Book Review: Girls of Riyadh.

How should I start this book review, ah the many things that swam through my mind while reading this was pure amazing. First of all, in America, if this book was written by an American, about what teenage and young adult girls ' in America ' do, it probably would have never made it out of someones rejection pile of books sent to them daily. The sheer fact that this was not from America but from the Eastern world, the world we romanticize women as either possessions or terrorists, places this book into a whole other category all together.

Girls of Riyadh was originally written as emails sent throughout the Arabic world anonymously, they tell the story of four girls who grew up in the ' velvet society ' of Riyadh. If this had been a story about four boys or men growing up, no one would have even blinked an eye, but it wasn't, it was about four girls, then women. This of course started a huge uproar. No one writes about the secret ongoings of what women in this country do. No one knows what happens in their private affairs, and the worst part is no one knows what these women feel.

Reading this book, made me look at some of those women in a whole new light, they are no different than you in me, emotionally. They want to love a man worthy of love, and want to be loved by a man who she deserves. They want a happy home, with children and comfort. They do not want to be these stupid slave wives that have walked the streets for generations before them. But they also do not want to wait for this love to never come along and they end u being spinsters.

This book told the tale of these four girls, and what love filled their hearts and what heartbreak befouled them. It showed their strength in friendship, and their weakness in knowledge of life matters. The courage these girls possessed and what blind faith drove them at times, oh how I loved this book. There were times when reading this and a man in the story had done something vile towards one of the women, and my poor husband got the rotten end of that, for I was so mad at Rashid ( Gamrah's husband ) that I yelled at my own husband. It just wasn't fair for her to be treated that way.

This book made me feel more powerful as a woman, knowing what these women have to deal with, and all the losses they suffer, yet they still go on. I know that if they can do then so can I. I may not be suffering the way they have and possibly still are, but I still deal with crap on a daily basis, and yet I will persevere :)

Ratings: Number 4 with 4 stars

Girls of Riyadh
Rajaa Alsanea