The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding on a Tuesday by Kelsey B. Toney - OPTIONAL

The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding on a Tuesday by Kelsey B. Toney, 304 pages. Random House Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House), 2025. $20.

Language: R (86 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG-13 (two separate doses of medical marijuana, intense periods, several references to the female reproductive system but not sexual in nature, a handful of kissing scenes); Violence: G (some bullying & insensitive comments due to a character’s chronic illness);

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: SEVERAL

17yo Delia Bridges is a senior in high school in Dallas, TX, on the fast track for a prestigious premed mentorship and early acceptance to an Ivy League college, and has debilitating period pain. She has gone to doctor after doctor and no one believes her, so she wants to become a gynecologist herself and finally get some answers. So when she wakes up on one of the significant days of her high school career in a pool of menstrual blood, she panics because she can’t miss this day of all days. In desperation, she takes some medical marijuana that her sister grew & prepared from scratch. She gets caught with it at school and it spectacularly torpedoes her future plans. Can she figure out her next steps and who she is beyond her period?

Oh, how my heart ached for Delia’s plight! The lack of care from her doctors and her schools’ administration was infuriating, but that was the point. I thought it was a compassionate perspective on chronic illnesses, with both the main character’s endometriosis and her friend’s IBS. I loved reading this book and even if you don’t have period pain as bad as Delia’s, learning how to advocate for yourself and your friends is always going to be a positive takeaway.

Kiera, ELA teacher #BookswithBeddes