I was eager to delve into Unholy Kingdom to gain a deeper understanding of Saudi Arabia's complex landscape. While the book is undeniably well-researched and brimming with detailed information, I found it somewhat challenging to stay engaged. The early chapters, in particular, are dense with names and intricate details that made the narrative a bit hard to follow.

That said, the book serves as a valuable reference for those interested in the intricacies of Saudi history and politics. However, if you're seeking a more fluid and compelling narrative, this might not be the ideal choice. I appreciate the opportunity to have read an advanced copy, thanks to Verso Books and NetGalley.

As someone relatively new to the subject matter, I found "Unholy Kingdom" by Malise Ruthven to be quite overwhelming. The book begins with the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and traces the influence of Saudi Arabia in the region and the wider world. While it provides important historical context and explores the religious origins of Wahhabism and its political uses, I struggled to follow the overall structure and flow of the arguments.

Ruthven discusses how Saudi Arabia spreads this more conservative form of Islam through a vast network of associations and organizations, fostering sectarian tensions in places like Yemen and Pakistan. However, the sheer breadth of information was daunting. The endless list of names and specific Islamist terminology made it almost impossible to keep track of the key points being made.

While I did gain some valuable insights into the Sunni-Shia divide, the larger geopolitical context, and the role of Mohammed bin Salman and his extensive aims, the reading experience was challenging. The book often felt more suited for an already informed reader rather than someone new to the topic. Overall, while "Unholy Kingdom" contains a wealth of information, I found it difficult to engage with due to its overwhelming nature and lack of clear organization.

I was really hoping this book would be a punchy interesting deep dive but whilst being incredibly well researched it was very complicated and was not particularly easy to read.
The overall content is great but I feel a good editor would have removed a number of sections and made this the punchy page turned it was intended rather than the textbook like result that we have.
Great information just not a fan of the execution.

There have been so many outrageous stories about Saudi Arabia in recent years that I was excited to read a whole book about this strange country to learn more and gain some broader insight. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing. While deeply researched and packed with little-known facts, it was not at all engaging. The part about the origin of the kingdom was so flooded with names and minutiae that it was hard to follow.

So, it can certainly be a valuable reference, but if you are looking for a more coherent and compelling narrative, find something else.

Thanks to the publisher, Verso Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I have mixed feelings on this. Parts were interesting and I did learn a lot about Saudi Arabia. However, the book felt very unfocused and in need of tighter editing because it would frequently ramble off into tangents on unrelated topics. The uneven nature of the book means it discusses some parts of Saudi history in the early 2oth century in great detail, but completely skips over large parts of the second half of the 20th century. Some parts of Saudi society were discussed in great detail while others were barely mentioned.

There were some odd moments where the author argues the chemical attacks in Syria weren't carried out by Assad's regime but were actually a false flag by Saudi-supported militants. At another point he claims a lot of the Israeli casualties during the October 7th attacks were friendly fire caused by the Israeli military. He ends the book by quoting a blooger who claims without any evidence that MBS has a serious drug addiction yet offers no explanation as to why this anonymous person is credible.

I knew a little about the history of Saudi Arabia going into this book, but was still interested to dive deeper and learn more about it. While I found the overall subject matter to be interesting, I thought the book jumped around a bit too much and couldn’t decide whether it was going to be organized thematically or chronologically, which did make it a bit hard to follow at times. I would have preferred more history and less political commentary in general. There were also sooo many parenthetical in the early chapters that got very repetitive, frequently repeating the same definitions over and over. It was also very strange that this eARC didn’t have an epilogue, I feel like I didn’t actually read a full book without it, and it’s hard to really give a complete review of the book when the ideas weren’t actually wrapped up in what I was given to review.