Content warning: misogyny, domestic violence, sexual assault/rape, torture



I read the first three of Jean Sasson's 'Princess' books when I was a young teen. Discovering the truth about the lives of women in Saudi Arabia fanned the delicate flames of my burgeoning feminism, and I often recommended the series to others as a look outside our own Western lives. When I discovered that fourth and fifth books had been written, I was excited to journey back to the life of Princess Sultana and her family.

However, this book fell flat for me. Perhaps it is my own age and life experiences colouring the nostalgia, as I am now a 30-something mother of girls, but I was frustrated that Sultana's solution always seems to be to throw money at a problem, and the repeated discussion of their wealth was, frankly, annoying. You're a Saudi princess. We know you're wealthy. You don't need to tell us that every ten pages. I was so exhausted by the first few tales of woe - women beaten or assaulted repeatedly - that by the time I reached the chapter describing a father who had raped and tortured his young daughter to death, I was in survival mode, skimming the passage to get the gist and moving on without reading the details.

Perhaps it's my own trauma taking away from the enjoyment of this book. Perhaps I have moved past the need to be shocked and horrified in order to engage in activism. Perhaps it just wasn't that good. I'm not entirely sure. And I'm not entirely sure that l read the fifth book in this series, either.