5 stars
A beautiful story that is well-crafted and well-told.
One of the things that makes this book so lovely is that each piece is told through a form of freestyle poetry. The wording is very fluid, which goes along nicely with the main character’s focus on dance and movement.
There is a lot covered in this book (friendship, honesty, crushes), but the two big topics are menstruation and xochihuah/genderfluid identities. It was very interesting learning more about xochihuah as I have heard of the concept in various cultures, but not the specific term. I also felt Salazar did a great job showing various reactions to the idea of xochihuah and gender expression through her characters.
I also found the connection between menstruation and the moon lovely despite the traditional American distaste for such things. This book provided a different way of viewing various gender-related topics. At the end of the book is a short author’s note that goes into a little more detail, which was helpful. There is also a chart for tracking mood in relation to the moon, which is a fun way to connect with the book for readers young and old.
This was just a wonderful book all around and I really enjoyed it