I wasn't sure about this book being pitched as hilarious given its subject matter, but when I started to see the building buzz for the novel, I decided to check it out. This is one of the more unique book summaries I've ever seen, and I was excited to get to read about a setting and a place (her work at the UN) that I don't know much about. Immediately, though, I struggled with the writing. There was just something I didn't mesh with in the tone and descriptions, but I wanted to give it a fair chance. The book lost me at the description of the first character she meets on her first full day, which after a long romance novel-like description ends with "Holy mother. Imagine coming back to London with this specimen on my arm. His leg was bigger than an average man's torso." The paragraphs that followed didn't help change my mind. This just compounded my feelings about the voice trying way too hard in a way that doesn't work for me. This has definitely resonated with some readers and will likely appeal to a more commercial audience maybe, but the voice and tone is just not for me.
This review is just for NetGalley.

I so wanted to like this. It sounds right up my alley- a queer academic heads to the Middle East to distract herself from heartbreak- but I couldn't settle into the humor. There plenty of good elements and character arcs, but my mind kept wandering and I never actually got excited to read this. I would try this author again though!

My absolute favorite thing about this story was the mix of humor into the storytelling. I love the diverse representation mixed in with the popular women on a journey story. This one was really special.

I wish this novel took itself a little more seriously because I had a really hard time trying to reconcile the gravity of the book's subject matter with the overall tone. I think maybe the point is to reach a certain kind of reader who maybe would not be familiar with UN policies, ISIS brides, or world affairs in general and to have a teaching moment. It seems from the author's note that the author actually has experience on these topics, but I did not really get that from the pages of this book. The outlandish characters really proved a distraction of what this book is supposed to be about. At 75% I found the absolute drama of it all pretty difficult to get through. I really struggled to finish this one.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I only read half of this book before I gave up. I think I could enjoy a book about an inexperienced lecturer trying to free captive ISIS brides, or I could enjoy a relationship book full of crude, immature humor, but trying to do both in the same book was extremely distracting. Some of the humor was laugh out loud funny, and some of the conditions these captive brides live in hit some serious emotions. None of the characters resinated with me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tiny Reparations Books for an advanced reader copy.

This book is perfect for readers wanting to learn more about diverse cultures in an entertaining and educational way. There were heartbreaking scenes and hilarious scenes and through it all, the author gracefully tells the story of something few of us will ever experience. But the universality of trying to figure out your life professionally and personally comes through with the adventures of Nadia. The author notes mentions she worked in Iraq for ten years, so there is an authenticity to Nadia which I appreciate even more knowing about the author’s experience.

Thank you to Tiny Reparation’s Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This kind of evened out to a 3.5 for me. The first half or so was less enjoyable, as it felt like a lot of adjusting to a new life by saying how much the main character missed her ex. It wasn’t as plot-driven or reflective as the second half was. And I thought the second half was great. I think the author’s note explained this though, as the author has experience with this type of work and she was trying to be as accurate as possible; I think she could’ve taken more artistic liberties to benefit the plot pacing.

Regardless, I do think this is a fascinating book to pick up and a good subject matter I knew next to nothing about.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was really enjoying this book. The monotony of government/NGO work makes for a comedic backdrop to this story. However, I felt like there was a major tone shift in the ending that really seemed out of place.

a fast-paced, funny novel about an un-funny topic, which is my favorite kind of humor. Fundamentally is about a woman, Nadia, who accepts a position with the UN to deradicalize ISIS brides in Iraq, which unsurprisingly proves to be an impossible task mired in bureaucratic technicalities and complicated, conflicting goals. Nadia was as frustrating as she was endearing, though I respect her tenacity that I sure as hell don’t have. The pacing and structure felt off to me at times and that took me out of the story and away from the message, but hearing that the author comes from an academic and policy background makes those elements make a lot more sense. I still had fun with it and thought this was such a creative subject for a novel!

To read a book like Fundamentally, as a white woman, is to experience a life so far out of my own experience, and be reminded that some feelings and fears cross all cultures. Fiercely feminist, at times irreverent, I was surprised to find myself laughing at the many scrapes that Nadia finds herself in, as she gets deeper into trying to “save” Sara, one of the Isis brides that she is trying to de radicalize. In the telling of this story, the reader is reminded of the complexities of relationships, relationships, and the razor thin line between deep seated beliefs, and what we determine is “right” or “wrong”, both for ourselves and others. I will be thinking about Fundamentally for a very long time! Many thanks to Penguin Books and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

Fundamentally’s premise had me raising my eyebrows from the start. A heartbroken Londoner gets tapped by the UN to create a program for the deradicalization of ISIS brides in Baghdad? There would be so many opportunities for the premise to lead us down questionable paths, but I admired the author’s chutzpah. I was thrilled to read her author bio and learn that she really has the bona fides to put together a work like this. The story stems from her own experiences developing rehabilitation programs for women associated with ISIS on behalf of the Iraqi government. Her author’s note at the end of the book basically says “if you’re questioning my credentials, read my policy reports”. Younis takes the lofty ideals of her do-good-er protagonist and chucks it into a soup of bureaucracy, inter-agency inefficiencies, and big personalities. The writing is sharp, biting, and funny. Younis is deeply irreverent, and it really works. It’s a page turner and the perfect length. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book. Let us hope that 2025 is filled with even more incisive, clever books about deeply niche workplaces I’ve never once heard of before.

This is an eye-opening story of what’s happening with vulnerable teenage girls who are lured by men with superficial promises. Why does this happen?

In this book, Dr. Nadia Amin was hired by the UN to establish a rehabilitation program in Iraq to help ISIS women in a nearby camp. She rerouted her life from London to Baghdad where she was now living in a green-zone compound. She was tasked to help some of these women find an escape from their horrible conditions in the prison-like camp. She didn’t realize how complex it would be to make changes.

Nadia focused mainly on one girl, Sara. I wish she had followed up with others for diversity. The story has a lot of layers with mother-daughter issues, abuse, rape, religious and sexual beliefs. While this is fiction, it had a lot of truth to what has been happening to young girls who are chased by men on the internet.

The author used her years of experience working with Iraqi politics to write this book. She used a lot of humor and expressive language which made the team believable with the high-tension conditions. The last chapter was an epilogue of what happened to the characters. It made me feel like it was close to a real-life existence.

My thanks to Tiny Reparations Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of February 25, 2025.

This book has such an fascinating plot. Dr. Nadia Amin, fleeing the country after a queer heartbreak, finds herself in Iraq working for the United Nations trying to spearhead a program to deradicalize ISIS brides and get them back to their home countries. Nadia’s in way over her head, not sure how to navigate all the different bureaucracies and systems of corruption. But she’s determined to figure it out, especially so she can help one young woman Sara get back to London.

Nadia was an engaging character to follow. It was interesting seeing her meet Sara and connect with her. The ruminations on how their lives went in such different directions were great to read about. And the complexities of their family situations added a lot to the book overall. I appreciated how Nadia and Sara were both fully formed characters who felt extremely real.

While I did enjoy getting to see the journey that the characters went on, I didn't fully love the book overall. It took me a long time to read the book, I kept setting it down and taking forever to think about coming back to it. I think that all of the side characters working for different agencies and the intricacies of the programs they were trying to run didn’t hold my attention. I understand why they were important for the overall plot, but I didn’t find them as engaging as what was going on with Nadia and Sara.

Even though I didn’t totally love this book, I’d still recommend that people check it out if it sounds interesting to them. You might get along better with the side characters than I did.

4 stars / This review will be posted on BookwormishMe.com & goodreads.com today.


This book was really fun and enlightening. I love when I can enjoy reading something, but also learn something in the process.

Nadia is a lecturer at university in London. She decided to take a sabbatical and implement her deradicalization ideas with a division of the UN stationed in Baghdad. Immediately upon arrival she starts to question why on earth she thought it was a good idea.

Her unit will be responsible for the ISIS ‘brides’ imprisoned in a camp. They are women from both Iraq and other countries, who somehow ended up married to men of ISIS. Nadia feels that with the right training and counseling, they can be repatriated into their own countries. Only the two people on her team seem against the idea, and her boss seems oblivious. Nadia is all alone on this one. Nadia blunders into her task with hilarity and sometimes sadness. Most of these women didn’t realize what they were signing up for, and most would like to go home.

While Nadia’s concept is noble, the task of implementing it is never going to be an easy one. The middle east is still filled with misogyny, sometimes extreme, and corruption, everyone wants to get paid for their assistance. Nadia latches onto a 19 year old former-ISIS bride who reminds her of herself. That’s when things get really out of hand.

This novel introduced me to so many things that I knew nothing about. What it is like to be Muslim in London. What happened to all the ISIS brides that were recruited. It was a lesson in world culture that I sorely needed. The wonderful thing was Nadia! She managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other even when things got horribly bad. She turned her coworkers into allies. She was tough and soft and funny all at the same time. She grew throughout the novel.

It’s a good one.

I enjoyed the premise of the book, as I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like this before. Unfortunately, the plot moved a bit slowly for me; it’s probably realistic that one would encounter a lot of bureaucratic red tape when undertaking a project like the one in the book, but it doesn’t make for an interesting reading experience. About halfway through the book, Nadia still has not made significant headway in her project, and not much has occurred by way of a plot either.

I liked Nadia’s voice and sharp sense of humor. I wish the other characters were a bit more developed. Sara, in particular, felt more like a caricature to me—although that could also be a result of Nadia’s projections onto Sara.

The author had a difficult task of exploring two differently storylines: the UNDO project in the present and Nadia’s personal development and reckoning with her past. I thought the latter was executed better than the former.

Hot mess and imposter syndrome victim Nadia is tasked by the UN of reforming ISIS brides. Never would I have thought I’d laugh out loud while reading about conflict in the Middle East, but in Fundamentally Nussaibah Younis manages to balance heavy themes with humor that makes it approachable. Younis also manages to shed light on women - as victims and as helpers - when so many narratives regarding the Middle East are centered on the experience and role of men.

One of the things I found most compelling about this story is that Nadia’s character humanizes not only the issues but the reality of the organizations and individuals within them involved. I felt sympathy for characters who by choice or by force were led into a radical group and I felt frustrated by the corruption of characters who were supposed to be helping. I also really appreciated the perspective I got reading exchanges between Sara (a devout Muslim) and Nadia where they shared their experiences and Sara finds Nadia’s western experience sad/radical. It really drives the authors points about beliefs. Overall, this book is extremely thoughtful and well rounded.

I read approximately 15% of "Fundamentally" before deciding to DNF. While the premise and description were incredibly intriguing, I unfortunately found the execution to be underwhelming.

I was really looking forward to reading this novel based on the unique concept. However, the early chapters didn't quite capture my attention in the way I had hoped. The writing style didn't quite resonate with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: This review will not be made public on any platform other than NetGalley.

Nadia takes a job in Iraq to leave London after a breakup. Wow! Bold move. She works with ISIS brides and young refugees. I enjoyed reading this one.

Fundamentally was a look at a topic that I knew virtually nothing about. Nadia leaves London, after losing her best friend and sometimes lover, to rehabilitate ISIS brides through an agency at the UN. She travels to Iraq and learns that there is a lot of political red tape to be able to make a difference. She connects with one of the women, Sara, who reminds her of her younger self. After trying everything in her power, Nadia puts it all on the line to make a difference for Sara.

I'll be honest that this is not a book that I would typically read. Nadia is not a character that I would normally identify with but I liked the voice that she had. I enjoyed reading about her back story and what brought her to Iraq. I did not like reading about all of the political drama that surrounded the women held in the camps. I completely understand how awful it is and it is important to write about this so people understand what is really going on. I just personally had a hard time reading about it, especially when I know that there would be no real resolution. I thought the writing was good and there were some funny moments. It also had a better ending than I thought it would. I do think there are many people who would enjoy this book.

Thank you to Tiny Reparations Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young woman takes a UN job repatriating ISIS brides. The trauma the young women suffered, the fellow employees at the refugee camp, and personal drama make for compelling story lines.