Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for arc.

Loved the premise of the book but unfortunately it was poorly executed.

In this book, a model looks back on her time at school with her friends and how everything went wrong and led to a tragedy. One of her friends gets her period at school and is ridiculed by her classmates. The girl wants her friends to stage a protest with her because the teachers and principal won't do anything about the bullying. Overall, this was a great book and I really enjoyed reading it.

Even though I didn't like the drawing style, I was fairly impressed with the story that Painted told me. I didn't know that it was going to make me think about bullying and my own experience with it in high school (for many differente reasons). The only think that stood to me as odd was how rushed the ending felt, but I quite liked how the story was told from the friend's point of view.

This graphic novel is about standing up against bullying, fighting menstrual taboo, female friendship. Although I agree with the message, the execution wasn't the best.
The story felt kind of messy, mixing the present with the past. I also didn't really sympathize with the characters nor did I agree with their actions, which I think is one of the main reasons why I didn't enjoy reading this. Besides, I wasn't the biggest fan of the illustrations...

To start off, the question if this novel walks the line or is crossing it, really bothered me while reading. I am not the kind of person to be grossed out by period blood, but it certainly was a strange add to the story.

Would also like to say that the novel kind of revolves around teenage drama, and since that’s really not my cup of tea (even if I’m a teenager myself) that’s another reason I didn’t like this.

This graphic novel is just bizarre, and not in a good way. The whole story felt disjointed and forced. If you want a graphic novel that addresses period stigma positively, read Go with the Flow.

Painted is a graphic novel about a teen girl, Sophie, and her friend Selene, who is a bit of a misfit rebel. Sophie idolizes Selene's tough-girl persona and how she sticks up for her friends, challenges the bullies at school, and argues with authority. In a witchy teenage goddess moment, Selene paints her face with her menstrual blood and encourages Sophie and their friend to do the same. After Selene humiliates the class bully, who humiliates her back in return, Selene vows for revenge and for Sophie to join in. Sophie lets her friend down, and things take a sharp turn for the worse resulting in Selene's institutionalization. The illustrations were fantastic and did a beautiful job conveying the emotions of a teenager. The supermodel side story seemed superfluous to the core tale of the difficulty of teen friendships and insecurity.

A lovely graphic novel that has a great plot and artwork! I will definitely be sharing this with my students as they are in love with great stories!

Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in bringing this graphic novel about. I adored this story and the art is so beautiful.

"A young supermodel reflects on a series of events that, as a teenager, brought power...then tragedy."

Painted is an important graphic novel that really comes down to Women standing up for Women and being who we are. I was torn up by the shame each of the ladies in the novel feels and are forced to endure. The novel is an unflinching look at bullying, humiliation, helplessness, friendship, and how relationships can stay with us our whole lives. Painted is about being brave when the odds are stacked against us and how we may not always win, but standing up for ourselves and creating change has never been easy.

A great graphic novel that teens need to see.

Didn't know what to expect with this one. Quite a. Girl power story! Not a fan of the cat dying, but understand how that fueled the rage. Also love how some reviewers were grossed out by period blood. Ha!

The novel is narrated by Sophie who is a model. She is reflecting on a series of events involving her and her two best friends, Michelle, and Selene. The events occurred when they were sixteen and ended in tragedy. Selene and Sophie are typical high-school girls. The drama really begins when Selene’s menstrual period is used to make her the target of schoolwide humiliation. This prompts her to retialiate. Inspired by the Celtic face-painted warriors of her ancestry, Selene sets out with her friends to challenge the school powers or bullies. And the bullies aren’t just her peers.

This story and illustrations are graphic if not disturbing. There is so much anger and hate portrayed in the facial expressions. It left this reader with bad feelings for all characters. The story deals unabashedly with bullying, violence, language, drug use, death, and the bonds of sisterhood.

I was not a fan of the story or illustrations.

This book had a wonderful opportunity to both normalize periods and empower youth. It failed miserably. The book utilizes numerous stereotypes and tropes. The character fighting against the patriarchy and shame young girls are made to feel about periods is represented as an angry girl, a troublemaker, a rebellious teen, mentally ill, and more. It's almost as if the authors brainstormed ways to discount the character. Are these views expressed by the patriarchy? Definitely. Does this book work to dispute those views? No. I had hoped to read this graphic novel with my younger daughters. I won't be. This is not the message of empowerment I want to give them.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was provided by the publisher.

Content warning: dead cat. I would not have read this book if I had been aware of this scene. It’s really disturbing.

Emotionally, Painted was a tough read. It’s narrated by Sophie, a model, who is looking back on a specific time in her teenage years after finding out her friend Selene has recently died. While we’re seeing the story through Sophie’s eyes, Selene is the main focus. Selene was raised by her extremely strict grandparents after her mother ran off shortly after having her. She feels stifled by them as well as by her school, where she regularly deals with bullying and being looked down upon and ignored by her teachers. She wants to fight back against this abuse and lashes out against the harshness in her life as her anger increases. She also paints her face with the blood from her period to stand up to the idea that periods are wrong or shameful. Sophie wants to support Selene but often feels as though she is failing to do so.

The bullying and abuse Selene faces from her classmates, teachers, and grandparents felt very real, and it was clear to see why she reacted in the way she did. It was hard to watch her struggle against a society that was so against her and the way she wanted to live. Sophie, too, struggles with how best to be there for her friend. The rest of the characters were very one dimensional; I can hardly remember anyone else’s name, let alone their personalities.

The story did seem to end very abruptly. We don’t see the time between the past (high school) and present day (Sophie as a model) so it’s hard to track her character development. She doesn’t change much over the course of the story we do see, and she seems to suddenly change on a dime when she receives the news of Selene’s death, although the idea is that it is due to her looking back on the events of her past. Parts of this section felt really unrealistic.

Overall, it’s hard for me to say how exactly I feel about this book. This is not a “good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people” kind of book, and while there’s a lot of realism and importance to that, I really didn’t enjoy reading it. The sudden ending also brought it down for me. I think there’s definitely an audience for this book, but it may be a somewhat niche audience. I could see why someone could really appreciate and need this story, and there were a lot of interesting and worthwhile aspects to it, but it wasn’t really for me.

I received a free eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I think, in one way or another, we all know a girl like Selene - the one that seems fearless and so knowledgable, but when you grow up, you realise she was simply loud. She was just as scared and confused as the rest of you, only she hid it behind bold proclamations and even bolder actions.
This graphic novel, aside from being beautifully drawn and laid out, manages to touch on what growing up with buried guilt is like, and how trauma can be inflicted, even by the people we never imagine to be capable of hurting us. It talks about what being in a co-dependent relationship can look like, and how no one sees the signs if it's platonic.
The storyline was clear and cohesive, building in tension and slowly bringing the reader into the characters' world.
Unfortunately, while the end is definitely bold, and something that in the real world would shine a light on what abuse can do to a girl's psyche, it falls a little flat. I wish it would have dealt more with Sophie's guilt and trauma instead of playing it off for shock value.
Sometimes, the less shocking course of action can have a long-lasting effect.

I probably expected this book highly, but in the end I was bit disappointed of this one.
Firstly, there are quite bit iffy words in the book. Secondly, I feel disgusting to see the period blood smeared on her face.