Brenna B. (demiducky25) reviewed on 9/5/2010 + 161 more book reviews

This is the second book in Jean Sasson's Princess Trilogy. While I found the first one much more intriguing and hard to put down, this one was a little less powerful in my mind, though it is still a very worthwhile read. This book concentrates on how Princess Sultana's children (two daughters and a son) have been impacted by living in Saudi Arabia. We witness how one daughter takes her oppression and turns it into a hatred for men including trying to harm her own brother without just cause, another daughter embraces an extreme form of Islam to Sultana's horror because Sultana has fought to create a space in their world where her daughters could have some freedom, and her son has been molded into the type of man that Sultana believes will change Saudi Arabia for the better. We also witness stories of people outside Sultana's family- the story of the female circumcision (genital mutilation) of her Egyptian servant's granddaughter is especially horrifying. Again, there are some that believe Princess Sultana is completely fictional, but even if that is the case, we know from various news accounts that stories like the ones presented here are common in this region of the world, so this makes the Princess "real" in that these things are happening to someone somewhere. There is one more book in this trilogy, and I can only hope that things have gotten a bit better for Sultana and the other women she discusses, but somehow I doubt it.

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