A review by ranahabib
Blood and Oil: Mohammed Bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power by Justin Scheck, Bradley Hope

5.0

10/10

Blood & Oil is a great book if you want to learn more about Middle Eastern history & politics. While MBS is the sole focus of the book, all the events surrounding his rise to power are incredibly informative about the Middle Eastern region as a whole (Talks about Qatar, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Yemen, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Syria, Egypt) (Turkey as well, but it's technically not in the middle east)

Blood & Oil is very well executed; the flow of information is seamless, making the book much more enjoyable & easy to read. Given the magnitude of the subject, I was genuinely impressed. There is so much to unpack behind MBS and his rise to power, but the Authors did an amazing job at organizing all the information in the simplest manner. I was also really pleased to see a lack of bias (which was my worry) in the Authors writing. Everything was very straightforward and factual.

There are many key players mentioned & involved throughout the book, so make sure to pay attention while reading (a lot of them tend to have similar names). The Authors do an amazing job at not letting us forget who is who and their title/position. There's even a list at the beginning of all the "characters" and their roles so you can refer back to it when you need to.

Overall great book. I offer no critiques.