American Girls

One Woman's Journey into the Islamic State and Her Sister's Fight to Bring Her Home

By: Jessica Roy

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Named a Best Book of the Year by Elle

A CNN, NPR, and Today Most-Anticipated Book of 2024

A “gripping” (CNN), true account of religious extremism, radicalization, and the bonds of family: the story of an American woman who traveled to ISIS-controlled Syria with her two children and extremist husband and the sister back home who worked tirelessly to help her escape.

Raised in a restrictive Jehovah’s Witness community in Arkansas, sisters Lori and Sam Sally spent their teens and twenties moving around the South and Midwest, working low-wage jobs and falling in and out of relationships. Caught in an eternal sibling rivalry—where younger, quieter Lori protected outgoing, reckless Sam—the two women eventually married a pair of brothers and settled down in Elkhart, Indiana, just around the corner from each other. It was there that their lives, once mirrors of each other’s, dramatically diverged.

While Lori was ultimately able to leave her violent marriage, Sam was drawn deeper into hers—ensnared under the influence of a husband who slowly radicalized, via the internet, into a jihadist. With their daughter and Sam’s child from a previous relationship, the couple moved to Raqqa, Syria, where Moussa fought for ISIS and Sam, who never even converted to Islam, attempted to survive and protect her children from airstrikes, extremist indoctrination, and the brutality of ISIS. In Raqqa, Sam’s oldest son appeared in several Islamic State propaganda videos, and she participated in ISIS’s practice of enslaving Yezidi women and children. Sam says her husband coerced her to move, but Lori—who quit her job and worked nonstop to get Sam out of Syria—isn’t so sure.

American Girls combines an in-depth examination of Sam and Lori's lives with on-the-ground reporting from Iraq, providing a rare glimpse into the world of American women who join ISIS. Interweaving deeply reported narrative drama with expert analysis, the book explores how the subjugation and abuse experienced by women in the United States, women like Sam and Lori, are one in the same with the conditions that enable the rise of patriarchal, extremist ideologies like those espoused by ISIS.

Fascinating, “timely, and chilling” (Booklist), American Girls is an unforgettable journey—from small-town Arkansas to Raqqa, from domestic abuse to a militant terrorist organization—all told through the extraordinary story of two close, complicated sisters.

©2024 Jessica Roy (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Engrossing horrific true story

The experience of young woman who gets caught up in a total nightmare and ultimately survives and gets out. Brutal memoir of life in places ruled by extremist ideology.

A captivating psychological portrait

Having lived in Syria for four years and then later watched its destruction in horror from afar, I have been captivated by stories of foreign ISIS brides, unable to comprehend how they could enter into such a brutal and doomed situation.
I have read several books on the topic and followed Sam’s story through the excellent Frontline documentary about her, Return from ISIS and the podcast, I’m not a Monster, by the same journalist, British director, writer and producer Josh Baker. This book fills in many of the gaps I had about her upbringing, relationship with her sister and general background, which answered some of the questions still lingering in my mind. The author does a great job of synthesizing details from various parts of her life to create a more complete narrative of what could have motivated her to make the worst decision of her life, both endangering her children and causing her imprisonment. My only complaint is about the narrator, who sounds rather robotic. Due to the compelling nature of the story, however, luckily, it did not ruin the experience for me.

The fact that I was unaware of Isis Brides.

This is a story that needs be to told, and followed up on. I wish Sam the best.