Blood Water Paint

Locations
Call Number: Teen Fiction / McCullough, Joy
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / McCullough, Joy	4-week checkout	On Shelf

In Renaissance Italy, Artemisia Gentileschi endures the subjugation of women that allows her father to take credit for her extraordinary paintings, rape and the ensuing trial, and torture, buoyed by her deceased mother's stories of strong women of the Bible.
Rome, 1605: After her mother's death, Artemisia Gentileschi had a stark choice: a life as a nun in a convent or a life grinding pigment for her father's paint. She chose paint. Artemisia became one of Rome's most talented painters-- and her father took all the credit. Five years later, in the aftermath of a rape, Artemisia faced another terrible choice: a life of silence or a life of truth, no matter the cost. Through the ensuing trial and torture, she is buoyed by her mother's stories of strong women of the Bible.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Fantastic submitted by pbolz10 on July 1, 2018, 2:45pm If you haven't heard of Artemesia Gentileschi, look her up. She was one of the most amazing painters of the Renaissance, and she is SO rarely recognized. The way her story was told was unlike anything I've ever read—the combination of verse and prose is so beautiful, and the story itself is heartbreaking. It also has such an amazing feminist perspective. I recommend this book so much, and I hope this author writes more!

Recommended submitted by sushai on August 2, 2019, 2:56pm A great example of a young adult novel that is appropriate for adults, too. Based on the true story of Artemisia Gentileschi (whose painting of Susanna I was familiar with but had never heard her name before), this is an important historical depiction of the limited choices and rights of women in the past.

It's written mostly as a prose poem from Artemisia's point of view, which I think works well for this story.