle including her best friend Harriet. For me the combination of experiences was one of the things that made this book so impactful for me.

Frankie’s and Harriet’s friendship throughout was phenomenal, I enjoyed seeing them grow along side each other through everything. I appreciated the focus on the impact a situation such as this has on female friendships, the choice to rally together of join the side of the people shaming is a snap decision and I liked the depiction of this.

Benjamin was another amazingly written character, we see how the shaming for men is drastically different from women while having a stong male character that tries to support Frankie the best he can. Their relationship is one of the cutest I’ve read and I especially enjoyed their development into the couple in the end.

I don’t read books written in verse often but I’ve been enjoying them, Blood Moon was no exception. I especially liked the way the formatting was used, certain things were written bigger/ smaller and more opaque than others to show the emotion behind the words. Things were organised differently across the page with paragraphs of conversation on either side to differentiate, which is something I haven’t seen done before but thoroughly enjoyed. 

The themes were executed perfectly, not for a second shying away from the important conversations or the facts of a viral situation like this. tHe idea of #noshame was perfect and I appreciated the idea that it didn’t just apply to periods.

The ending was heartwarming and powerful for the school scale but I don’t believe it would have made much difference for the shaming online. I believe they should have done something on a larger scale or at least posted more about it online.

Overall I loved this book with every fiber of my being and believe it to be an important read for everyone with its message of #noshame.