This is a thought-provoking and nuanced account of several women and girls and the circumstances that led them to leave their home countries and join ISIS in Syria. It’s not an apologist book trying to make excuses for these women, but an attempt to make people see beyond the overly simplified one-sided versions of these women’s stories reported in places like the British tabloids. To understand that these women and often, children, had been let down consistently by their various states and governments, while at the same time being lured by savvy recruiters telling them what they wanted to hear. Moaveni gathers all of these accounts to piece together what pushed these women to their decision, and if we can understand that we could maybe understand how to stop it happening again.