Beneath a Meth Moon, Jacqueline Woodson
Beneath a Meth Moon, Jacqueline Woodson
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Beneath a Meth Moon

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

Narrator: Salem Arbuckle

Unabridged: 2 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/12/2026

Synopsis

In this “powerful, stripped down novel” (School Library Journal) a young girl battles against losing herself to her addiction.

“[Makes] it abundantly clear how easy it is to succumb to meth and how difficult it is to recover from it.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Brutally honest. . . . An intimate and compelling story of survival.”—The Horn Book

Laurel would do anything to turn back time . . .

To tell her mother and grandmother not to stay home near the beach with a hurricane coming . . .

To say no when her boyfriend, T-Boom, the co-captain of the basketball team, offers her that first hit of moon—the drug that makes her feel bigger than all she’s lost . . .

To have been there for her little brother and her best friend, Kaylee, when they needed her, instead of chasing the moon.

But she can’t.

All she can do is move forward now. And only she can decide whether to face the pain and joy that is a part of living, or follow the moon to numbness and probably death. Only she can decide to choose to be there for her family and friends—or give them another thing to grieve.

About The Author

Jacqueline Woodson is the recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and in 2015, she was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, which was also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, the NAACP Image Award, and a Sibert Honor. She wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a 2016 National Book Award finalist. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jacqueline grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from college with a B.A. in English. She is the author of dozens of award-winning books for young adults, middle graders, and children; among her many accolades, she is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a four-time National Book Award finalist, and a three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner. Her books include Coretta Scott King Award winner Before the Ever After; New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me; The Other Side, Each Kindness, Caldecott Honor book Coming On Home Soon; Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster; and Miracle's Boys, which received the LA Times Book Prize and the Coretta Scott King Award. Jacqueline is also a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement for her contributions to young adult literature and a two-time winner of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kelly

This left me disappointed, given the heavy topics dealt with. It was too slight. Laurel lost her mother and her grandmother in Katrina, and when she, her father, and baby brother move up north, she finds herself falling for a boy who leads her to meth. While it was sad, I didn't feel like there was......more

Goodreads review by Snotchocheez

Jacqueline Woodson's YA substance abuse tale Beneath a Meth Moon--an elegy is, fortunately, not nearly as 8th-Grade-Health-class-scare-tactic-filmstrip-esque, or as elegiac, as the somewhat unfortunate title might indicate. (To be honest, if even strangely perverse, I chose this from the library aft......more

Quotes

"Woodson crafts a story of powerful emotional intensity through her poignant portrayal of a young woman lost and in pain. The depiction of small-town life, with its Dollar Store, Wal-Mart and limited economic opportunities adds texture and authenticity. This is beautifully written, with clear prose that honors the story it tells. . . . Most of all, it is populated with fully realized characters who struggle to make sense of tragedy. . . . A moving, honest and hopeful story."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Dreamlike story . . . peppered with the voices of expertly sketched characters and rich with writerly observations. . . . Woodson maintains tension throughout, making it abundantly clear how easy it is to succumb to meth and how difficult it is to recover from it."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Powerful, stripped-down novel. . . . Full of rich, sensory images . . . giving the story a dreamlike quality. . . . A natural choice for fans of Go Ask Alice or Ellen Hopkins’s Crank. An outstanding novel that succeeds on every level."—School Library Journal, starred review

"Woodson takes us on the dark journey of addiction, mimicking the slow, hazy spell of drug use with the lull of her poetic prose. . . . Laurel's descent is brutally honest. . . . An intimate and compelling story of survival."—The Horn Book

"As accurate as it is heartbreaking; readers will be deeply moved . . . they'll sympathize with [Laurel's] desire to find some way to feel better. . . . Readers looking to understand the attraction of a destructive substance will get a glimmer of understanding."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"Will not disappoint readers. . . . Ends on a hopeful note: perhaps it is possible to write pain 'into the past and leave some of it there,' and reimagine a future."—Booklist

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