The Tyrant’s Daughter

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.