American Girls: One Woman’s Journey into the Islamic State and Her Sister’s Fight to Bring Her Home

Journalist Roy’s nuanced debut turns a psychological lens on convicted Islamic State supporter Samantha Sally and her sister, Lori. The trauma of the sisters’ upbringing in a stifling and abusive community of Jehovah’s Witnesses (they both suffered rape and had children at young ages) had a lasting impact, according to Roy: Samantha became a reckless thrill-seeker; Lori, a painful introvert. In their 20s, they wed the Moroccan American Elhassani brothers, who grew radicalized and increasingly abusive in the first years of their marriages. While Lori soon got divorced, Samantha made international news in 2015 by following her fanatical husband into ISIS territory in Syria with their children. She eventually escaped ISIS with the children and was extradited to the U.S., where she is serving a six-and-half-year sentence on terrorism-related charges for transporting gold and cash to aid ISIS. Drawing on interviews with both Sally sisters, members of the Elhassani family, and three young Yezidis who were enslaved by Samantha and her husband in Syria, Roy carefully seeks to explain, not excuse, Samantha’s actions: “The Sally sisters had been reared never to interrogate the world around them.... They weren’t given the tools for introspection, or the ability to scrutinize motive or choices.” This is a thoughtful reframing of a sensational case. (Jan.)