Blood Water Paint

Good book ( )

Not a fan of novels in verse but my weakness for historical fiction won out. It is well-done, the verses echoing the cadence of the story. However, the lack of detail (which would have been offered in standard prose) left me unable to get into the story or learn the sorts of things I normally do via historical fiction. ( )

I very rarely read novels in verse; I'm not a huge poetry fan in general. But I've know about Artemisia for a while, and have really admired her paintings (which is also rare for me!), and was excited to read about her, so I ignored the the fact that it wasn't entirely prose.

But the verse, the writing, is beautiful. Artemisia comes across as fully realized and developed, aware of and adhering to the constraints of her gender while still being fiercely independent and knowing how lucky she was.

The stories that her mother told her before she died, incredibly feminist and nuanced portraits of Biblical heroines, are very engaging and explanatory (I don't know the Bible at all but able to follow along well enough) without slowing the pace of the story. It makes perfect sense that Artemisia would, when needing female support, turn to the women her mother admired and told stories about. To even be a women in that time period was tough, let alone a women who accused a respected man of anything.

McCullough's writing is never intrusive or confusing, but confident and full of determination. She truly understood the character of Artemisia, and sympathized with her, and made a great novel. I actually went and found out what happened to Artemisia after the events of the novel, which is an incredible achievement for a historical fiction book! ( )

Impulse read for me, a story told in verse about a Renaissance female artist. Very interesting, learned something. ( )

A beautifully written book in verse re: the true story of artist Artemesia Gentileschi. Tough to rad --the story is so grim, I took 1/2 star off. I wish the author had included pictures of G's referenced paintings. I am lucky, I can go to the Detroit Institute of Arts and admire the real thing. ( )