The Tyrant's Daughter

“Around the lunch table everyone seems to have given something up---dairy, meat, gluten, sugar, carbs. Only in a land of plenty could people voluntarily go without so much.”

3 STARS

Hmm, though I've read a great many young adult books, I don't think I've ever read one quite like this. It was thought-provoking, eye-catching, and very real. I felt Laila's pain and her sorrow and her confusion at this world she doesn't understand and her past that she didn't previously comprehend. All in all, I did find myself slipping a bit from the story, becoming a bit distracted at the slower pace in some areas of the novel, but otherwise it was a fascinating read. The Writing The writing of this book was extremely well done. It was layered, detailed, but not overwhelmingly so, and very insightful. Like I said, I truly felt a connection to Laila, I could understand her thoughts and ideas and the exact situation she had grown up in. This book didn't just attempt to touch on a culture many don't understand, it fully immersed the reader into it through Laila's thoughts and memories, but in a way that made you crave more of it, feel accepted by it but also see through the differences with your own set of morals and ethics. Though I was worried about this book at first, mainly because it was simply so different than I'm accustomed to, I really did enjoy how easily I slipped into Laila's head. However, with this being said, I couldn't quite stay in the story sometimes. Now, I'm not saying it's not interesting, because believe me, it is fascinating, it's just that I could find myself easily distracted from this book. For example, I could easily press pause in my head and watch an episode of some show and then pick up reading later. Until the later third of the book, it was put-down-able. This doesn't make it bad at all, just not quite 'sticking' to me, but that's just my personal thought. The Characters Okay, so, yes, I did say that I think Laila is someone who is relatable and you can easily understand her thought process and her morals and values, but this does not make her a likeable character. She is often rude, prejudiced, and angry at her situation, which she has every right to be. But because of this imperfection, this willingness to be upset and furious and biased makes Laila real. She's not a cookie-cutter character. She's original, she's real, and she's interesting. Her thoughts are different from mine, and that's okay, because that is what a book is supposed to do: take you out of your head and into someone else's. Through the course of the book I became more and more invested in Laila, but I do feel that she may be too distanced which caused me to often slip from the story. Though Laila's family was interesting and held their own, especially her brother Bastien, I feel that many of the other characters fell flat, especially her American friends and associates. They seemed very cookie-cutter in a way Laila and her family most certainly weren't, and perhaps this was for some sort of foil or for the impression Laila got of these people, but it was a bit unsettling against such a well-developed world inside Laila's head. But overall the characters did hold form, only they were more of background noise than a painting for Laila to wade through. The Story Now, for whatever flaws I found in the characters or the writing, Carleson made up for it in the story. This Invisible Queen of the Middle East took us on an adventure through her memories, her life, and the dreams of her future. Never before had I truly thought about what would happen in this situation, because in my world we are taught to see things as black and white, good and bad. But Laila's story is about the opposite; it's about finding the gray in life, about growing into a woman and seeing that your family is not perfect, that your life was a lie and scrambling to pick up the shattered pieces before they crumble to dust. It is a coming of age story about a chaotic situation in one girl's life and how it bleeds into her past, present, and future. It is interesting, it is fascinating, and it is all to real for comfort, but that is one of it's greatest characteristics. Read and share what you thought!