The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria carried out acts of barbarity that horrified the most jaded of observers. So why would a woman with a good job, a loving husband and a close family leave it all behind to join them? In the Shadow of Daesh is the true story of Sophie Kasiki, a French social worker groomed online by three of her former clients and lured to Raqqa – bringing her four-year-old son with her. Swiftly disillusioned with what she sees, she tries to leave only to find herself held captive for months by her former friends and then handed over to one of the regime’s infamous “guesthouses” for women. Miraculously, she escapes to tell her story. In the first English language account published by an Islamic State returnee, Sophie attempts to unpick the reasons why she went and to warn others from taking the same path.