Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

89 reviews

kaanda's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

So descriptive that I can clearly see the tavern and every character in it. A very beautiful and painful story with seamless flow. Loved it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Abortion, Addiction, War, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Grief, Abandonment, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Animal death, Suicide, and Racism

Minor: Classism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Colonisation, and Gun violence

mr_cain's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love the fig tree as a narrator!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Alcohol, Grief, Animal death, Child death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Hate crime, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Homophobia, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcoholism and Torture

sammirosewater's review against another edition

emotional funny informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Addiction, Blood, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Genocide

saarahrust's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Alcoholism, Death, War, Abortion, and Mental illness

nadie's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

It took me a bit to get into the book, but I ended up really enjoying it. I learned a lot about Cyprus, trees and nature. It’s a beautiful but heartbreaking story.

My favourite characters were Y+Y, would’ve loved to read more about them. ❤️🌳

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, and Violence

Minor: Homophobia

ariromi's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Child death, War, Murder, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Abortion, and Addiction

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Infertility, and Blood

leic01's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Homophobia, Death, and Violence

Minor: Torture, Abortion, and Abandonment

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I finished this book with tears in my eyes, and that wasn’t the first time it brought me to tears. This story is as heartbreaking as it is heartwarming. The characters go through so much and their stories are told with such reverence. I loved the multi-timeline, multi-narrator style of storytelling, and the writing itself was stunning — I highlighted so many passages! The unique perspective of the tree and the attention paid to the natural world throughout made this book absolutely fascinating to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, War, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, Xenophobia, Animal death, and Murder

Moderate: Abortion, Child death, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, and Mental illness

crazytourists_books's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Something quite interesting happened while I was reading this book. My feelings about it completely changed; I didn't particularly enjoy the narration parts by the fig tree (how much I love figs, is beyond words; fig trees are my second favorite tree after the olive trees). Let's get back to my feelings about these parts of the narration: I started feeling annoyed, then tired, then indifferent until the end that part of what Shafak tried to do, fell in place. Part of it, because I still think that pages in the book were unnecessarily and overly didactic. 
When I started this book, I left aside all the biases that, inevitably as a Greek have towards the history of Cyprus, the events, the people, the british colonisation and then the island's dichotomy. I think that Shafak also did her best to leave her biases on the side, and overall, she did a very good job, but in places, it did feel kind of forcibly balanced. 
Having said that, once again, I was lulled by the author's wonderful talent in storytelling; her words have a great power of pulling you in the story. A story of grief and loss and love. 
And here I am, loving a love story! 
My only regret is that I read in November, in England instead of August, in Greece, overlooking at the see, eating the most amazing fruit in the world! Fresh figs!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Abortion, Violence, War, Death, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Animal death, and Murder

nicolaparty's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Murder, Child death, Death, Grief, Homophobia, War, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, and Pregnancy

Minor: Kidnapping