Blood Water Paint

Pivotal event is Artemisia's rape by an older man; in the past, a character is believed to have murdered his wife and her 13-year-old sister, whom he had previously raped. In flashbacks, Artemisia's now-dead mother tells her the biblical stories of Judith (who seduced an enemy general, got him drunk, and cut off his head, thereby saving her people) and Susanna (a virtuous woman threatened with an unjust death by the lies of her would-be rapists, who are ultimately put to death themselves when the prophet Daniel discovers the truth). And, as Judith comments, beheadings are really bloody.

Artemisia has romantic feelings for an older man, which vanish as she learns his sleazy intentions. Artemisia's artist father uses her as a model, sometimes having her pose nude. In one scene, she looks at her breasts in a mirror and handles them, in part to get a better understanding of how to paint female subjects. In another, she touches herself while thinking of a man she's attracted to. In the biblical story, Judith has sex with Holofernes as part of a plot to kill him.

Artemisia describes her life choices, as stated by her father: "You'll cook / and sew / and wipe a baby's ass / or you'll do what I say / when I say to do it."

Judith gets Holofernes drunk to make him pass out so she can murder him. In 17th-century Rome, wine is part of the scenery.

Parents need to know that Blood Water Paint, by first-time novelist Joy McCullough, is a riveting story based on a real historical incident in Rome during the 1600s, in which a teen (later a renowned artist) pressed charges against her rapist. Protagonist Artemisia Gentileschi, 17 at the time of the story, narrates her story and feelings in verse, interrupted occasionally by prose flashbacks in which Artemisia's mother, long dead, arms her against a bad world by telling her the lurid but empowering Bible stories of Judith and Susanna. The novel includes sexual and violent content, usually conveyed more by suggestion than by explicit description, but there are also strong messages of courage, self-respect, overcoming obstacles, and doing what's right.