Girls of Riyadh

by Rajaa Alsanea

This book provides an inside peek into a hidden world: four young women navigate the narrow straits between love, desire and Islamic tradition. Every week after Friday prayers, an email circulates among a group of subscribers to a vast online network. Over the course of a year, the realities of four university students from Riyadh's elite classes, Gamrah, Michelle, Sadeem and Lamees, are revealed. Living in a society with strict cultural traditions while Sex and the City, dating and sneaking around behind their parents backs consume their lives, these four young girls face numerous social, romantic, professional and sexual tribulations. Never-ending cultural conflicts underscore the difficulties of being an educated modern female growing up in the 21st century in a culture firmly rooted to an ancient way of life."Girls of Riyadh" presents a rare and unforgettable insight into the complicated lives of these young Saudi women, whose amazing stories are unfolding in a culture so very different from our own.

• ISBN10: 1905490208
• ISBN13: 9781905490202
• Publish Date: 5 July 2007 (first published 17 May 2007)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 September 2007
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Fig Tree
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

CW Warning: Toxic Masculinity, colorism, "faggot", homophobic, ghosting, reinforces gender norms, slut shaming, "hissy with slitty eyes" slur against Japanese woman, ugly and fatphobic.

Another audiobook I found browsing my local library. Another win!

Because of the Author's Note, I know some things had to lost in translation with using different types of Arabic, etc. There are side notes added to explain some aspects of their culture for the English translation. I didn't have any problem with it, and thought the English translation/writing was just fine. On par with most English novels, TBH.

It was hard to get into at first because there were so many people. Not just the 4 main girls, the narrator, but all the family and men bounding around. However, not any more difficult than books that like to dump you in the middle of a mess. And boy, are these girls lives messy and real.

Qamrah is the typical wants to get married, have a family and stay home type. Loyal and faithful, but boy did I not get along with her because of it. I felt so bad for her and raged at her all the same. I'm happy for most of the turn of events at the end.

Michelle is easily my second favorite. The second most liberal, outgoing, open minded and mobile. She has goals, accomplishes them and keeps it moving.

Shedim, Shedim, Shedim. I was SO happy for her and her boo at first. Totally seemed like fate, as cheesy as that sounds. But things don't go so rosey after all. The mopiest, middle of the road one that I cheered for and am so glad she listened to me at the end. lol

That leaves Lumais. Lumais wound up being my favorite, even though I think astrology is a crock of shit. Her path is more straightforward with school and keeping her head on straight. It was really interesting finding out about Sunni and Shiites from her experience. I love how she ended up being where the others wanted to be, just by doing her own thing and not being so desperate or trying so hard.

The men are really mostly putrid trash. Fuck them.

I loved the self-aware blogger parts, about the readers, responding to readers, and the publicity. I did call her identity early and I am positively right.

I loved the part when it went through someone's breakdown of the different types of people. Totally made sense to me, helped me understand the players better, and was a great addition. The only part I don't like about the audiobook is not being able to write it all out because I didn't fucking bookmark it like a dumbass. *eyeroll* My bad. .

Favorite new phrase: "Why compare flip flops and wooden clogs?" HA!

Unfortunately, there's no real conclusion. It's just blogged up to the current time and left off there. It's not a telling 50 years later where we know how it all turns out. I surprising like it that way.