Things I liked:
-The story is compelling. Without going over the top the reader understands the horrors of Laila's distant home and how unaffected most Americans are.
-This story provides an interesting other side to the news and images we are shown on the news.
-Laila's is accessible, she is a character you almost instantly connect with, despite how different her background is from most everyone.
-There's not an abundance of blame placing. I didn't feel guilty about being an American but I did think about issues in America and Western culture. The book encouraged me to examine and question. This is important because it could easily sling blame, on both sides, but it doesn't and I think that is the great power of this book. I could easily see myself teaching this book to kids, kids who come from a variety of backgrounds, and all of them taking important questions away from the reading. PLUS, I think they would enjoy the reading.

Things I didn't like:
-She's pretty much white on the cover. That is absurd.
-I wonder how realistic some of Laila's responses to American culture really are. Her actions at the dance and with boys in general seem a bit off from what I've read and seen about women from her part of the world and background.
-The ending was a bit...soft. I like happy endings but that wasn't going to happen in this book. I don't know how the ending of this could have been happy or easy or not leave sadness, but there must have been a way. The ending is not bad, it's just not real. With so many real elements of the story the ending feels false, like it's given to the reader as a consolation prize at a fair, a cheap trinket that you know will break, you know is an illusion but you take it anyway. It doesn't do justice to the story or the characters.

Crossposted at Booklikes.


Disclaimer: I was auto-approved for an ARC via Netgalley.

I do not know why I was auto approved for an ARC of this book. While I do, occasionally, read Young Adult work, there are far more proficient readers of YA and children books than me out there. Anyway, I’m glad I did get auto approved for this book.

To me, rightly or wrongly, young adult novels with a girl on the cover equal special snowflake torn between two boys, one of whom is jerk. This is not the case in this novel. At all. Laila might be a special snowflake but that is down to politics. A book like this reminds everyone what children’s literature can and should be.

Laila, her mother, and her brother have fled to America after the murder of her father, a dictator or ruler of an unnamed Islamic kingdom somewhere else on the globe. Carlson’s plot is inspire not only by the Arab Spring but also by the states of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. The family tries to adjust to a change in circumstances and culture.

For Laila this adjustment includes coming to terms with who her father actually was, what he may or may not have done as well as adjusting to the new American culture. For her mother, it means struggling not only finances but with something else, darker than Laila struggles to make out over the course of the book.

There isn’t a love triangle in this book. There is love and desire, panting and smooching, but there isn’t a love triangle. The book is more about a journey of self discovery and about making the current events more relevant and important to the younger generation.

What I really enjoyed about this book, besides the fact that Laila is not perfect, is flawed, and does struggle, is that she gets friends. She learns to make friends and care for friendships. Her girlfriends are not her rivals, but her friends. Additionally, there is a parallel between Laila and her family, and what happens to Emmy and hers. In many ways, Carlson not only introduces a reader to the “other” but makes it okay to ask questions to understand another culture. It is not done in a heavy handed way. The characters are so well drawn that the interactions come across as completely natural.

Perhaps, the plot involving Laila's mother and the CIA (this is hardly spoiler as it is mentioned in the book blurb) is a bit far fetch, by Carlson accounts for that by showing how Laila may or may not know her mother, the hints at what her mother may be aware of it.

Strangely, the struggle of a girl’s coming to terms of her families political past works beautifully with all the struggles that teenagers go though. This does not mean that any of them are trivialized. They are not and all are handed with tact – the only, understandable and real exception is the use of the bomb scare. It makes the story powerful and allows for the outsider (i.e. a Western) to enter into Laila's world and not feel guilty because their problems are not as bad.

The writing in general is compelling and there are some wonderful details – like Laila’s reaction upon meeting Emmy, the comparison of Cinderella stories, Bastien’s reaction to cereal. Carlson knows her subject. While marketed for children/young adults, the novel can easily be read by adults. Furthermore, it would make a great reading for any class, raising questions of morality, culture, history, perspective, and violence.
Highly recommended.

After her father, a self-proclaimed king of a Middle Eastern country is killed in a coup, Laila, her mother and younger brother find themselves in a strange land, a suburb of Washington DC. This well written novel shares her confusion over her new, more permissive lifestyle, her efforts to make friends at school and the feeling that her mother is plotting to return to their home country. -- Louisa A.

Check it out!
Scottsdale Pulbic Library

Booktalk potential for older teens (graduating 8th graders and older). Excellent choice for current events book discussion group.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I wasn’t thrilled with the ending, but I was okay that I had finished it.

EVERY SINGLE PERSON SHOULD READ THIS, ESPECIALLY ALL YOU AMERICANS!!

Seriously, though, I'm not exaggerating. This book is beautiful. It is a definite must-read.

Discovery. Laila is a "princess" from the Middle East who fled to the US with her mother and little brother when her father was killed in a coup staged by her uncle. What a nice family she has. Anyway, the book is told through her eyes, and it shows her discovering so much about her life There and her life Here (as she puts it). She finds out that no one is exactly what they seem and that their is a huge difference between public and private lives. Perfect example: her father. To the world, he was a dictator, tyrant, terrible person. To Laila, he was a loving father, caring husband, king, the one who named her when everyone else thought she would die. I really connected with her over this, because who hasn't had someone be nice to your face and go and stab you in the back, showing their true colors.

Perspective. This book gives you such a great perspective on what we Americans take for granted in America. Laila moves here and the smallest things are amazing to her. She goes shopping at the grocery store and can't believe that there is an entire aisle devoted to CEREAL. Back home, that was a luxury for her. Same with peanut butter and mustard. Aisles full of them; they're not a luxury in America, they're an everyday food. Even just the idea of women walking around alone in tank tops and stuff. That doesn't happen in the Middle East.
Laila says:

But how to explain the lack of choices-the sheer absence of options-to people who make more decisions before breakfast than I mad in a palace-bound month?

Reality. Now, this book isn't based on a true story, in so many words. As the author writes "this book is pure fiction that is inspired by real events." (284). It's an interesting take on all the violence and unrest in the Middle East. Everyone has families, even dictators and tyrants, so what do they think of what's going on? If you read the author's note, she explains how there were many parallels between her book and real life events that happened as she was writing. Part of this book's appeal is the reality-check it gives you.

The Commentary by Dr. Cheryl Benard is a must-read. It's hard to sum up exactly what it discusses. I guess it's about actual women who were thrust into the Middle Eastern political scene because of who their families were. It's definitely insightful.

So, like I said earlier, JUST GO READ THIS BOOK! You'll be glad you did.

N

This is an intense read. A tragically honest story about a girl trying to adjust to life in a strange new country and a dark truth about her father that she had never known before. I was captivated by the raw emotion of Laila's experience. Once I got into this book it was very hard to put down. I know it is a work of fiction but it also has a lot of truth to it, which only makes the story that much more heartbreaking and thought provoking. But I guess that's not surprising considering it was written by a former CIA agent.

Quick, easy read, but a bit.... shallow? Not a fan of the end either, too ambiguous. Not a bad read though.

Never have I struggled this much with a review. I'm trying to summarize the thoughts and emotions this book stirred in me, realizing yet again how Americans must look to people from other countries. The description of Muzak and plastic-filled shopping malls was cringe-worthy, even though it was a miniscule aspect of the book.

As the mother of two daughters and grandmother of four, also all girls, this viewpoint couldn't help but stir emotion, thinking about what would happen if one of my loved ones was in this situation. And though this book covered the difficulties of learning to deal with a new culture - fitting in - it wasn't just the typical teenage angst of fitting in. Also, the author dealt in a clear-cut way with the moral issues presented to a young person as she recognizes the flaws and weaknesses of her parents; what it means to live; so much more.

The "backmatter" was also intriguing.

Bottom line - thought provoking to a greater degree than I anticipated, and somehow more emotional, too.

I received a Net Galley ARC.