i went into this book knowing nothing about it. knowing nothing of artemisia gentileschi. i could hardly stomach it and i devoured it. very tightly plotted and always moving, grounded in its shifting perspectives, and endlessly interesting with its language. tension built in a way i physically felt within my body. i felt like throwing up at artemisia's rape, at the trial, at a hundred agonizing moments of patriarchy digging its heels into the backs of women. a thousand little injustices. this book is painted in vivid, wondrous splashes of paint, from description to character to how cleverly the cages of gender are cast to light for the reader to bear witness to. and i would be amiss not to mention how spectacular the reading of the audiobook by emma d'arcy was, given that it's what drew me in originally and never failed to keep me rapt with their diction and emotion.

brutal book. brilliant book. in all the ten thousand years of poetry it requires.