This follows the life of laila as she deals with a couple that kills her father and causes her to flee. Even though she's adjusting to her new life, there is still danger. But she's just a kid, what can she do to help anything.
Rarely do we get to see these events happen from a young teens point of view. You can tell the writer knew what he was talking about.

The Tyrant’s Daughter by J.C. Carleson

306 Pages
Publisher: Random House Children’s, Alfred A. Knopf BFYR
Release Date: February 11, 2014

Fiction, Dictatorship, Immigrants, Friendships, Family Dynamics, Children’s Fiction, Teen, Young Adult, Multicultural

Laila is fifteen years old. She has travelled to the United States from an unnamed middle Eastern country with her six-year-old brother, Bastien, and her mother. Her father was the dictator of the country and was killed. She was not aware of who and what he was until she read about him. Now disillusioned, she unknowing becomes a pawn in her mother’s game of revenge.

The book has a steady pace, the characters are somewhat developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. The author does an amazing job of showing us life from a different perspective. To me, Laila and her brother were innocents cast aside as casualties of war. As she learns the truth of the past and the actions of the present, she grows in character and strength. She is a strong young woman, and I could feel progress in her future. If you like coming-of-age books, you will enjoy this book.

A fast paced young adult story with a clever plot.
Many thanks to Random House Children’s and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest e.

I received this free eARC novel from NetGalley. This is my honest review.

This has been on my TBR pile for so long, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I really enjoyed the storyline and seeing the characters change throughout the story was a great character development. The plot was great and kept my attention. I'm glad I got the chance to read this and will be on the lookout for more in the future!

[Finally putting in; when I originally read this and wrote review it had vanished from my NetGalley shelf somehow...]

Yesterday I was listening to a podcast of NPR Books and someone mentioned that young adult books often focus on how the actions of adults affect the lives of children, but rarely how children drive the lives of parents or other adults. That made me think about this novel and how Carleson's work follows both directions of impact. The majority of this novel is about how the life of Laila (and the lives of her fellow young) are dictated by their family and culture. Yet, the novel also addresses the lack of freedom inherent even in the lives of the adults, whether they be parent, dictator, or (apparent) CIA officer. Furthermore the novel is that coming-of-age tale where the child begins to exert more freedom and actually turn the tables of control over so that they are now steering the course of their parent's life.

I finished "The Tyrant's Daughter in one day. It is an 'easy' read, but it is also full of great ideas, intriguing characters, and compelling plots. The story is profound and it is populated with realistic people; the text flows naturally. Nothing in this book seems superfluous, and Carleson nicely makes use of her personal experience to craft a taut thriller amid the literary underpinnings of Laila's story.

I appreciated just how well this novel mixes entertainment with significance, conflict with insight. This is a book I would have enjoyed even when younger.

Do you have a voracious teenage reader? Now that summer is here they have even more time for reading, you might be a bit panicked. One great way to keep your teen reading this summer without blowing the book budget is to read older titles from the library. Here is one young adult title that you might want to point out to your teen this summer.

The Tyrant's Daughter was published in 2014 but it is still a timely novel. The protagonist is a teenage girl but the novel doesn't feel all that young adult. The story wouldn't work as well with an older main character.

Laila, with her younger brother and mother, has fled her middle-eastern country after her father, who was the country's ruler, has been murdered. Her uncle has taken over the country and the CIA has made it possible for her family to escape. Now in the US, she is faced with navigating a new culture but what is more shocking for her is the truth she learns about her father and country.

The chapters are short and direct, but the story doesn't feel choppy. Laila is a great protagonist. She has lived a privileged life yet it was also a very controlled life. Fifteen is often the age that teens really start to figure out who they are, what they believe, who they want to be. Laila is doing all of that but on a much more complex level given her past and current situation. She lives between two worlds - there (home in the middle east) and here (a Washington, DC suburb). Who will she decide she is?

A number of social and political issues are addressed in a nonthreatening manner in this book. It would be a great book to read at the same time as your teen so that you can discuss some of the issues.

Don't have a teen? That's okay. I don't have a teenage kid but I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Wednesday, May 25 - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2022/05/the-tyrants-daughter-by-j-c-carleson.html

I've been trying to go back to my older books in my Netgalley TBR and my reading preferences have changed so much that I couldn't make it very far in this one. Just wasn't quite working out for me. At this time, I'm no longer interested in this title. Thank you for the opportunity to read the book and I apologize for the inconvenience.

** spoiler alert ** In Anywhere, Middle East, Laila's family has had to abandon their titles, riches, and lives to move to the United States in order to regroup and hopefully return to their homeland but not before deals are made and scores are settled. In the meantime, Laila and her young brother, Bastien, must navigate the confusing freedoms that America brings-- dress code, relationships, alcohol and trust and loyalty.
Is Laila's mother to be trusted? Was her father a good man? What are Amir's intentions as a 'cousin' who seems perpetually angry and how will these two teens play a part in taking down a powerful man?
This is powerful because it's not about one culture or person, it was happening years ago and will continue to happen as wars are waged in countries across the world. And Laila gets to say goodbye to America, but will others want to?

The fact that it was written by a former CIA agent who dealt with countries, such as the unnamed country in the book added validity to the story, because it seemed like she put some firsthand accounts into the novel. A good read.

I could not finish this book before being archived, Thank you for the opportunity. I will keep this on my TBR and purchase to read it.

The Tyrant's Daughter explores a teen Middle-Eastern princess' disrupted life when everything she's known is suddenly gone and she is thrust into a country and culture very different from her own. When her father is assassinated, Laila along with her 6-year-old brother Bastien and her mother are whisked to the US. Gone is her privileged life with servants, bodyguards, and tutors. She now lives in an apartment building, attends high school, and needs to learn to navigate a whole different world, all while coming to terms with her father's murder and her mother's schemes to get revenge on the new regime so they could have their life back.

This YA novel was a quick read that kept me absorbed from the first page to the last. Laila was a complex character, who reveals what is going on in layers as she experiences the sudden changes to her life and to the way she sees the world. She lives through periods of fear, panic, uncertainly, anger, and wild abandon as she comes to terms with a father who loved her and his family, but who was also a dictator despised by many.

I enjoy books that make the reader see our world through different eyes. Laila was an immigrant and she came from a high social status. She sees her culture through the eyes of Americans and we see her culture through her young innocent eyes. This new perspective forces her to open her eyes, to learn about politics in her country, to grow up. Gone is the once sheltered girl who was used to being driven in limousines. Instead, Laila is exposed to truths that embolden her to take action.

In a world where racism is still a big problem, books like The Tyrant's Daughter help readers to see both sides of the picture. Told in the first-person POV, we journey with Laila as she builds resilience to cope with the ravages of war and the death of her naiveté. A very compelling read.

I really enjoyed the idea and premises for this story, I just couldn't connect to it manly due to the protagonist Laila. Maybe third person instead of first person would have allowed me to connect more with the character, but I just didn't feel like I "knew" Laila.

Although lacking emotion, I still think this was a good book and worth the read.

I did not finish this book, and will not be reviewing it on my blog. Thanks so much for the opportunity.

This novel offers a fascinating perspective on a world most of us know little about. Its themes will resonate with tweens who are learning to recognize and compensate for the failures of the adults around them. I highly recommend it for young readers who have an interest in global events.

I've recommended it to adult friends, too. The characters here have sufficient depth and the plot has plenty of twists to keep anyone reading.

As an aside, if the new TV series "Tyrant" intrigues you at all, you may want to read this book for a take on the subject minus the cable-TV sex and violence.

I wasn't sure what to expect, going into this book. In the end, it was both more and less interesting than I hoped for.

The story is about Laila, the daughter of a recently killed middle-eastern dictator, and her family living as refugees in America. Things in America are much different than Laila is used to, but she makes friends and starts to adjust. Meanwhile, her mother is up to something, but Laila can't figure out what.

I liked the parts about Laila adjusting to life in America. It was interesting and fun to see our culture from another perspective and I enjoyed watching Laila change from the girl she was in her home country to the one she wanted to be.

Laila's conflicted feelings felt authentic. Laila deals with a lot of contradictory and conflicted feelings throughout the book. These felt real to me, like something a real person would go through when they first come to America from such a vastly different culture.

The mystery was too mysterious. It didn't make sense. It never really did, all throughout the story. The mystery about Laila's mom and what she's been up to, the people she's been manipulating, it's all behind the scenes. We only get Laila's perspective, which is limited and kind of frustrating.

I have to admit that I didn't enjoy that part of the story because I couldn't make sense of what was happening.

Like I said before, this book ended up being both more and less interesting than I hoped for.

Content: Heaving kissing/making out, some conversation about having sex (but nobody does).

I think the idea of this book is clever and intriguing.
But for me, it utterly failed in the execution.

I think that Carleson did a good job when it comes to Laila's POV of the States in the beginning. How she experiences thing.
But I think while this could have been an interesting analyses of international politics or even insightful cultural analyses. Instead it's more like a teen soapy.
The plot is more teen drama than anything else.
The twist felt a bit much quite frankly.
I think the only commendable thing about the book is the idea.

I never read this because I honestly don't remember ever requesting this title. Therefore the start rating is inaccurate. The system won't let me submit without including one.

This is not my usual book choice, but it was a subject the interested me. I was drawn into the life that Laila and her family were trying to build in a world that was alien. Culture shock doesn't even come close to describing it.
The story was immersive, many times I found myself wondering how would I deal with a readjustment on this level. The bleak uncertain and uncomfortable situation comes over in the writing very well and creates the world you move through with the characters.
As for the characters....I adored Laila and her family, but the Americans the writer created were a little flat. Whether the flatness of the Americans was intentional to create a neutral background or whether they just lack substance is uncertain, but I didn't like that side of the characters.
Overall I enjoyed this venture in to a new genre and enjoyed seeing the current climate from another angle.
Grab this book for a sustained read with time to digest. Highly recommend it for a book club because you'll certainly want to discuss it with others.

Sorry I was not able to read you book but it went to archive before I could get to it. Sorry once again.

The Tyrant's Daughter by J.C. Carleson

2014

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for review.

I was honestly not as impressed as some people were by this book. I think the subject matter is important for young adults but overall couldn't hold my interest. It tells more like a fairy tale than a story with reliable characters.